Our client is a leading provider of post-manufacturing services to medical device manufacturers. They had an urgent need for a solution to help them improve the efficiency of their instrument-kitting operations. This was critical for them to meet their growing business requirements from medical device customers. In addition, they were also looking for a solution that could help them provide visibility to their customers at each stage of their operations.
They implemented Enhatch’s inventory management solution and were able to :
- Reduce kit build and inspection times by up to 80%
- Give their customers end-to-end visibility into each stage of kit processing
- Reduce time and costs required to on-board new employees
About the Customer
Our client is headquartered in the United States and has several years of experience organizing outsourced supply chains for medical device manufacturers (OEMs). They offer several services to medical device manufacturers, such as loaner kit management, medical device-specific warehousing, advanced inspection, clean room packaging, finished goods distribution, and after-market services.
Client Challenge
Our client’s loaner and distribution business was experiencing rapid growth. However, they were faced with the following challenges as they scaled the business:
Long lead time for the kitting process
Inspection, replenishment, and processing of instrument trays was very manual and time-consuming. For example, a spine tray could take over 2.5 hours to process and replenish.
This was a significant bottleneck as it was impossible to meet their growing business demands by simply increasing headcount. Lead-time reduction of the kitting process was essential.
Increased customer visibility into tray status during processing
Medical device companies that had outsourced their loaner operations to our client required visibility into our client’s operations.
The medical device companies were eager to understand the status of the trays as they progressed through each stage of the process. Providing visibility at both the tray and individual item levels was essential.
Easier training and onboarding process for new employees
Our client wanted to expedite and improve their onboarding process to get new hires up to speed and be productive faster. This would help them increase capacity quickly to meet demand requirements. The kitting process was very manual, so the lead time to train and onboard new operators was long.
As our client scaled their operations, the need to reduce employee hiring and training costs also became increasingly important. Streamlining and automating operations to reduce the skill level required for entry-level employees was a key consideration in this cost-saving strategy.
The Enhatch Solution
The Enhatch team followed the below process.
Initial steps
As a first step, we talked to the client in detail to understand their business requirements and current pain points.
Then, we detailed the As-Is’ processes around loaner management and kit processing. This was key to establishing a baseline and identifying opportunities for driving efficiencies.
Identify opportunities to increase process efficiency
Our team then sat with the client to demonstrate how our inventory management solution could meet their requirements. We also identified automation and efficiency improvement opportunities from their current ‘as-is’ process. Some examples of this were:
- Automate the inspection report generation process that was being done manually
- Eliminate double entry that they were currently doing into their ERP solution
- Easily link sales order to tray to inspection for end-to-end visibility
Implement Enhatch’s inventory management solution
After our detailed requirements gathering and analysis phase, our team seamlessly implemented Enhatch’s inventory management. The solution was implemented on time and within budget with all necessary integrations, reaffirming our commitment to delivering successful outcomes.
The Impact
With Enhatch's inventory management solution, our client was able to get:
80% reduction in kitting time
After implementing Enhatch's intelligent inventory management solution, our client was able to reduce the time taken to inspect, replenish, and process a kit by up to 80%.
End-to-end visibility into each stage of kit processing
With Enhatch's inventory management solution, our client's customers can get complete visibility into each stage of kit processing. Visibility was an essential requirement for medical device customers who were looking to outsource their supply chains.
Enhatch's solution provided visibility at both the kit and individual item levels. Customers could seamlessly track each kit's processing stage (for example, processing, back ordered, awaiting manager approval, etc.).
Scale operational capacity by 5X without increasing headcount proportionately
Our client was able to scale operations to meet increasing demand without needing to increase headcount proportionately. Enhatch's solution was able to automate several key steps that were being performed manually (for example, automation of inspection report generation). We were able to greatly improve the productivity and operational efficiency of existing employees.
Reduction in employee onboarding time
Using Enhatch's solution's highly intuitive, user-friendly interface, intelligent monitoring, and automated reporting, our client created a more streamlined onboarding and monitoring process. This significantly reduced the lead time to onboard and train new employees, a critical aspect of capacity expansion.
Enhatch's solution reduced the skill level requirements for new employees. Our solution helped our client reduce employee hiring and onboarding costs significantly.
