Traditionally, factories produced final products and their components in-house. This is no longer the practice in many companies. The expense of training, labor, and equipment has driven manufacturers to rely on outsourcing many of their parts to contractors. As a result, contract manufacturing services currently are the norm rather than the exception. A perfect example is the manufacturing of medical devices.
Producing Medical Devices
Producing a functional medical device is not a simple matter. The devices are both complex and intricate. While the design may be the property of the manufacturer, the actual work, from prototype to assembly, generally falls into the hands of a contract manufacturer (CM). They provide the expertise, the technology and the facilities to produce these devices, ensuring they have tight tolerances and meet other exacting specifications.
There is also the time factor. In a highly competitive market, companies have as short a time as possible between initial design and functional product. Without the proficiency, the technology, the facilities, the labor force or the material, it is not possible to accomplish this. An alliance between designer and CM then becomes essential if the design is to make it off the paper and become a viable product.
Contract Manufacturing
The idea is to work in partnership with the medical device manufacturer to produce customized products. In this symbiotic relationship, contract manufacturing services include
- Obtaining work material
- Producing the component/device
- Attending to shipping
If the partnership is successful, both have in place a mutually beneficial association that is profitable on for both parties.
Contract Manufacturing Services
Today, manufacturing concerns continue to adapt to the demand for lean, profit-making, product-focused companies. Instead of doing everything in-house, they contract out certain services. In the medical industry, the increased complexity of devices coupled to the short time-frame for product release results in outsourcing. Medical contract manufacturing services take over certain aspects of production, leaving OEMs to focus on what they do best.
