Medical Component Manufacturer Reduces Cycle Times

CSC helped its client develop a vision, operations concept, and road map for an enterprise-wide product collaboration system rollout. The initial value analysis indicated that CSC could prove the benefits of product collaboration and reduce cycle times by re-engineering a custom make–to-order process for surgical kits. At 40 – 80 days, current cycle times were not competitive and were considered to be a significant factor in limiting the client’s growth opportunities. A target was set to reduce the cycle time to less than 22 days.

Approach

The overall approach leveraged CSC’s methodology of plan, design, make and transform. Collaborating with the client, CSC clearly defined the as-is conditions and developed an implementation road map based on prioritized areas of business value. Major components of the approach included:

• Re-engineering the custom make-to-order process using an industry-leading product collaboration software package
  
• Developing an interface between the product collaboration package and the client’s operational systems including MRP - and customizing in collaboration with the software provider
  
• Re-defining metrics, roles, responsibilities and document flows - and mapping them to the new process
  
• Addressing cultural issues to ensure user buy-in to the new process
  
• Creating a long-term implementation plan driven by business objectives

Results

Cycle times were reduced by 18 to 70 days, bringing the client to an industry-leading average of 15 days. The client also benefited from significantly improved access to information throughout the product life cycle. Master data is now completely electronic, including digital photos that are managed by the system.

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