We are now seeing both the power and the pitfalls of relying on the Defense Production Act (DPA) to cover the manufacture of vaccine vials, syringes, personal protection equipment (PPE), testing, and other equipment and components in the fight against COVID-19. Overall, vaccine production is months ahead of schedule, and COVID tests are widely available. However, many manufacturers in the medical sector are facing shortages in the supplies, such as vials and syringes for common prescription medications, testing kits, and devices.
 
All of this points to a need for OEMs and the contract manufacturers they rely on—many of whom are already operating at capacity—to balance both ongoing medical industry demands with the COVID-19 emergency response and the drive for agility with quality assurance. Automation will be critical for those seeking to expand their facilities, optimize operations, and empower employees to meet production demands driven by the DPA. And it’s the reason 2021 is emerging as the year of the connected worker for these companies.
 
Enabling Adaptive Intelligence
Among the most powerful takeaways over the last year is the importance of adaptive intelligence. In manufacturing medical products, this means, for example, knowing when, how, why, and by what scale to change a given production process at a given time. Adaptive intelligence is achieved by using technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to empower employees with the insights to make decisions based on their experience. And it is a primary example of the connected worker.
 
One manufacturing vice president in the medical product sector observed that creating a learning ecosystem of data-connected workers enabled the company to adapt production quickly and get orders out on time—far surpassing the brute force efficiency of its most advanced, programmable machinery.
 
The learning ecosystem for connected workers is fueled by data from machinery and software, including manufacturing execution system (MES), enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), warehouse management, and logistics. At the same time, employing digital training tools will become essential for teaching skills to workers or contractors replacing the many manufacturing employees expected to retire in the next five years. The World Economic Forum predicts digital training tools could reduce training time by as much as 75 percent, further increasing the expertise and knowledge of production team members across locations.
 
Beyond investing in education, medical product manufacturers are also modifying their facilities to empower connected workers. For instance, the aforementioned manufacturing vice president noted that following the unique and often unpredictable spikes in demand over the last year, his company is planning a massive re-design of its shop floor, which had been optimized around efficiency. The updated facility will incorporate systems that foster agility and adaptiveness in creatively redefining production styles and strategies.
 
A Roadmap for Enabling Connected Workers
It’s best to think about connected worker strategies as bringing digitally-based work environment factors, including touchscreen access to data on the shop floor, more efficient digital workflows, and remote access with the goal of driving greater decision-making autonomy. Let’s look at key strategies that medical product companies and contract manufacturers are adopting as they execute on their roadmaps for ensuring more connected worker-driven productivity.
 
Expanded Data Capture
Medical product manufacturers are increasing their purchases of smart machines and retrofitting their existing machinery with smart sensors in order to report on production, utilization, wear, and energy use, among other metrics. The rapid adoption of these Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies is providing valuable data for improving production efficiency and product quality through real-time production and process monitoring.
 
Real-Time Analytics
Transitioning to a connected worker approach begins with reliable data that provides manufacturers with new, often unexpected insights into increasing production efficiency and quality. Today, real-time analytics are going beyond gauging the current status to enabling predictive analysis for assessing risks to production and the impact on revenue. To be effective, however, medical product companies need to start by clearly defining their key performance indicators (KPIs) and related metrics.
 
Intuitive, Touchscreen-Based Shop Floor Interfaces
Workers on the shop floor need ready access to information from ERP and manufacturing systems to improve production efficiency. Newer touch-screen shop floor interfaces help to blur the line between workers and these systems by streamlining data access and real-time information collection and availability in order to improve quality and reduce costs. The new intuitive user interfaces also help medical product companies digitize their manufacturing operations and improve production efficiency.
 
Digital Workflows for Complex Tasks
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a manufacturing worker shortage of more than two million workers by 2025. To increase the productivity of new permanent or temporary workers, medical product producers will need to automate their workflows. Modern shop floor interfaces guide workers through just the information they need to set up their stations, complete their tasks, and monitor and identify any potential issues in production or quality. The workflows may serve as a checklist for experienced employees or as on-the-job training for workers new to the task.
 
Quoting and Pricing
Medical product companies and their contract manufacturing firms are bringing together their configure, price, quote (CPQ) process and software with product designs rendered using computer-aided design software to more effectively negotiate, price, and schedule custom-configured products. In the process, these manufacturers are strengthening their price management and control, increasing margins, speeding time to market, and reducing order errors.
 
Remote Access
Through remote access to ERP and manufacturing systems, employees in sales, accounting, and other back-office functions could continue to conduct business as usual. That realization has led many medical product manufacturers to rethink onsite staffing policies and utilization of their facilities, particularly as many have sought to quickly expand their production capacity. Moreover, it became clear that many facilities did not need staff onsite to monitor machines and instead could manage multiple sites from a single control center for greater efficiency.
 
Conclusion
The expansion of the Defense Production Act to increase the production of medical products to support COVID-19 vaccine delivery, testing, PPE, and medical equipment has put a spotlight on the crucial role of adaptive intelligence in responding to rapid shifts in market demand and supply chain volatility. Business continuity and the greatest productivity gains have come from connected workers with the data and insights to apply adaptive intelligence. By using technology to empower these employees, medical product companies and contract manufacturers alike can continue to minimize risk, optimize productivity, and capitalize on new opportunities as the market evolves.
 

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Louis Columbus is currently serving as principal of DELMIAWORKS. Previous positions include product management at Ingram Cloud, product marketing at iBASEt, Plex Systems, senior analyst at AMR Research (now Gartner), marketing and business development at Cincom Systems, Ingram Micro, a SaaS start-up and at hardware companies. He’s also a member of the Enterprise Irregulars. Professional experience includes marketing, product management, sales and industry analyst roles in the enterprise software and IT industries. Columbus’ academic background includes an MBA from Pepperdine University and completion of the Strategic Marketing Management and Digital Marketing Programs at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He teaches MBA courses in international business, global competitive strategies, international market research, and capstone courses in strategic planning and market research. Columbus has taught at California State University, Fullerton: University of California, Irvine; Marymount University, and Webster University. You can reach him on Twitter at @LouisColumbus.