Medical Device Link .

Today’s product change management systems can provide device companies with real-time project visibility, access to data, and coordinated execution of core manufacturing tasks. Web-based product change management (PCM) is the ability to manage and execute simple and complex product changes across distances and under time constraints. If integrated seamlessly with a medical device manufacturer’s other business processes and existing IT infrastructure, product change management can be a useful strategic tool, especially in today’s slow world economy. Web-based coordinated execution of product changes enables device manufacturers to decrease costs and increase revenues by improving accuracy, decreasing waste, reducing redundant processes, speeding changes in production and design, reducing time to market, and ultimately increasing productivity within a narrow time window. To gain market share and drive revenues, medical device manufacturers have to efficiently roll out first-to-market products one after another. But that is only half the struggle; they must also introduce the right products at the right time and do so within budget. Such demands leave no room for sloppy development efforts, wasted raw materials, strategic errors, or mismanaged projects. For medical device manufacturers—working as they do in highly pressurized, fast-changing markets—the key to success is coordinated execution of product changes. They need to be able to adapt in real time to changes in business requirements, customer demands, raw material availability, new strategies of competitors, geopolitical shifts, and so on. They need to be able to formulate new supply chains or revise plans for introducing or manufacturing new products. By coordinating actions across the entire value chain, medical device companies can ensure that tasks are completed, records kept, and profits maximized (see Figure 1). Coordinating business processes on a global basis can be very difficult and time-consuming. Challenges are rife and ever-present, and gross inefficiencies are never too far away. Compliance with various