A well-known presence in the contract manufacturing space, Hirsh Precision is home to an energetic, detail-driven team. As Hirsh is popular amongst some of the country’s best-known brands in medical and aerospace precision manufacturing, clients insist on partnering with its people to take their projects from start to completion seamlessly. From complex medical devices to rocket engines, scientists and developers from North America and beyond turn to the company with their designs for efficient service and intelligent manufacturing that deliver time savings, value, and impressive returns on investment.
Hirsh Precision is a company familiar with rapid responses to market demands. President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Doyle extends an open invitation to prospective customers to visit the company’s headquarters north of Denver, Colorado, as the company is proud of its engineers and other professionals who outshine many in the industry. Their combined expertise is supported by the focus on detail and honest communication that guide their commitment to excellence. Open communication prioritizes relationships—a skill that Doyle values as part of what he sees as a sincere, high-trust environment.
To ensure that customers receive the best products, becoming a part of new product design processes as early as possible means Hirsh can streamline costs while securing ideal results. “While only four percent of a product’s cost is incurred during the design phase, over 75 percent of the product’s lifetime cost is determined during the design phase. The earlier a customer contacts us with new product designs, the more likely it is that we can save them money in the long term,” says Doyle, underscoring the importance of designing components correctly from the beginning, especially if high-volume machining will be the goal.
As Hirsh Precision is particularly favored for its ability to manufacture customized healthcare equipment and instrumentation that’s used to protect and save lives, precision and adaptability are of the essence. “We understand how to design repeatable processes to maintain tight tolerances in a high mix production environment. We efficiently comply with regulations and sustain a reliable supply chain,” Doyle adds.
By being flexible enough to adapt to end-user market demand, Hirsh Precision sets each customer’s supply chain up to best suit their requirements. That also means well-developed contingency response as the company tracks components through each stage of the supply chain to guarantee customers have access to what they need when they need it.
In addition, the team sees to it that customers are served in the way best suited to their operation. Whether they prefer working online via the online Customer Service Center or having personal contact with a Hirsh team member, Hirsh is happy to deliver. “Our job is to understand how we can best engage with our customers to ensure they are first to market with new products,” says Doyle.
Fully compliant with industry standards, the company is ISO 13485-certified, qualifying it as a trusted machining supplier to original equipment manufacturers in the medical arena. Hirsh is also AS9100D-certified, which makes it fit to supply the aerospace industry, and it maintains International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) registration. Thanks to its reputation for innovation and quality, the company also supplies what it refers to as disruptive innovators, who turn to Hirsh for support in taking their products from concept to fabrication in a single, easily accessible service.
The company has received many accolades. It has brought home the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) 6S Award for several consecutive years for maintaining high levels of standardization, sustainability, orderliness, safety, and a general sense of decorum. “The NTMA has been a wonderful support network for our company in many different ways. It has been an encouraging and educational community to be a part of,” Doyle says.
In 2022, Hirsh was honored with an Advanced Machining & Manufacturing Award in the Colorado Manufacturing Awards, preceded by being a Top Shops honors program winner in 2018, courtesy of Modern Machine Shop magazine.
Recognized for its speed to market driven by dedication and discipline, the company signed a $10 million contract for medical devices after the initial supplier fell behind and was unable to deliver. “It was two years behind schedule, and we were asked to help them recover the timeline within nine months. What is more, the technical difficulty of the work required exceptional attention to detail through every supply chain process,” says Doyle, describing what appeared to be a daunting project at first.
“Our team went into action. We opened a new facility, procured, installed, and calibrated $4 million in new equipment in three months, and trained several new team members. The customer’s response was, ‘You saved us.’”
The company cares deeply about its staff and customers and is also generous to the core. With regular contributions to charitable groups like Operation Christmas Child, Habitat for Humanity, local schools, and other causes high on its staff’s list of priorities, Hirsh Precision is not shy to lend a hand where needed. “We want to leave a positive impact on our community as well as our industry. We work well as a team, and we have a culture that expresses appreciation for others,” Doyle says.
This generosity also explains the healthy camaraderie amongst its staff of 100. By committing to honesty, maturity, and transparency, the company assures every customer of a meaningful supply chain partnership focused on stress-free success and, working with its core values in mind, guides employees to make the right choice at every moment of the production and collaboration processes.
“When you are honest and trustworthy, it… fosters a higher quality of relationship between people,” says Doyle of the company’s commitment to authenticity and transparency. “It is the beginning of strong working relationships and continuous improvement.”
Company culture is also maintained through continuous evolution and by giving people real opportunities for growth, like financially supporting advanced education and 401(k) matching, or expanding the curriculum within the Hirsh Training Academy, which provides leadership programs and coursework to improve a wide variety of hard and soft skills—an initiative about which Doyle is particularly enthusiastic.
Part of Hirsh’s approach to sustainability includes being aware of the type of equipment in which it invests. As part of its efforts to do what is right in all aspects of its work—including keeping staff safe by keeping ambient air clean via quality air filtration—the company aims to protect the environment, a responsibility it takes seriously. One such effort includes a wastewater treatment system. “We have an outstanding wastewater treatment system available to ensure our wastewater exceeds standards,” says Doyle.
Hirsh is also continuing to invest in advanced equipment, maintaining and developing the quality of its work environment and the overall facility. The company recently constructed more than 64,500 square feet of fabrication space, effectively tripling its production footprint of more than three decades. It also significantly expanded its machining capabilities with the latest in high-mix automation computer numerical control (CNC) machines, vastly improving project scalability and removing much of the cost and hassle.
Now, precision machining volumes are adapted to client needs, while offering customers flexibility and choice. Moreover, the new technologies available feature the most respected names in the industry. “For decades, we have focused on building scalable, reliable proprietary systems and processes. Our team has invested in the latest machining technologies, the benefits of which increase on a larger scale,” says Doyle.
Adversity heralds opportunity, and so the company leveraged the situation brought on by the COVID-19 shutdowns to improve its remote working ability, benefiting employees and customers alike. So far, its investments have proven successful, with the company consistently achieving and maintaining its goal of 30 percent annual growth.
“I love our company’s history,” Doyle enthuses. “From the early days, the Hirsh family focused on building a quality business.” Starting as a machinist outfit, the company soon expanded its capabilities by introducing an ever-growing number of new skills and processes that include a variety of in-house finishing processes, assembly, and other value-add capabilities. Doyle attributes Hirsh’s thorough understanding of the industry to a 40-plus year presence in the medical field, and believes that its early entry into this market allowed the company to refine its modern-day methodologies.
It is impossible to ignore Doyle’s enthusiasm for the industry and the future. “I am excited about the engineering, technology, and top-notch talent that will propel U.S. manufacturing in the years ahead. I want us to be the first choice for leading visionaries, engineers, and experts,” he says, adding that staying ahead of technological advances brings the team great satisfaction. This satisfaction spurs further strategic investment in a company that is clearly committed to continuous innovation through passion.
