Why Fictiv
Customer: Scientific Instruments and Laboratory Equipment Manufacturer
Industry: MedTech
- Customer Challenges:
- Post-pandemic demand spike pushed the supply chain beyond capacity
- 18-month backlog with unrealized revenue and unhappy customers
- Existing supply base couldn’t scale to meet increasing demand
Fictiv Results:
- Delivered scalable supply chain solution that continues to support high-mix low-volume production with approximately 20,000 custom parts per year
- Cleared 18-month, 200,000 part backlog in 4 months valued at $5.7M,
- Reduced overall production costs by 29%
- Fortune-500 supply chain delivered parts in weeks, not months
Capabilities:
CNC, Sheet Metal, 3D Printing, Injection Molding
Here’s a familiar story. It starts with a supply chain problem faced by countless medical device companies. In this case, a 100-year-old U.S. medical device manufacturer with roughly $200M in annual revenue. Finance execs projected a surge of demand during the pandemic (which happened), but it was a post-pandemic demand spike that caught them off guard. And brought their ability to get products into the hands of customers to a screeching halt.
Not only that, they accumulated a 200K part, 18-month backlog, which tied up revenue by not being able to ship much needed units to their customers. Until this point, they’d been successful using their in-house manufacturing capabilities with a relatively small outsourced supply base. Unfortunately, neither could scale to meet customer demand and with the backdrop of supply shortages due to the pandemic, revenue delays put the company’s financials at risk.
If you’re a medical device company, you’re likely very familiar with this kind of problem. You can ramp up in-house production, running 24-7 to try to catch up, find more tier 2 and 3 suppliers to help (involving extensive vetting, onboarding, and managing), and invest aggressively in procurement experts to drive everything forward (time-consuming and resource-intensive). All of these solutions, particularly in the highly regulated medical device industry, don’t work fast enough and at a high enough quality to get you out of the production hole. And it’s not going to get any easier.
The bottom line: Your ability to get products into customers’ hands and maintain cashflow is in jeopardy.
You may have an in-house solution that (more or less) works now, but will it be able to responsively scale as you innovate and grow? Or when demand increases for some of your products? In most cases, the answer is “no.”
And it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. By some estimates, the global medical device market is projected to grow to USD $1.025T by 2032, so demand is heading up and to the right for the foreseeable future.
U.S. Medical Devices Market Size, 2019-2032 (USD Billion)
www.fortunebusinessinsights.com
In my experience, successful medical device companies also need to:
- Accelerate NPI
- Reduce held inventory
- Lower BOM costs
- Decrease procurement costs
- Reduce capital expenditures
…and more.
But so much of the time, companies lack the resilient supply chain, technology, quality, and logistics support they need to bring their products to market.
Fortunately, they found a digital manufacturing partner that delivered.
Forging a Digital Manufacturing Partnership
Instead of trying to completely reconfigure their supply chain on their own, they found a preexisting agile supply chain partner in Fictiv. Built on digital infrastructure, Fictiv offered optimized global capacity and end-to-end supply chain management support.
Four global manufacturing centers of excellence, led by a General Manager and staffed with Fictiv experts.
By integrating with Fictiv’s scalable digital supply chain, they cleared their supply backlog—in just 4 months as opposed to 18 months with their existing supply chain.
Fictiv “…enabled us to save millions of dollars in infrastructure, people, and time costs when compared to traditional development and supply chain strategies.”
Medical device company CEO
From a 200,000-part backlog to full production, they also relied on Fictiv for:
Supply Chain Transparency: Technology/AI-enabled digital platform for real-time order visibility, quality reports, and logistics updates.
Global Managed Services: Turnkey solutions with free in-depth DFM analysis, production cost-down optimization, program management support, global logistics coverage, and more.
World-class Quality: Manufacturing sites certified to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485, along with on-site quality inspections & production audits, advanced product quality planning, and material certifications.
Supply Chain Agility: Regional supplier management, production, logistics optimization, and overseas boots-on-the-ground capabilities.
The impact of a digital manufacturing partnership with Fictiv also had significant financial benefits.
By the Numbers
An OEM that generates $200M in annual revenue could expect an annual revenue benefit of $2.6M for each 10% improvement in time to market. Or a $3.48M benefit from a 5% reduction in BOM cost. These are just a few of the quantifiable benefits of partnering with Fictiv.
Illustrative benefits of partnering with Fictiv for a medical device company with $200M annual revenue.
| Est. Benefit % of digital manufacturing partner* | Est. U.S. Company Benefit $** | |
| NPI Acceleration | 10% | $2.6 M |
| BOM Cost Reduction | 5% | $3.48 M |
| Internal Procurement Cost Reduction | 10% | $46 K |
| Reduction in Held Inventory | 10% | $660 K |
| Reduced Capital Expenditure | 10% | $680 K |
Based on industrial manufacturing median % of revenue
**Based on assumed $200M company revenue
Sources: Fortune Business Insights, APQC, Finlistics
For the company in this study, other benefits included improved cashflow, increased customer retention, lower operational costs, and reduced cost of held inventory.
Clearing the 200,000 part backlog meant $2M in gross revenue realized in 4 versus 18 months.
Fictiv has worked with many medtech companies over the years to lower overhead and operational costs, reduce cost of goods sold (COGs), generate millions in savings, and more.
A Digital Supply Chain That Scales With You—And Gets Results
The moral of this story is that you must find a way to inject agility into your supply chain in order to remain competitive in this trade and economic climate.
And contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t actually require years and millions of dollars of investment to transform your supply chain into one that is truly agile.
Fictiv’s solutions have helped many MedTech companies like this one achieve the agility and resilience they need to do more than just survive disruptions.
Explore Fictiv for Production
With the help of Fictiv, companies can grow and scale no matter what comes next.
There’s a lot to gain and a lot on the line to lose, so if Fictiv’s solution sounds like something that could benefit your business, I encourage you to reach out to our team for a free consultation on how we can help transform your supply chain challenges into competitive advantages.
