HEINE - Quality made in Germany

We’ve been passionate about quality for 75 years.

No relief in sight.

If we can improve something, then we do just that. We perfect each of our 300 instruments again and again. And again. That is how the best quality is created. Doing so makes us happy and proud for a little while. Not long before the next improvement.

We make Made in Germany.

We do everything ourselves. From developing and prototyping to packaging. Coating, die cutting, assembling and inspecting quality – everything. And all here in our very own production facilities in Gilching, Bavaria. We buy the large majority of our raw materials from regional suppliers. This is Made in Germany in a nutshell.

Our instruments would be cheaper if we cut corners on quality. But is that what you really want?

The legendary HEINE quality is sometimes more expensive because we use the finest materials, state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies and German craftsmanship. But that is also how our instruments last for many, many years. And isn’t that exactly what you are looking for?

We’re constantly thinking about quality. Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s the weekend.

Instead of thinking about colourful packaging, we are thinking about how to make our instruments more durable. Or brighter. Or achieve more authentic colours and realistic images. …And suddenly it’s Friday and we are looking forward to Monday. Then we can start thinking about quality improvements again.

When it comes to tolerances, we’re extremely intolerant.

We have an extremely high level of vertical integration, which is pretty much unique in Germany. Instead of outsourcing production processes, we prefer to do things ourselves. This is the only way to achieve the precision and perfection that we crave for. On this point we are, well, very German.

Before we start developing a new product, our engineers go to the doctor. Or the hospital.

Our researchers and developers start a new product idea by listening to and watching the practitioners using our instruments around the world. We reflect, plan and start designing the product in our own facilities in Gilching. Then we test, optimize and patent, to finally end up with a true Quality made in Germany instrument.

HEINE instruments were already sustainable when environmentalists were still called ‘hippies’.

The most sustainable instrument is the one that does not break and lasts a long time. Incidentally, since May 2020, we no longer use fossil fuels for heating and cooling at our new facilities in Gilching. It’s nice to have a clear conscience, isn’t it?  

Many people ridicule us Germans for being so meticulous and detail-oriented – millions of practitioners love us for it!

We live and breathe quality. In everything that we do: every product we make. Every lens we polish. Every screw we tighten. Every optic fiber we bundle. Quality is always at the forefront of our minds, every single day.

The durability of our instruments is legendary. Every single instrument is the result of decades of product development, continuous improvements, production and a 100 % quality control in our own facilities. We thoroughly ensure that our high expectations of quality are maintained.

That way we also ensure that our claim for our high-end products – that they allow for “the most accurate diagnosis, as early as possible” – is also met.

No more, no less. 

Think global. Produce local.

All HEINE instruments – otoscopes, laryngoscopes, loupes, lights, ophthalmoscopes, dermatoscopes, sphygmomanometers and more – are fully manufactured in Germany, on our premises in Gilching, south of Munich. And we will continue with our local manufacturing efforts in future too.

Just over 90% of vendor parts come from Germany. Indeed, 45% come from Bavaria and southern Germany. We even develop and manufacture the control electronics for our lithium-ion batteries and LEDHQ ourselves on site.

This has the additional welcome benefit that we save ourselves transport costs and cut back on the amount of harmful emissions released into the environment.

The human hand – the world’s finest tool.

Once we have personally manufactured our products’ key components, it is time to assemble them. And in this respect, we are still a genuine manufacturing firm in many areas. The assembly involves a great deal of very intricate manual work that requires many hours of training and a great deal of experience. We have a few employees who – after years of practice – can pull the fibre-optic bundles consisting of up to 6,000 individual fibres into a blade without breaking a single one. We check each blade afterwards to make sure the process was successful – just to be on the safe side. But you probably would not have expected anything else from us.

One inspection is good. 74 inspections are better.

It is the quality manufacturing process of a product that ensures that defined precision benchmarks are not just replicated once or twice, but thousands of times.

A close look at the manufacturing process of the BETA 200S Direct Ophthalmoscope for example reveals no less than 74 different in-process quality assurance inspections. Some might call this excessive. We simply call it HEINE quality.

We love innovation. Especially when it proves beneficial to our users.

Oliver Heine puts it this way:

“For us it is not necessarily important to be the first with a new development. But we are always the ones that optimally implement new technologies for their application and the diagnosis. We do of course evaluate many new technologies intensively, often very early in their development, but only use them in our instruments when they bring sustainable benefits to the user. Innovation means for us to use new technologies in such a way, that they offer additional value for the doctor and the application. We make no compromises.“

Our instruments last as long as you would expect. Only longer.

Delivering the same performance as on day one – even after many years of daily use. This is not the exception; it’s the rule with our instruments. And the already legendary durability has three very welcome benefits for our users.

HEINE Optotechnik GmbH