Precision Dynamics collars market for patient ID bracelets.

One of the first things that a hospital patient puts on is an identification bracelet - and many of them are made by Precision Dynamics Inc.

The San Fernando company was the first to introduce the now-popular bar code technology bracelets that reduces the risk of confusion over patient identities or their whereabouts.

It also added to its line a tube-like bracelet designed to tread softly on the sensitive skin of the elderly, a credit card bracelet to indicate who has paid for concert tickets, and a "chew-proof" i.d. bracelet for prisoners.,

Founded in 1956, Precision Dynamics has little regional competition and even eliminated one of its national competitors last year when it acquired the Maclee Division of Century Plastics Inc., a small ID bracelet company in Kansas, according to CEO and co-owner Walt Mosher.

Though a purchase price for Maclee was not disclosed, Mosher said the acquisition led to a $1.8 million rise in sales for the year.

The Kansas factory was closed and its assets merged with the San Fernando facility.

Mosher got his start in business as a graduate engineering student at UCLA, after a chance conversation with a sales manager for a hospital.

The sales manager complained about the quality of the hospital ID tags then in use specifically that the clasps would come undone too easily.

Mosher set out to build a better clasp - one that would not be too easy to unhook, and yet which could still be produced at low-cost.

With the help of an engineer, Mosher came up with a new design and founded Precision Dynamics.

Along with its product innovations, Precision Dynamics is known for Mosher's experimental management style, according to Ahmed Enany, executive director of the Southern California Biomedical Council.

Mosher has implemented a "quality circle" management approach in which input on product improvement is solicited from all employee ranks. The 350-employee company had $30 million in sales worldwide sales in 1996 and has averaged five to 10 percent annual growth in sales in recent years, Mosher said.

This rate should hold for 1997, Mosher said, adding that Precision Dynamics will likely to complete one or two more acquisitions by the end of the year. He declined to give details.

Mosher sits on the boards of directors of a number of industry panels, including those of the Health Industry Manufacturers Association and the Uniform Code Council.

While the company remains principally a bracelet maker, it has added other products to its line. These include syringe pistols that hold disposable needles to make them more hand-steady. The company also makes bacterial culture transport tubes and materials used to take baby footprints with no ink touching the infants' skin.