Medical device organizations have been outsourcing manufacturing for decades. While they focused on ideation and development, they left the full production of the line to manufacturing experts. In more recent years, this trend has transformed, resulting in manufacturing partners being brought into the development process earlier.

One of the primary goals of this shift is to gain insights into strategies to optimize aspects of the product earlier, prior to design freeze, to ensure a smoother transition into manufacturing. Gaining input from those involved in the production of the device through design for manufacturing and other recommendations can be invaluable in saving time to market and cutting costs that could result from expensive revisions.

As this dynamic is still in flux, industry is still seeking recommendations on best practices for this relationship and how to make it more efficient. With this in mind, Jeff Miller, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at MRPC, participated in an interview on the topic. In the following Q&A, he shares his view on how to get the most out of this relationship and what benefits are enjoyed.

Sean Fenske: Many explain that an OEM should view a manufacturing partner as an extension of itself. What does this mean, and what does a supplier need to do to justify this viewpoint?

Jeff Miller: What “extension of itself” means is that a medical OEM views the contract manufacturer as a partner who is invested in the relationship in a much…