Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to attend Camstar’s 2014 Global Conference. The theme of the event was “The Global Ready Enterprise.” The Conference provided attendees with the unique opportunity to share and learn strategies and techniques to evolve into true Enterprise Manufacturing companies leveraging MES across the world. The conference brought together leading medical device manufacturers, service providers and Camstar experts to exchange ideas, hear real-world experiences, and get a glimpse of the future in the Med-Tech world.
I had the privilege to moderate a panel entitled: “Outlook for the Medical Device Industry 2014 and Beyond: Advice from Proactive Leaders”. The panel included the Vice Presidents of Operations of three Med-Tech companies who use Camstar’s MES software to automate process enforcement, prevent quality issues, improve patient safety and reduce operational costs.
The following Executives provided their prognosis for the Med-Tech Industry:
- Mark Lincoln, VP Global Operations, Terumo Cardiovascular Group
- Jim Robinson, VP Operations, Advanced Bionics
- Matt Scott, Sr., VP of Operations, ConforMIS
From our discussion, it is evident that the globalization of design, sourcing, manufacturing and sales of products has created opportunities and challenges for the Med-Tech industry. While Med-Tech Executives are poised to capitalize on these new opportunities, they need to balance the risks and rewards of Med-Tech globalization. The growth in the volume of global partners, facilities, suppliers, and regulations, as well as the increased variety and complexity of products across a large number of countries has kept industry executives vigilant.
As Med-Tech executives continue to embrace the rewards of globalization, they also need to find ways to mitigate any associated risks.
Over the next few weeks we will be communicating the key points made by industry leaders during this session.
We will cover important business, technology and regulatory industry issues including:
- Critical challenges in Medical Technology manufacturing
- Managing sustainable global growth
- Complying with tightening global regulatory environments
- Supporting changing healthcare delivery models globally
- Leveraging manufacturing technology to improve product quality while reducing cost
Stay tuned to Life-Science Panorama as we continue to share insights from our panel discussion in a series of “Executive Perspective” articles.
- Part I: Prospects for the Med-Tech Business Model
- Part II: Manufacturing Technology Insight
- Part III: Med-Tech Regulatory outlook