Manufacturing in Costa Rica with Ascential Medical and Life Sciences

The Central American Group: Hello. Welcome to this episode of the Central American Group podcast. Because of our operations in Central America, mainly in Costa Rica and El Salvador, we have the ability to talk to some very interesting people. Today, our guest is Sergio Vargas. Sergio is the general manager of Ascential Medical and Life Sciences. Sergio, how are you today?

Sergio Vargas: Hi, Steven. Good morning. I’m doing well. Thank you for having me.

The Central American Group: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your company?

Sergio Vargas: My name is Sergio Vargas, and I’m the general manager of Ascential Medical and Life Sciences. I’ve been with the company for almost 10 years. I moved to Costa Rica a year ago to help the company with essential Latin America.

The Central American Group: Where were you before that, Sergio?

Sergio Vargas: I’ve been in a different place. I started in California almost 10 years ago. I stayed in California for eight years, then moved to our main facility in Minnesota.

The Central American Group: How many years have you been with Acsential?

Sergio Vargas: Almost ten. It will be 10 years this year.

The Central American Group: Okay. Well, let’s ask the first question then. What are the products that Ascential Medical and Life Sciences manufactures?

Sergio Vargas: We build custom automation solutions for diverse industries but focus mainly on the medical industry.

The Central American Group: You focus mainly on the medical industry, but do your products serve any other industries as well?

Sergio Vargas: Yes. They can help almost every industry that needs automation, such as electronics, automotive, and food and beverage.

The Central American Group: Is Ascential Medical and Life Sciences a manufacturer of dedicated products, or do you work as a subcontract manufacturer for other companies?

Sergio Vargas: Right now, we don’t have our own product. We specialize in helping our customers develop their own automation solutions. So, if a customer has a, we help them improve their processes, quality, and production.

The Central American Group: In addition to manufacturing products for these companies, does your company provide engineering services to help them design products that fit their needs?

Sergio Vargas: Correct. That being said, we have engineering services. If a customer has a production line that needs automation, our engineering team helps them select the right solution to automate their process.

The Central American Group: Okay. Given that you have many facilities, and again, you can mention where the facilities are that Ascential Medical and Life Sciences has.

Sergio Vargas: Again, for automation, our central location is in Minnesota, but we also have locations in Ireland, Singapore, and San Diego, California

The Central American Group: Besides those locations, what led your company to choose to set up in Costa Rica?

Sergio Vargas: As you know, Costa Rica has a prominent medical device hub. It was a no-brainer for us to be here next to our partners to help them with their needs.

The Central American Group: In addition, or in comparison to your other manufacturing locations, what do you see as being the primary advantageous reasons for being in Costa Rica?

Sergio Vargas: One of the main reasons for being in Costa Rica is the highly skilled workforce. I was surprised by the talent here, and the young team I have here, my engineering team, has stepped up. They are talented. Also, the tax advantages have been, for example, in the Green Park Free Zone, where the tax incentive that the government provides is a huge advantage for companies like Ascential Medical and Life Sciences.

The Central American Group: Yes, and if you’re a listener, we have podcasts on a free zone regime in Costa Rica, and you can learn about that by listening to some of our other podcasts. But let’s go to the next question. What challenges do you face in Costa Rica manufacturing, and how do you address them

Sergio Vargas: As a high-tech company, sometimes we are not able to find the right components locally. We work with international and local suppliers to try to accommodate our needs. We have an ERP system that allows us to work with our different facilities to try to find the right components at the right time.

The Central American Group: It’s always a challenge to find individuals in the labor force who can fill companies’ skill requirements. So, what I’d like to know is, does Green Park provide any assistance to you in finding persons to fill the jobs that you need to have filled?

Sergio Vargas: Yes. Once we identify a position that we need to fill and have a job description, we usually send an email to the Green Park Free Zone. Green Park helps us by publishing job descriptions on its website or on its social media. Green Park also helps us receive applications, and that’s been working really, really well for us.

The Central American Group: Now, one of the concerns that many companies have everywhere is workforce availability. Do you find that when you request these positions, you get the number of candidates that allow you to make a choice that is beneficial for your business?

Sergio Vargas: We do. Costa Rica has a really great technical workforce, so we have not had any issues finding the right talent.

The Central American Group: When you find talent, what’s your approach to developing it and training it? I know this is probably of great importance to you because of the technology you use and the rapid changes in that technology these days.

Sergio Vargas: We are constantly looking for the best training for our engineers. One of our advantages is that being a global company, our engineers work together with other partners around the world. The knowledge transfer is really beneficial for our locals. So, in addition to the workforce, another thing that’s very important is managing the supply chain.

The Central American Group: What factors influence Ascential’s choice of suppliers in Costa Rica or internationally?

Sergio Vargas: We follow ISO 9001 standards. We go through a qualification process to select a provider, so that’s the main reason we choose a provider. Unfortunately, if they don’t qualify, we cannot use that provider.

The Central American Group: One of the things that happens when folks listen to our podcast is that specific questions come up that they have. Sometimes, they direct those questions to me. But what I like to do is create a way in which they can communicate directly with the people that we host on these podcasts. So, if somebody has a question about Ascential, how can they contact you?

Sergio Vargas: They can email me at sergio.vargas@ascentialtech.com or follow me on my social media or LinkedIn.

The Central American Group: Okay, so we’ll put a link to your LinkedIn page and your company in the transcript section of the podcast on the web page. We’ll also include your email address so that people with questions can contact you directly. Is that okay?
Sergio Vargas: That’s perfect. Thank you so much for that

The Central American Group: We want to thank you for joining us today. We wish you luck in Costa Rica and in all your other Thank you very much for being with us this morning. We very much appreciate your presence.

Sergio Vargas: Thank you.