Proactive medical device companies are taking a more strategic approach to the management of data by implementing fully integrated, end-to-end label life cycle management systems that capture, store, and disseminate data safely, quickly, and accurately.

By Warren Ward-Stacey

Across the global medical device sector, the way many companies approach the design, creation, and printing of labels is both variable and fragmented.

It’s typically an onerous—and often primitive—process that’s not only inefficient and costly, but also resource-intensive, a hostage to product updates and country-specific regulatory requirements, and prone to human error. Worse still, label data rarely integrates with other organizational business systems and other key aspects of the production process. In a competitive global marketplace where brand reputation is a key commodity, such approaches leave companies increasingly vulnerable to mislabeling and voluntary recall.

But the drivers for change go beyond the consequences of mislabeling, productivity, and efficiency gains. Technologies that can give companies a 360° view of all their data assets and optimize them to create a centrally managed, fully end-to-end approach across the life cycle can transform the production process on an international scale.

Proactive medical device companies are beginning to take a more strategic approach to the management of data by implementing fully integrated, end-to-end label life cycle management systems that capture, store, and disseminate data safely, quickly, and accurately. The deployment of such systems can increase efficiency by reducing the number of unnecessary manual checks, improve quality control with the use of automated validation systems throughout the lifecycle, and accelerate product to market. Moreover, the use of centralized data creates a robust platform for a “single version of the truth” that can be used to generate and print labels just in time, ensuring that the right information goes on the right product at the right time, every time.

As a belt-and-braces approach to reducing risk, truly holistic systems will allow for postprint verification to ensure that no errors have crept into the process at the print stage. Companies are increasingly using vision solutions (rather than manual checks) to carry out automated audits through the print process, ensuring that approved imagery and data have been correctly printed on every label, as well as delivering complete life cycle traceability across an end-to-end process. By integrating a vision solution, a fully 360° system can help companies drive real value in minimizing risk, increasing productivity and maximizing return on investment.

By managing and structuring the data safely, correctly, quickly, and accurately, medical device companies will find expansion far more readily achievable on a number of levels:

Meanwhile, all the downstream benefits will emerge for free. Label designs, workflow process, inspection capabilities, and audit control all flow from ensuring the right data is available to the right people at the right time. Efficiency gains are a natural and welcome byproduct.

Warren Ward-Stacey is senior vice president of global sales at PRISYM ID.

[image courtesy of PHOTOKANOK/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET]