Manufacturing

Our valves are all precision-engineered. Individually designed, developed and crafted ‘under one roof’ in Twente, a region known as a thriving tech and manufacturing hub with exceptional EU infrastructure and services. It’s also where our dream team of 110 highly skilled workers from over 10 countries, pour their hearts and minds into manufacturing hundreds of millions of small but mighty valves every year.

Chosen for all round versatility and excellence, our materials are selected from the best polymer suppliers around the globe. When we like a particular material for a part, it’s allocated to that part for its lifespan. In other words, we ensure we choose the best possible material to make the best possible component for the best possible application. With the latest, best-in-class, injection molding machines, we operate 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Alongside this, we run all the necessary secondary operations you would expect: coating, finishing, (valve) assembly, welding, and of course, functional testing. Our cleanrooms and flow test laboratory are amongst the most rigorous and advanced in the industry.

With well-documented, tightly controlled processes, our organization meets the highest, world-class standards in OEM component supply. We prioritize training, development, motivation, and empowerment for our workforce. Skilled manufacturing ensures precision execution at every stage. Detailed control plans and procedures for each of these stages enable us to monitor and verify the stability of the overall process as a whole, and tweak as needed for optimization. The result is quality-assured output, batch after batch, year after year.

Making it Clean

Our stringent protocols and high-quality equipment help ensure that our clean-safety levels, and indeed all processes, are current with the latest innovations and specifications. All our valves are inspected and rigorously tested according to our Zero-Defects sampling plan (which requires a minimum CPK value of 1.33, but often exceeds 1.67). So, customers can expect near-zero defects. Upon final inspection, they’re bulk packaged (double bagged in LDPE cleanroom bags), and ready to be integrated seamlessly into your manufacturing work flow. We apply the same rigor, attention and overall product excellence from production to shipment, on all orders equally. We believe in the democratization of quality.

Sanitation and clean-safe products aren’t just about removing airborne particles and maintaining strict hygiene standards, they reflect our core values, commitment to our process, and our promise to you. They stand as active reminders that, especially when it comes to manufacturing clean and safe miniature valves, all the little details matter. Customers who choose our mini-valves aren’t just getting valves, they’re getting our unrivalled attention to detail in every part.

Quality By System

Minivalve’s Quality System is certified to:

• ISO 9001 for industry
• IATF 16949 for automotive
• ISO 13485 for medical devices (coming soon)
• ISO 14001 for environment (coming soon)

Relatedly, we’re pleased to report that, on top of these standards of quality excellence, our processes and entire operational facilities are regularly audited by many OEM customers from around the world and every sector, whether they be for medical devices, automotive, home appliances, packaging manufacturing, etc. These audits are system-wide, as well as targeted product audits. And, we welcome them.

Organizational management principles are also a big part of our ongoing success. From our earliest start-up days, we wanted to provide flawless valves at the lowest total cost, and offer exceptional value to all stakeholders. Our focus on customer satisfaction, employee empowerment and respect—while also developing hands-on, expert knowledge for constant growth and improvement—have reaped 360° benefits. As a result, not only do we deliver top-quality valves to happy customers everywhere, we’ve also created a culture of dedicated employees who demonstrate genuine pride and ownership over every aspect of their work.

Quality Philosophy

Key parts of our management philosophy are linked to Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s 14 points for Management, which advocate taking a holistic approach towards quality and productivity. When we first started out, these 14 points were used as a foundation for our corporate culture. To this day, we continue to uphold them and are proud to supply hundreds of millions of flawless parts worldwide at the best price. This is why we call it “Quality by System”.