Welp MagazineAn ERP helps medical device manufacturers move innovative products to market faster, comply with stringent regulatory requirements and deliver a personalized customer experience.
Benefits of an ERP for Medical Device Manufacturers
An ERP is a set of integrated applications that allow companies to manage their finances, accounting, inventory control, sales, customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence across various functional and geographical boundaries. ERP helps an enterprise identify synergies between various business units such as sales, purchasing and manufacturing processes.
A medical device manufacturer can benefit immensely from the following benefits of ERP:
Increased Speed-to-Market
In order to launch innovative products fast, medical device manufacturers need to plan for receiving and producing raw materials without any interruptions in order to reduce the business lead-time. An ERP can help medical device manufacturers access vendors globally by automating the process of price negotiations, quality control, order processing and delivery schedules.
Keeping up with Changing Regulatory Environment
Medical device regulatory requirements are evolving quickly in order to protect public health and safety. Today, medical devices have become the most regulated product categories and in order to continue selling the product one needs to comply with changing regulatory environment.
ERP for medical device manufacturers and medical industrial converting companies helps streamline regulatory compliance and assists with setting up a safety administrative program. ERP helps to notify regulatory agencies about when and what certification has been done by medical device manufacturers. Apart from this, the system updates the customer database and notification of required allergen and labeling information for the medical device.
Reduce Cost As A Result of Automation
An ERP automates various tasks such as order processing, price negotiation, ordering, manufacturing and delivery schedules which helps to reduce the overall cost of medical devices as less manpower and resources are required to handle all these activities manually.
Improved Customer Experience
With an ERP, medical device manufacturers can create customer relationship management programs that help manage sales and inventory, and track and respond to purchase requests from their customers and store this information in a centralized location that is accessible to everyone. Also, the ERP enables the manufacturer to develop reports on the customers that are providing sales and profit and the fields that are requested by customers or highly recommended by the manufacturer.
Reduced Time Required to Manage Medical Device Parts
Medical devices may require several components such as a key component, material and probe and should manufacturers can set different SKU’s on each component. Also, medical device manufacturers can set various characteristics on each component such as material grade, component type, etc. It will help them streamline the whole process of component management, order entry and delivered to the customer.
ERP for Medical Device Manufacturers – How to Choose the Right System?
Choosing the right ERP for your business is a delicate task. You can choose your medical device manufacturer from the various models available in the market.
Following are 3 models of ERP systems for medical device manufacturers:
In-House Model
This is the traditional software program that is developed by IT professionals. As ERP is the most powerful and popular software, there are many software development companies that develop and sell variety of ERP programs. ERP systems for medical device manufacturers have the greatest flexibility and customization ability and they incorporate the latest and cutting edge technologies and adapt itself to the company’s structure. However, the biggest challenge with in-house models is that the company needs to maintain ongoing budget for maintenance, upgrades, and enhancement of the software.
Hosted Model
Hosted ERP for medical device manufacturers is an online software that, instead of being in one’s premises, is located and managed in a central place. One of the disadvantages of this model is that you are dependent on the other company and cannot access the information anywhere, rather you need to retrieve information via the internet.
Cloud Model
Cloud-based ERP for medical device manufacturers provides you with almost the same functionalities of an in-house ERP but has some advantages over it. As, in cloud model, all data is on the cloud and backend systems are also on the cloud which makes it easier to access data. In addition, cloud-based ERP provides you greater security as well as you can access the application from any device.
Whether you want to expand your business or looking for a system upgrade, choose the right ERP system for medical device manufacturers that offers the best solution to take your business forward.
