As custom manufacturing services have become more readily available, there are now thousands of new medical devices being conceived and released every year.

With so much competition in this burgeoning sector, companies and investors involved in this innovation race are constantly looking for ways to optimise their products by making them more accurate, efficient, and profitable.

Designing a device so that it can be manufactured in the most-efficient and cost-effective manner is one way to increase profits and facilitate faster re-stocking.

With that said, here are several ways medical devices are being designed for enhanced manufacturability:

1. Utilising a wide range of machining processes

If a designer or manufacturer is only limited to the use of certain machines or machining processes, it will be difficult to achieve truly optimal manufacturability.

Thus, custom manufacturers and medical device design firms are essentially in a competition to develop the most comprehensive tool sets and effective design techniques for maximum product functionality, appeal, efficiency, and mass scale production feasibility.

Working with locally based manufacturers or those who will provide virtual tours of their facilities would be a wise move for investors and startups in this arena to ensure that your device is being manufactured in a ‘state of the art’ factory.

It’s possible to find local companies that will help with this process by searching for a “medical device company” followed by your city or state name or abbreviation, i.e. - device company MN.

2. Assembling Teams of Experienced Engineers

Designing and manufacturing a new medical device is an extremely complex process that typically involves a lot of steps and liabilities a along with the need for numerous professionals in various fields of study.

Any company that designs medical devices will have at least a couple of chief engineers who oversee the development along with a few consultants or outsourced engineering assistants.

More established design firms can have dozens of engineers on staff.

3. Bespoke Precision Machining Services

Before a factory can safely scale up the operation of a medical device, there needs to be testing done to ensure that the current model or prototype is safe and free from even the smallest defects.

Processes like CNC machining allow manufacturers to operate with extreme precision, decreasing the chances of encountering any design flaws or defects that could ultimately hurt the device’s manufacturability.

A lot of money can be wasted by manufacturing a million devices inefficiently

If you’re operating a startup that is just trying to get past its first wave of 10,000 units sold, you might be thinking that investing in design optimization isn’t necessary at the moment.

However, if you win a major distribution contract in the near future and wind up selling millions of devices, it’s best to already have a fully refined manufacturing procedure in place to avoid losses due to inefficiencies.

When you add up the amount of expenditure that could be lost over the span of that much manufacturing, it’s easy to see why achieving optimum manufacturability is so important for medical device designers and manufacturers.