To remain competitive, medical device manufacturers need to get their products to market quickly. Pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and a lack of skilled workers impede progress, prompting OEMs to seek solutions that efficiently work around this dual dilemma.
Medical cart manufacturers that offer design, engineering, and production capabilities under one roof are key partners in managing time to market. Streamlining processes in this way does more than address supply chain and workforce challenges. It gives medical device manufacturers added confidence in knowing their best products are available and creating competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Unlinking Supply Chains
While the CDC is easing restrictions around COVID-19, normalcy is slow to return. This is particularly true in manufacturing, where the pandemic laid waste to supply chains.
Anything and anyone instrumental to the smooth management of goods and services in a vendor capacity was either at considerable risk or shutdown outright. In many instances, force majeure significantly disrupted timing, the ripple effects of which are still being felt by medical device manufacturers.
Unworkable Labor Shortages
The manufacturing workforce is experiencing disruptions of its own. Human resources personnel within the manufacturing sector report that it’s 36% more difficult to find talent than it was just four years ago.1 A whopping 77% of manufacturing executives currently feel incapable of attracting and retaining skilled workers,1 due largely to long-perpetuated stereotypes about trades-based jobs in medtech, or any industry.2
It all adds up to distress for medical device manufacturers. Battling the ill effects on either front is enough of a distraction to cause OEMs to lose valuable ground to competitors
However, it’s also an opportunity for medical device manufacturers to rethink how they develop their products.
Can Medical Device Manufacturers Rely on Independent Design Firms?
Frontloading a supply chain with specialty vendors has proven ineffective against unforeseen circumstances, giving some OEMs pause. Does it still make sense for medical device manufacturers to seek out independent design firms?
The answer is a resounding maybe. Design firms are a conduit for speeding time to market. Incorporating cutting-edge capabilities, materials, technologies, and user experience optimization makes designers credible and valuable partners for medical device manufacturers.
These efforts are noble and likely effective in addressing main pain points. However, they may be limited in scope. Without early involvement of a medical cart manufacturer, unanticipated and often costly design and production delays could further undermine time to market.
The Advantages of In-House Medical Cart Design and Manufacturing
Instead of spreading a project across multiple vendors, medical device OEMs are learning to leverage the value of working with a medical cart manufacturer that serves in several capacities.
At the forefront is the expertise of custom medical cart manufacturers and how it impacts costs, deliverables, and time to market
HUI collaborates with medical device OEMs to assimilate critical processes like design for manufacturability (DfM) and IEC 60601-1 compliance into design and pre-production phases. Doing so upfront mitigates errors and the risk of downtime for expensive fixes during production. It also reinforces the flexibility and time-saving seamlessness of having one supplier responsible for all aspects of a medical cart project.
To support the efforts, HUI uses a unique concept process that helps key decision makers dial in cart specifics. This level of stepped precision ultimately shortens the time it takes to get the final product to market.
Each of the four medical cart concept stages addresses and captures critical information:
- Discovery brings medical device and HUI design teams together to document the features and functions
- Concept Generation delivers several initial design concepts and identifies needed equipment, supplies, estimated production, and tooling costs for each
- Concept Refinement is a collaborative meeting of the design teams to review the generated concepts and reach a final rough concept
- Final Concept is a polished version of the output from the concept refinement meeting, typically completed just prior to the engineering stage
Meticulous attention to detail allows HUI and medical device manufacturers to work together toward a common outcome: improved medical cart solutions delivered timely to market.
It’s a worthy goal, yet one not necessarily easily accomplished without structured effort. On the whole, manufacturing is currently facing several barriers to success. Some are out of the control of medical device manufacturers while others — like reforming supply chains using strategic value-added partners — are choices that have short- and long-term benefits.
HUI takes care of every detail of your medical cart design and manufacture, including complying with complex requirements as outlined in our guide, What You Need to Know About 60601-1 Third Edition for Medical Carts. Click the button below to download your copy now.
Sources
1CNN, American factories are desperate for workers. It's a $1 trillion problem, May 4, 2021
2MPO, Strategies to Overcome Medical Manufacturing’s Skilled Labor Shortage, May 29, 2019
