Leveraging Technology To Boost Medical Device Manufacturing

1. What are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the Medical Equipment Manufacturing space lately? Even before COVID-19, our ability to compete on pricing, combined with the pressure to reduce pricing, has created an interesting dynamic becauseright now the climate is one in which major medical device manufacturersareincreasingly optingto outsource manufacturing. We could follow this trend, but there is a challenge in outsourcing when you are also committedto protecting proprietary processes. Olympus has a long history of innovation, and we know the value there and the importance of protecting it. So, staying competitive without outsourcing is critical, while also innovating in what we are delivering, in terms of technologies that are making surgeries and other medical procedures faster, easier and more cost effective. These design innovations are exciting, but also more demanding of the capabilities of the manufacturer. We are developing the skill sets of the engineers, stretching our competencies in creative ways within the footprint.

2. What keeps you up at night when it comes to some of the major predicaments in the Medical Equipment Manufacturing space? Short term,we’ve been focused on understanding the impact COVID-19continues havingon the numerous small businesses we work with, such as materials or component suppliers. We’ve been spending more time understanding our suppliers’ business struggles and the impact of trends CXO INSIGHTS Leveraging Technology to Boost Medical Device Manufacturing By Jorge Lopes, President, Olympus Surgical Technologies of America 24 August - 2021 in demand, understanding what impact a slow-down from Olympus would have on them. With the vaccination rates being what they are and the cases coming down, we are cautiously optimistic and feel we can take a breath. Long term I am focused on the availability of resources. We work closely with our business units and marketing partners to understand the current and future portfolio needs so we can be sure to have the talent, skills and processes in place. As big as this industry is we still struggle to find qualified engineers. As technology is constantly evolving it will put a bigger burden on the skill set. We’re working on products that are so innovative that there may not be a lot of experience working with the materials or processes in question.Environmental factors are another major consideration in our process as well and our products. Sterilization alternatives for the sterile packaging for many of our products, given the attention to environmental concerns around ethylene oxide (EtO), is a perfect example.

3. Can you tell us about the latest project that you have been working on and what are some of the technological and process elements that you leveraged to make the project successful? We are evaluating digital technologies, in the smartfactory sense, in our traditional manufacturing as well as our repair business. We’re very excited by the potential here in terms of human error elimination, the opportunity to improve efficiency, and the promise of cost reduction. 

 We’re implementing a Manufacturing Enterprise System (MES) that connects all the systems so, for example, if I’m a technician sent to do a particular job on the floor, the MES would be able to automatically “talk” to our training system and confirm my training is up-to-date for this task. If I’m not trained for this process, the system would block me from being on this job. This MES system will be very helpful because it eliminates significant paperwork from the shop floor. For another example of the power of these digital technologies, you can consider a product issue situation. In those cases, you need information available in an instant about the product, such as when it was made, who made it, how many like it werein the batch, the kind of actionable data that technology can track. We don’t want to use our valuable human resources on inefficient and costly search and data-gathering missions – this technology will automate our ability to quickly address issues and be more responsive.

4. Which are some of the technological trends which excite you for the future of the Medical Equipment Manufacturing space? Like in many industries, human error makes upthe bulk of errors that occur on the manufacturing floor, whether in the manufacturing process or on the customer side. The same types of digital technologies that have us excited about our manufacturing floor are being evaluated for future improvementswith capital products. The technology will provide us with the ability to monitorcustomer experience in the field so we will know about an occurrence even before they may have noticed. With such technology we can receive a signal regarding an issue of misuse, error or malfunction. In this way we can proactively engage with the customer, rather than waiting for them to file a complaint. We are creating digital capabilities focused specifically on these customer-interface solutions and how they connect to our manufacturing operations. With this kind of data, we won’t be wondering why there was a product failure, we’ll be able to pinpoint down to the level of detail like, “here we can see the customer using the device outside of recommended speeds…” or temperature or other parameters. The engineering team can use such instant feedback to problemsolve. These are capabilities that will improve customer experience in future generations of our products.

5. How can budding and evolving companies reach you for suggestions to streamline their business? We participate in manufacturing trade industry groups, and a lot of networking is conducted there. These groups are available to any company that wants to participate, for example Medical Alley and the Manufacturers Alliance are groups where we are active in Minnesota. On occasion we’ll invite regional stakeholders to tour our facilities, or we’ll tour the facilities of sites comparable to ours. It’s always great to share success stories and reflect on challenges, and it’s possible to do this without infringing on trade secrets. We’re always interested in learning more about innovations, particularly in terms of components assembly and packaging –those are hot areas for us.