Four years ago, COVID-19 swept the globe and changed life as we knew it. As the medical community worked tirelessly to save lives, medical device machine shops had to ramp up production of vital equipment. The EF Precision Group was faced with one of the biggest challenges we’d experienced in our 41 years of operation: increasing production of critical disinfection technologies to meet the aggressive surge in demand, and time wasn’t in our favor.
A History of Excellence Fosters Trusted Relationships
As an FDA-certified critical device manufacturer with a robust AS9100D-certified quality management system (QMS), The EF Precision Group is committed to providing the highest level of quality, with documented proof to back up our claims. With the clock ticking and lives on the line, our client knew they could trust us to rise to the challenge and ramp up production without sacrificing quality.
Using our extensive experience in concurrent engineering and intense collaboration with our customer, we identified opportunities to improve their existing design to withstand the additional burden of expanded applications as more industries and businesses adopted this portable disinfecting technology. Enhancing their complex design was just the first step. We needed to increase production twenty-fold in just weeks. We jumped into action while the world ground to a standstill.
How Medical Device Machine Shops Rose to the Challenge
The global pandemic and the efforts in place to protect the public posed unique challenges for medical device machine shops, and flexibility was a major factor in our ultimate success. With travel restrictions increasing exponentially in an attempt to contain the pandemic, we knew we had to act fast to streamline our supply chain and ensure an adequate supply of materials to meet the drastic increase in demand. The supply chain wasn’t the only process that needed an overhaul; we had to rethink the assembly process to increase production without putting our employees at greater risk. We needed total process optimization.
Total Process Optimization
Working closely with our client, we devised a solution; we’d transition from batch build to flowline manufacturing and reconfigure our facility to create additional assembly space and room to expand our workforce. With intensive training programs already in place, we were able to rapidly hire new employees to round out our talented cross-functional teams. With all hands on deck, we rolled up our sleeves and rearranged our workshop to streamline production.
When medical device machine shops are dedicated to total customer satisfaction, they are not afraid to reach out and take advantage of trusted partnerships. The EFPG is blessed with a network of long-term partnerships and with assistance from our shop, that rose to the challenge with us and allowed us to draw on additional resources and expertise to ensure the rapid delivery of this critical disinfection technology. This flexibility allowed us to achieve a 20x increase in throughput in less than 100 days.
And while the world has returned to a new normal, medical device machine shops must remain flexible to rise up and meet the next major challenge in life saving innovations. Please contact us today to learn more about how The EF Precision Group leverages our experience and dedication to exceed expectations.
