Interview with Mr. Javanshir Afshar, one of the pioneers of medical equipment production
Soupa Medical Equipment is one of the first developers of disposable medical equipment in Iran. This company was founded with the goal of meeting the nation’s need for medical equipment and devices and removing the need for importation.
The march toward founding the Soupa factories began in autumn 1987. In 22 month all construction operations and installation of needed machinery was completed and was opened on February 11th 1988. Soupa factories began their work by producing 12 disposable medical items. The factory enjoys advanced technologies and presents products with high quality on par with international standards. In a short period, Soupa was awarded the Swiss Cup of Quality Management and Iranian Standard Cup.
Soupa CEO, Mr. Javanshir with twenty years of experience, sat for a friendly chat with NIAMSH to talk about his company.
How could you implement the policy of economic resistance in Soupa Company?
We created machines similar to the ones we had imported from Germany with the help of our skilled experts including Mr. Hosseini Shirazi and managed to create a variety of similar assembly lines in Iran. Soupa truly plays the role of a university for people willing to be involved in the medical equipment business.
Interest in my nation’s self-reliance and national zeal and nationalism and patriotism led me to set the wheels of Iran’s medical equipment technology. I think that every single employee working in a medical equipment factory should consider himself an inspector and inspect and observe his own work to make sure the products are up to standard.
I learned in Germany that everyone should be his own inspector.
There is one thing about German products. For example, when I was studying in Germany I saw that the doors of the Volkswagen cars for domestic markets were painted but the exported ones were metallized with chrome.
I learned that exported product must be of a higher standard. After all these years, these experiences led me and Dr. Derakhshani to struggle for domestic self-reliance and be useful for our nation.
What is the role of research in Soupa?
In Soupa University one can write a book a day, in Soupa we publish journals called “Soupa Message” so that I can relay our experiences. Dr. Derakhshani has written a number of books including Executive Problems.
I remember that one day I received a complaint from a female doctor from Zahedan about a needle breaking during an operation. When we researched it, we saw that she was mistaken in using it in an operation. This taught us that we must always incorporate training in our vision, therefore we wrote a book entitled An Introduction to Medical Products and Their Use to teach the correct uses of medical equipment.
Soupa was the first endeavor in attracting other companies to medical equipment so that everyone can partake in the benefits of this industry.
What is your advice to people in this industry?
I believe that considering the high revenue and benefit in this business the government should fully deregulate the pricing and the market in this industry for more competition among producers so that there is no limit and we can observe constant improvement in this field.
