Optimize Material Flow in Medical Device Manufacturing

Medical Device manufacturers face an increasingly dynamic and intricate landscape. Factors such as personalized medicine, combination devices, 3D printing, emerging technologies, stringent regulations, AI, and automation are driving the need for transformation in global operations. Innovative personalized manufacturing approaches have emerged, yet many organizations struggle to fully realize their potential in this rapidly evolving race.

Key challenges include balancing growth and market share over a five-year trajectory, coping with labor shortages, tackling ongoing supply chain disruptions, inefficient paper-based tracking, and struggling with poor inventory management and limited visibility. Additionally, public health crises have contributed to making the manufacturing landscape even more complex.

Trends and Business Drivers Shaping Medical Device Manufacturing

Medical device manufacturers should take note of the following key trends and opportunity drivers:

• Agility

Medical Device manufacturers face the challenge of meeting customer demands for diverse and rapidly delivered healthcare options.

• Better quality assurance

Manufacturers face the challenge of balancing profitability, first-time-right quality, compliance, and cost-effectiveness while meeting customer demands for shorter time-to-market.

• Lower costs

Meeting all the demands and capabilities listed comes with exponential costs, forcing companies to choose between absorbing these costs or passing them on to customers.

• Pushing the boundaries of innovation

There is accelerating demand for diverse and customized medical devices, which serves as an opportunity for manufacturers that embrace innovation.

Best-in-class manufacturers have successfully converted these into opportunities with solutions that bridge the gap between production and warehouse management, which is often identified as a weaker link in the value chain.

How DELMIA Turns Trends into Opportunities for Medical Device Manufacturers

DELMIA’s integrated solution offers Medical Device manufacturers the means to close the gap by resolving disruptions that impede shop floor and operational efficiency. This seamless workflow, known as ‘material synchronization,’ enables companies to optimize inbound and outbound material flows.

DELMIA’s integrated solution offers Medical Device manufacturers the means to close the gap with a digital thread that runs throughout the chain—connecting and improving the inbound material flows, line-supply, and outbound material flows. Closely aligning manufacturing operations with warehouse processes facilitates the coordination of production orders and the manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM) with inventory management. This includes managing Work in Process (WIP), raw materials, purchased parts from suppliers warehoused (whether on-site or off-site), and semi-finished inventory located at feeder production lines or work cells. This seamless workflow is known as material synchronization, a term trademarked by DELMIA.

Additionally, manufacturers can achieve comprehensive visibility into orders, inventory, resources, and quality status with DELMIA’s material synchronization. Holistic data is readily accessible from a single platform or source of truth, while the solution promptly alerts operators in the event of any issues, empowering them with optimal decision support and enhancing responsiveness to disruptions.

DELMIA as a Catalyst for Production Process Optimization

Material synchronization enables manufacturers to achieve the following:

Eliminate inventory buffers and obsolescence: The solution enables pull-based production, one-piece flow, and Just in Time manufacturing by eliminating buffers, reducing lead times, and minimizing material waste. It also supports multiple inventory management techniques and Engineering Change Management to prevent obsolescence.

Just in Time and sequence manufacturing: The system generates pull signals and tasks from final assembly, providing operators with oversight into the inventory and materials required. It determines the timing, sequence, and personnel required for tasks through business processes. Material flow automation ensures timely delivery of sub-assemblies and correct parts, allowing uninterrupted production and assembly.

Lean manufacturing: DELMIA enables lean manufacturing and helps manufacturers achieve sustainable and profitable goals. It offers a paperless system and supports Lean practices like the Kanban framework. Stakeholders gain real-time visibility and control over supply chain material flow, reducing excess inventory, overstocking, and avoiding shortages.

Accurate inventory replenishment: Multiple sub-assembly and material kitting operations are synchronized with real-time main assembly processes. This enables manufacturers to coordinate material replenishment based on production status and requirements. The system allows configuration of business rules for accuracy and control, preventing material handling errors and issuing wrong materials.

Better traceability and quality assurance: Labels, electronic tags, and automatic tracking technologies (RFID, barcodes, etc.) are used to scan and validate materials during receipt and transportation. This ensures quality, traceability, and genealogy of components throughout the plant and assembly process.

Minimize shipping and receiving errors: DELMIA enables superior customer experience by providing real-time error proofing for print, packaging, and labeling inventory in shipping and receiving. It can also ship in sequence based on specific customer order requirements.

DELMIA’s Proven Value

Additionally, material synchronization has been proven to have the following benefits:

• 24-45% reduction in inventory
• 25% increase in throughput/productivity
• Significant quality and safety improvements

Get the full picture

Learn more about how DELMIA can unlock manufacturing excellence and help you meet the challenges of a modern Medical Device manufacturing industry by reading our eBook, How You Can Support Your Medical Device Manufacturing Environment, today.