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The Five Advantages of an Expert Partner for Supply Chain Coordination

Complexity and complications are facts of life in the orthopedic medical device and medtech industry. Competitive pressure, emerging tech, regulatory compliance, inbound supply chain coordination, quality critical inspection, and launch timelines all conspire to create challenges in getting to market, servicing accounts, and building a thriving business.

It may seem like there is a lot outside our control, but one very important factor is within it: having a single, expert point of contact. An expert partner can help to streamline supply chain coordination, ensuring you get to market faster and more easily with lower risk. As an increasing number of OEMs across the market turn to consolidated services, it’s more important than ever to evaluate specific sector expertise—and understand how an expert partner can contribute to business success. In this article, we provide an overview of five key advantages an expert partner unlocks for orthopedic and medtech OEMs.

Advantage #1: Uphold Quality

Of course, quality holds the top spot in any list because OEMs must always prioritize patient safety and positive patient outcomes. The challenge is that the best contract manufacturer or contract service organization usually does not offer comprehensive, end-to-end service. This means that OEMs are tasked with coordination that can tax daily operations and strain teams.

What’s more, when it comes to production, contract manufacturers do not provide quality critical inspection—or if they do, it’s not independent verification. This can increase risks for OEMs, from production delays to recalls.

A single expert point of contact can provide quality critical inspection that is truly independent verification to uphold quality and patient safety. Look for end-to-end expert sourcing coordination, as with Millstone’s Tier 1 service. OEMs should also consider the advantages of partners who can embed quality into processes.

Advantage #2: Streamline Vendor Coordination

Coordinating multiple vendors toward a finished product or critical service is inherently complicated. Add in material shortages and the supply chain unrest we saw in 2020 to 2022, and it becomes highly complex.

A single expert point of contact can help to smooth out traditional and emergent supply chain complications, including vendor and sourcing management, that can cause delays. This is critical as upstream delays can have significant downstream consequences, including increased costs, account friction, delayed product launches and more. Bringing it all in-house reduces the potential for external supplier hiccups that upset the supply chain.

A single expert point of contact can manage the inbound supply chain at a macro level, giving you access to more sophisticated forecasting, a deeper supplier base, and streamlined communication at every stage in the process—ultimately helping you stay on track with product launches or speed time to market.

Advantage #3: Improve Capacity Visibility

Lack of accurate visibility into available capacity creates unwanted “surprises” for OEMs. Without reliable insight into current and projected lead times, coordination crumbles.

An expert partner can help OEMs bypass nasty surprises with improved visibility into overall capacities, as well as how they intersect to affect the supply chain. This visibility is especially important when it comes to coordinating key steps, like validations, that can significantly affect launch dates. Expert capacity planning underpins service-level agreements that reliably deliver success—for legacy production as well as new product launches, and for new as well as ongoing customers. And, a single point of contact streamlines coordination, which is especially critical to the tight orchestration of product launches. In the end, better visibility into capacity results in better service levels.

Advantage #4: Resolve Problems Faster

It’s simple: sometimes things happen, or unforeseen challenges arise. When they do, having a single point of contact is an advantage. On-staff expertise means immediate access to the know-how to navigate solutions. Your expert partner can accelerate resolution by cutting down on time spent coordinating multiple-vendor conversations to solve the problem. With all aspects of your supply chain under a single umbrella, everyone can more quickly understand what has happened and how to resolve it to keep production or services moving forward.

Advantage #5: Ensure Compliance

In a world of complicated, ever-shifting regulatory compliance challenges, the stakes are high: time, cost, and reputational risk. OEMs have to get it right, and having a single expert partner can ensure they do—and efficiently. Consider the resource savings of conducting a single audit vs. multiple audits for multiple vendors. In addition, weigh the positives of consistent quality, delivered by a single provider coordinating in-process and adjacent services over ad hoc services that may suggest on-paper savings, but come with increased risks. A streamlined investment of resources in a single, expert partner will result in consistent quality, faster time to market, and reduced risk.

OEMs benefit from securing a strategic partner with high-level industry expertise. Millstone’s Tier 1 service gives OEMs just such a streamlined approach to expert sourcing, with contract manufacturing, quality critical inspection, in-process testing, cleaning, packaging, and sterilization handled under a single PO. With the launch of Millstone Testing Services in late 2022, Millstone now offers a comprehensive range of product, packaging, and environmental testing for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Millstone offers these testing services as part of its Tier 1 service as well as standalone contract services.

Today Millstone offers post-manufacturing and aftermarket services to more than 50 customers, including some of the top 10 orthopedic companies in the world. We are constantly evolving our processes and services to help OEMs achieve sustainable success. We offer clean room packaging, medical device specific warehousing, finished goods distribution, loaner kit management, advanced inspection and testing, and reverse logistics services—all with an unparalleled focus on quality.

What could we help you do better? Learn more at https://millstonemedical.com.