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Turning an idea into a medtech product

Client

Hungarian engineers have developed a unique electro-optical medical instrument. The new device performed so well at international exhibitions that it attracted both market and investor interest. As a result, the Hungarian start-up was acquired by a Scandinavian company. The new owners intended to mass produce and sell the device.

Problem

It only became clear along the way, with a series of failures and other quality defects, that the production know-how was not available at either the startup or the new owners. The increasing number and severity of failures meant that the promise of a quality product was becoming increasingly distant from reality. The reputation of the manufacturer was so damaged by customer dissatisfaction with the repair problems that the Scandinavian company's headquarters became aware of the growing problems. Interim Ltd. was commissioned to investigate and resolve the problems, which were initially believed to be caused by a lack of manufacturing capability.

Solution

Interim Ltd. quickly assessed the situation and found that the equipment had not yet progressed from the idea, prototype stage, to the technology readiness level that would guarantee the envisaged product performance. As this was hidden from the client, the company did not bring in a production technologist. It also turned out that the product development itself was not in the right state, as the lack of a ready, reliable, final device meant that continuous improvements had to be made to the semi-finished product, which would often hamper manufacturability.

Interim concluded that the product was not in a state of production, i.e. not marketable in its current form. Therefore, Interim immediately put in place a programme to make the product manufacturable, including a rapid change in approach to development and the resulting personnel consequences.

Results

The client decided to transfer the production of the product to another subsidiary with extensive experience in the production and introduction of similar products.

The Hungarian company was closed in an orderly manner and some of the employees were offered a job by the host subsidiary.

The product is successful, manufacturable, and still present on the market today.