Embrace A Contract Manufacturer Partnership That Drives Sustainability

By JD Williams, SMC Ltd.

Medtech OEMs, contract manufacturers, and other partners involved in the device life cycle are increasingly realizing additional benefits by making sustainability a group exercise. Through collaboration, these organizations can discover areas in which they or their partners have particular strength or identify areas that would deliver greater benefits if emphasized more.

Successful sustainability initiatives permeate all corners of an organization, from boots-on-the-ground technicians to executives and third-party partners. They begin with senior leadership buy-in and support, which guides creation of an internal structure that applies program outputs back into an improvement process (so the model does not stagnate). As long as an organization explores numerous areas for improvement (versus being hyperfocused on just one) and develops some sort of third-party feedback mechanism, the effort should be well in hand.