Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

4 ways medical device industry suppliers can save their clients money

March 26, 2018 By Chris Newmarker

Spectrum medical device industry suppliers

[Image from Unsplash]

Count Spectrum Plastics Group (Alpharetta, Ga.) among the medical device industry suppliers adding capabilities and expertise in order to add value to what they provide their customers.

Long gone are the days when medtech contract manufacturers simply made orders to spec. As four recent case studies out of Spectrum highlight, it’s all about branching out and finding ways to save medical device companies money.

Here are four ways Spectrum has been able to up its game with customers in recent years:

1. Taking a lead on standards

A Spectrum Plastics Group company, formerly known in the market as Xeridiem Medical Devices, was an early leader in the Global Enteral Device Supplier Association (GEDSA) — an industry alliance seeking to address the fact that the same Luer connector was in use for several different medical tubing purposes. The resulting ISO 80369-3 standard spurred the innovation of a new connector under the trade name ENFit that is specific for enteral feeding. ENFit is meant to ensure that only devices intended for nutritional delivery connect with the corresponding tubing, preventing potentially deadly and costly situations.

Industry adoption for ENFit is at 25%, according to Spectrum, where company officials expect full adoption by 2020.

2. Engineer-to-engineer collaboration

A prominent manufacturer of negative pressure wound therapy devices moved from manual to automated assembly, according to Spectrum. The multi-lumen, extruded tubing components — which had a tendency to spiral, curve and stretch during manufacturing — could no longer be inspected and skillfully manipulated by the assembly team.

Spectrum Plastics Group’s engineers collaborated directly with the customer’s engineers to align tubing extrusion and automation even though both processes occur in separate locations. Spectrum engineers came up with a host of savings for the customer:

  • They created a tighter spec to remove memory from tubing, which cut waste by 5%;
  • Their global footprint meant they could hold inventory for an 80% savings;
  • Their returnable packaging reused boxes and pallets for a total savings of $70,000 per year.

3. Employing a variety of capabilities

A well-known manufacturer of fluid administration sets was planning to start the manufacturing process for an upcoming product. Already a longtime supplier of medical tubing to the customer, Spectrum was able to persuade the customer that it could become the complete contract manufacturer of the fluid administration sets, from mold making to device assembly.

Spectrum Plastics Group helped the customer transition the manufacturing and assembly of finished devices to Spectrum’s Reynosa, Mexico facility. The move helped the customer gain back 10,000 square feet of space that could be dedicated to the new device. It also reduced the overall cost of goods by a fifth.

4. Being expert and nimble

A global leader of structural heart delivery system therapies had a vendor who was not keeping pace when it came to making several iterations of prototypes for a new, multi-lumen, deflectable catheter for a transcatheter mitral valve. A Spectrum Plastics Group company, Apollo Medical Extrusion Technologies, stepped in and got the project done within six months, according to Spectrum.

“Apollo’s ability to work fast with remarkable accuracy quickly achieved the performance characteristics required of the catheter, and delivered units ready for studies weeks ahead of the other team,” said Mike Schultz, VP and CTO at Apollo Medical Extrusion Technologies.

“It’s a complicated delivery system that can take more than a year of development, but we were able to get them from concepts to design in six months because of our expertise in engineering and design,” Schultz said.

Apollo was also small enough to be nimble, even as it was supported by the overall expertise at Spectrum Plastics Group. “We offer agility and efficiency without sacrificing quality and experience, for a dependable and repeatable solution delivered at scale,” Schultz said.

The second generation of the catheter had an added level of complexity: The five-lumen deflectable catheter required a braided reinforcement to enhance performance. Apollo was able to draw on specialized polymers that add a certain degree of flexibility to the reinforcement offered by various braided materials, driving a 25% performance improvement and a 30% reduction in cost.

You may also like:

  • Spectrum Plastics Group
    Spectrum Plastics Group buys Apex Resource Technologies
  • Spectrum Plastics Group
    Spectrum Plastics announced fundamental business platforms
  • Spectrum Plastics Group
    Spectrum Plastics Group: Why the merger took place

About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.

Related Articles Read More >

This is a rendering of the new manufacturing facility that Quasar Medical plans in Thailand.
Quasar Medical breaks ground on new Thailand manufacturing center
This is the logo of Tecomet.
Tecomet earns EU MDR certification
A photo of VitalPath CFO Aimee Moore.
Medtech CDMO VitalPath names permanent CFO
Premix opens $80M U.S. plant to boost pipette tip materials supply chain
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

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

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
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • 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 our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. 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
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe