imds: Innovative Medical Device Solutions
Detailed processes for quality and efficiency
Instrumentation Product Line
Challenge
As a world-class, worldwide manufacturer of implants and instrumentation for leading orthopedic companies, the Product Sourcing group within IMDS was contacted to support our partner company meet their demands for quick turnaround and speed to the market for a new instrumentation product line.
The challenge was to develop and manufacture quantities of 24 new surgical instrument products within only five weeks to meet pre-scheduled international surgeries. While IMDS understood the need for meeting our commitment of service to our customer, we found ourselves battling the reality of developing a process, generating CNC programs, creating inspection criteria, and actually manufacturing the product within a very tight time frame.
Solution
IMDS worked together to ensure that we not only met the needs of our partner company, but also enhanced our position and goal of becoming our partner’s preferred supplier. In order to accomplish this objective, we established an aggressive plan from the time of quote to the time of product acceptance. This plan included a cross-functional, team-base approach in order to develop processes that utilized our strengths in innovation and ingenuity, while being conscious of the capacity constraints within our organization. Additionally, we utilized a daily monitoring system that involved daily communications at our production meeting to ensure all necessary resources were available in order to prevent unnecessary delays to our planned schedule.
Results
As a result of the project, IMDS was able to deliver high-quality products while accelerating the time our partner company’s product could reach the market. In addition, we also were able to provide exceptional responsiveness to our partner at the final stages of their product life cycle — from quote to sale.
