Project Experience

What is Your Strength, Really?

Client Situation
Identifying core competencies is essential to strategic outsourcing. A medical monitoring device company was interested in learning whether its competitors outsourced the manufacture of printed circuit assemblies (PCAs), or assembled them in-house. PCAs are the high-technology components that run the devices' programs. Scale, density (the number of components), and engineering time are all part of the equation to determine whether a PCA should be assembled in-house or outsourced. As board space becomes smaller and the number of components increases, the need for precise assembly at a low cost becomes critical.

Fuld Approach
Fuld & Company's research demonstrated that no matter which manufacturing methodology was used, successful programs were the ones in which complete commitment and a strong partnership between supplier and the OEM was formed. Key factors in making this decision included cost and core competency, as well as the need for greater-or less-inventory flexibility.

Benefits and Implications
The client recognized that its core competency was in the manufacture of the device, not the individual components. As a result of the research, the client opted to divest itself of its PCA facility and outsource PCA manufacturing. This ultimately produced better quality control as well as significant cost savings. For more information about core competencies in the healthcare industry, contact either Anthony Nagle at tnagle@fuld.com or Cynthia Gerber Tomlinson at cgtomlinson@fuld.com