• Strategies + Perspectives   Making profit instead of administration of documents

Making profit instead of administration of documents

People are living for longer and longer, and, particularly in their old age, require greater medical care. Legislators are increasingly regulating the system in order to keep the costs of healthcare under control. Medical technology providers who wish to preserve their independence under such conditions and use their own resources to best effect must focus on their core competencies and work with reliable partners in other fields such as documentation.

Medical equipment is becoming more and more effective and operational requirements are increased as it becomes more complex. In practical terms, documentation provides the most important help – which makes good documentation processes essential: a fact that has since been rec-ognised by many manufacturers of medical equipment. In production, documentation is traditionally created in parallel with the product.

As production begins, instruction manuals and maintenance guides are printed according to the projected production volume. This procedure has, however, proven to present some disadvantages in the medi-cal sector.  On the one hand, globalisation has created international mar-kets. As accompanying information is required in respective languages it has become practically impossible to correctly estimate demand in ad-vance. On the other hand, increasing competition and mounting legal requirements demand that documentation is consistently up-to-date – documentation must be amended for every alteration to the product, and again as a result of changes to legislation.

Sirona is a technological leader in the dental industry and has been a pro-fessional partner for specialist retailers, dental practices, hospitals and dental laboratories for over 130 years.  The company develops and manufactures a complete range of dental equipment including CAD/CAM systems for computer-assisted ceramic repairs (CEREC), digital imaging systems for intraoral and panoramic x-rays and digital volume tomography (3D), treatment apparatus, instruments and hygiene equipment. The broad product range offered by the company entails a comprehensive archive of documentation.

In order to lower storage and disposal costs, Sirona looked for an alterna-tive concept. The aim was to automate supply of printed documentation, as far as possible, and thus minimise storage and disposal. Following careful consideration of various options, Sirona selected Océ Business Services (OBS) as an outsource partner. Since then, Océ has had sole responsibility for the management of all matters print for technical docu-mentation.

Today, only the information that is currently required goes to print and the existing warehouse has been largely dismantled.  This in itself has made significant savings for Sirona. It was also possible to do away with the printing of one multilingual document – Océ simply prints the language version required by the customer for the product in question.
A major medical technology provider was satisfied with the services provided by its print centre but did not require sufficient documentation to use it to optimal capacity. After evaluating the various alternatives, the company opted for Océ Business Services (OBS). OBS took on the print centre in its entirety, ensuring that there was no change to previous customer contacts. Océ’s service provision arm has many years of experience in outsourcing document management processes and their optimisation.  

OBS provided the required know-how, equipment and software and benefitted from the experienced personnel on site. Océ also provides design services – not just limited to graphic and layout solutions, their focus is on sophisticated technical design drawings which require appropriate specialist employee knowledge. Optimisation of documentation processes has been so successful that needs-required production of user instruction manuals is now possible, which in turn has significantly minimised storage and disposal considerations. Today, the print centre is one of Océ’s main locations in Germany. As such, it is able to make use of entirely new development potential such as the broadening of services and the use of cutting-edge digital print tech-nology. The print centre benefits from Océ’s competitive procurement capabilities and the know-how of an international document specialist and this, in turn, benefits the company as a whole.  

Strong partnerships ensure that companies who wish to remain independ-ent in the long term remain competitive. They must keep a tight rein on their processes and more importantly their costs. Only those who turn profit can build on their own market position.

German Summary

Menschen leben immer länger und benötigen vor allem im Alter mehr medizinische Betreuung. Um die Kosten des Gesundheitssystems im Griff zu halten, erlassen Gesetzgeber zunehmend Reglementierungen. Anbieter medizinischer Technik, die bei diesen Rahmenbedin-gungen ihre Unabhängigkeit bewahren wollen, müssen sich auf ihre Kernkompetenzen konzentrieren und in anderen Bereichen wie etwa der Dokumentation mit kompetenten Partnern zusammenarbeiten, um die eigenen Ressourcen optimal zu nutzen. Fazit: Dokumentieren lassen macht wettbewerbsfähiger.: Der deutschsprachige Beitrag ist nachzulesen auf www.meditec-international.com/medi0311oce