Future ability to deliver a product will depend on its design. WILD guarantees this with a whole set of new ideas and measures.

Bottlenecks, fragile supply chains, extremely long waiting times. The list of supply chain headaches is long. A fundamental rethinking has taken place in many companies as a result. In addition to technical expertise and time-to-market capabilities, those who develop a product must also focus on an additional factor – the ability to deliver. Christian Rabitsch, Managing Director of WILD GmbH, explains how this is done: ”One of the most important levers is the close interlinkage of procurement and development at the earliest stage possible. We seek solutions and new ideas together to develop designs that actively take the availability of parts into account.“ Ultimately, specifications such as tolerances or the choice of material will determine how easy or difficult it will be to procure a product. ”The decisions taken during development today will have an impact on availability in three of four years from now. This is why WILD questions the individual requirements at the beginning of a project and tries to assist in working out alternative solutions“, stresses Head of Development Michael Reissig. ”This is how we create the room for manoeuvre we will need in the future.“

INTENTIONAL REDUNDANCIES

Especially in the case of medical devices, where product changes must be avoided wherever possible due to the complex marketing authorisation process, the objective is to identify alternative parts and critical components early, and to take them into account for authorisation. ”In terms of the costs and time required, it makes little difference during the initial authorisation. When there‘s a problem later, however, you save yourself an enormous amount of time“, says Reissig. When applying that approach in practice, the company relies on alternative bills of material incorporated in the background. Sophisticated master data management is of equal importance. If need be, it can facilitate efficient use of the potentials built in the design during product development.

KEEP IT SIMPLE
When WILD questions customer requirements, there is also a focus on the selection of specification options. ”Especially in the case of key components, we look out for parts that are widely used. After consulting with the customer, we sometimes build in components that are ‚oversized‘ but more available, or even vice versa. As compared to a supposedly ideal version that will be manufactured only in low volumes, we thus guarantee the ability to deliver in the long run“, Rabitsch emphasises. An important contribution comes from special software that analyses the life cycle of specific components, identifies the volumes and risks behind each component, and proposes alternatives“, Reissig adds.