It was a very common situation: a medical product had been a long and successful time on the market. Now some of its electronic and electromechanical components were retired and ran short.

The product owner had to decide what to do: Find a solution to the problem or phase out the product. The clue to this solution was a finely orchestrated collaboration of engineering, procurement, production and logistic experts.

A first step was to replace the retired components and ask procurement to find appropriate sources for the substitutes. This way the ability to supply this product was guaranteed in the near and mid future.

Since Swisstronics Contract Manufacturing AG had to change the design of the product in order to integrate the substitute components it was worth while to have a closer look. Swisstronics found some potential in the production process: partitioning the product into sub-modules, opened up the opportunity to transfer the production of parts of the product to our low cost production facilities. The last in this line of measurements was to simplify the final test for the product. The total cost for the product could be reduced by 10percent.

Swisstronics Contract Manufacturing AG is based in Bronschhofen, Switzerland. www.swisstronics.ch