Technology stars: TechPoint's Mira Award winners.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy

ONCE AGAIN TECHPOINT, the voice of Indiana's technology community, has honored organization's and individuals for innovations and success in all areas of technology. Mira Awards were presented at its May 21 gala attended by 500 executives, entrepreneurs and educators.

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING COMPANY

Paragon Medical, Pierceton

"Our core business is glorified tackle boxes for surgeons," says Toby Buck, Paragon's chairman, President and CEO. Doesn't sound too high-tech, does it? But the company has carved a niche as a total delivery solution for the orthopedic-implant community. It picked Pierceton for its base in 1992 because it was 10 minutes away from Warsaw, dubbed the "Orthopedic Capital of the World." Four of what Buck calls the "magnificent seven" of orthopedic companies are located in Warsaw: DePuy, Biomet, Zimmer and Medtronic.

Buck says the company earned its stripes in the manufacture of reusable polymer cases and trays (called delivery systems in the trade) used to hold surgical instruments, but the business plan always reflected a total instrumentation management approach. It still makes cases and trays, including metal and hybrid ones, but now it makes custom surgical instruments and even some implantable components, such as bone screws, that are co-developed with customers.

The 300-employee company is located in an 110,000-square-foot facility in Matchett Industrial Park. On the drawing board are two additional 40,000-square toot buildings, one opening in 2006 to house the case and tray production, the other in 2007 or 2008 for instrument and implant production.

"Technology mitigates dependence on labor in the factory," says Buck. Even so, in five to seven years he says the workforce at Paragon will triple. "In the orthopedic community there's a large sucking sound" coming from Warsaw as the demand for the same workers intensifies. Although there will continue to be a need for engineers and highly skilled workers, technology advances will allow lesser-skilled workers to do many of the jobs. "Technology can be pursued for technology's sake," he says. "We're really prudent on how we use it. We deploy technology to compress cost and compress lead time." That's key to meeting customer pressure tot cost reductions.

Given his name, Buck, it seems fitting to find stuffed buck trophies on the wafts of the CEO's office: two mule deer and two white tails. It's a reflection of Buck's southeastern Minnesota heritage and his passion--"I do a lot of hunting and fishing," he says, across the wilderness of the mountain and Plains states and Canada.

Buck studied engineering at Purdue University and did graduate work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He came to Fort Wayne to work for Magnavox and ITT Aerospace before launching his own company in Kosciusko County, which he says "is a good place to raise a family." Married 27 years to his high-school sweetheart and the father of four, Buck lives on Goose Lake, where he can fish for bass without leaving home.

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