Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) in the Medical Equipment Technology Industry

Around the globe, manufacturing companies face a rapidly changing business environment. Rising levels of competition, more complex supply chains, increasingly stringent regulations, and ongoing changes in demand are just some of the challenges. The Medical Equipment Technology (MET) industry is no exception.

In this point-of-view paper, we examine the value and benefits that medical equipment technology companies can gain from MET manufacturing execution systems that are applied locally and harmonized globally.

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For many areas within any company, paper-based processes have been consigned very firmly to the past. Companies in the MET industry realized at an early stage that electronic systems can boost efficiency and reduce costs. On the shop floor, however, manufacturing and quality management processes are still widely handled with paper processes.

If manufacturing systems are being used, they tend to work in silos within plants, so that manufacturing is disconnected from the rest of the business. Furthermore, production facilities in many cases have several, non-integrated information systems that are not harmonized throughout the entire organization.

The result is that manufacturing systems in international companies’ plants are often isolated from one another. This makes it difficult to coordinate activities and manage manufacturing performance, as well as making it harder to handle regulatory compliance issues across the enterprise.

To meet the challenges of a globalized world in an industry characterized by a high level of competition, intensifying cost and price pressures, escalating M&A activity and ever-increasing regulations, the MET industry needs to shift its focus away from isolated plant control systems and toward integrated and globally harmonized MET manufacturing execution systems.

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), which integrate information systems on the plant floor with the overall enterprise, bridge the information gap between:

• Plant floor operational technology
• Plant-level planning
• Systems and enterprise level decision-making.

This helps MET companies achieve high performance. Designed as dynamic information and communication systems, MET manufacturing execution systems offer the following benefits:

• Provide critical information about production activities
• Allow MET companies to improve manufacturing processes
• Enhances supply chain performance in MET
• Verify quality and regulatory compliance
• Shorten time-to-production and time-to-market.

Whether deployed by an international multi-billion dollar company, a mid-size manufacturer, a start-up or any other organization in the MET industry, an MES can make a considerable contribution to business success

Quality, price and time to market have always been among the most important factors driving operational excellence in manufacturing. Acting according to these critical factors can make the difference between keeping pace with competitors and losing market share. Future success and high performance in the MET industry depends on the ability to outperform competitors consistently in these strategic areas over the long term, together with the ability to handle the increasingly stringent regulations in the MET sphere.

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) can help MET companies to meet these challenges by linking plant control and enterprise systems. And their benefits are not limited to the local plant level: a strategic, global approach to MES may enhance supply chain performance in MET and improve efficiency across multiple sites, thereby boosting success and resulting in high performance across the enterprise.