Jun
3
Re-tooling Ohio’s Manufacturers for Medical
Posted by Chris Eifert at 11:59 am | Filed In Smart, Strategic, Technical
I attended EMTEC’s conference about transitioning Ohio manufacturers to medical device manfacturing. If attendance is an indication of interest, then we can assume the Ohio manufacturing base is ready to re-tool for medical. The problem is, according to many presenters, so is every other state with a signficant manufacturing base. Consider the state of Michigan which employs the heady medical industry consultant, Christophe J-P Sevrain, to guide and implement its strategy. He’s very impressive. Hopefully, Ohio-based organizations such as BioOhio and The Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center will achieve their visions of Ohio job growth in important medical industry sectors.
One key theme that presenters consistently touched on was the need for time and patience. Taking time to understand the regulatory environment was consistently communicated. Taking time to understand how your company’s capabilities may map to an outsourcing medical OEM was another. Allowing three or more years to build a revenue stream in medical was echoed by many. Unfortunately, my impression from conversations was that many manufacturers are running out of time and patience as they look for alternatives to sustain their businesses. But for those that can commit the time, money and resources to a medical strategy, there were some good takeaways. Key among them:
- Consider a Tier 1, Tier 2 or lower strategy to get your feet wet. Working with GE Healthcare or Medtronic on Day 1 is impractical.
- Revamp your message. If you’re not working in medical today, your value proposition is probably irrelevant. Look at your capabilities to determine if you can solve key business pains in medical which include time-to-market and technological innovation.
- Build a digital marketing strategy upon the foundation of a medical-centric website.
- Build a medical culture. From your brand to your facility, make sure your business is a reflection of your target customer’s environment. This includes marketing materials, facility cleanliness, clean room construction and many other aspects.
Those manufacturers looking for a magic elixir to have them up and running as a medical device component supplier surely left disappointed. As with anything, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Those with vision, time and the desire to dig in, the message delivered from the OEMs presenting was clear - we’re ready for you but you’d better invest the time to understand our market and gain experience (Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier) before you come knocking.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with regard to lead time. I’ve worked in several parts of the country whose medical manufacturing industries were in various states of development. In each of my experiences, those industries took a significant amount of time to achieve “critical mass.” Hopefully manufacturers in Ohio have the ability to start slowly, because buiness simply won’t develop over night.