Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Intuitive eyes sole-source suppliers as it expands capacity

April 21, 2022 By Jim Hammerand

Intuitive Surgical CFO Jamie Samath

Intuitive Surgical CFO Jamie Samath [Photo courtesy of Intuitive Surgical]

Top executives at Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) have sole-source suppliers on their minds as they ramp up manufacturing capacity in the face of continued supply chain challenges.

The robotic surgery technology developer’s growth and mindfulness of supply chain resiliency could bring new opportunities for Intuitive’s suppliers — along with competition from others who want in.

Sunnyvale, California–based Intuitive had just more than 10,500 employees at the end of March, CFO Jamie Samath said today on a conference call to discuss Intuitive’s first-quarter financial and operating performance. That employee count is up 26% from the same time a year before, and of the 2,100 new employees, he said about 900 work in manufacturing.

The company spent about $95 million on capital expenditures in the first quarter, primarily to expand the company’s facility footprint and manufacturing capacity, including production line automation projects, Samath said.

Asked by Wells Fargo Larry Biegelsen how Intuitive is addressing supply chain and inflationary challenges, Samath reiterated an earlier statement by Guthart that the top priority was delivering orders to customers.

When the supply chain eventually rebalances, Samath said, “we will refocus our operations teams to focus on cost reductions, getting our manufacturing efficiencies back to our targets, but that’s gonna really be a question of when will that be?”

For now, Intuitive has increased its inventories, but Samath said “the mix of that, though, is clearly not perfect.”

“We’re replenishing inventory where we can if and as supply lasts, but we have an imbalance currently. Certainly if we look at the medium to long term, we’re going to look carefully at what levels of inventory we want to hold as one risk mitigation,” Samath said. “I think the other thing we’ll look at is how do we make ourselves less dependent on sole suppliers?”

Guthart followed up to say that the future is difficult to forecast with so many moving parts, but that the supply chain challenges are becoming less broad and more focused.

“The number of parts that are under stress has decreased, but the intensity of the stress around a few parts has increased,” he said. “The number of things that are challenges is narrowing, but the ones that remain are more stubborn … We use various tools, whether it’s buying ahead, buying safety stock, or redundancy in supply chain. We use any and all of those if we can to help mitigate the risk.”

It’s a lesson many manufacturers have learned in recent years as natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic kept crucial components like semiconductors and materials like resin out of reach.

If you’re an Intuitive supplier and your ears are burning, a replay of the call is available at Intuitive’s website.

Hear more about Intuitive and robotically-assisted surgery from leaders like CEO Gary Guthart in Mass Device’s IntuitiveTalks Podcast.

DeviceTalks by MassDevice · IntuitiveTalks – How a new venture group keeps Intuitive’s eyes focused forward on the future

You may also like:

  • Intuitive Surgical CFO Marshall Mohr
    Intuitive Surgical highlights supply chain risk, addresses Medtronic’s Hugo launch

Related Articles Read More >

Download COMSOL News Special Edition Biomedical
A variety of tube-to-tube barb connectors
Qosina adds new tube-to-tube barb connectors
A portrait of Keri Mattox, Zimmer Biomet's chief communications and administration officer
Zimmer Biomet adds ESG and CEO visibility to executive’s duties
A portrait of Geoff Martha, CEO of Medtronic
‘Catastrophic explosion’ and resin shortage led Medtronic’s supply chain problems

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 27, 2022
Quick message - No DTW podcast, but plenty else to listen to over this weekend and next week.
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech