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Hearing Device & Other Medical Markets

7 global medtech trends in life science

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As the medical device market is rapidly changing, OEMs are challenged to evolve their roles to thrive in the future of healthcare. Here are 7 global medtech trends in life science to keep you updated and ready for new market challenges, demands, and opportunities.

1. Demographic aging increases the need for medical devices

We have an expanding elderly population. The proportion of older people is increasing due to people living longer and having fewer children. According to the UN, the current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050. Along with an aging population comes age-related diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and related mobility disability. Consequently, also the need for medical devices that improve the quality of life increases.

2. The medtech industry invests more in AI and ML

As big data is becoming more assessable and manageable, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly applied within healthcare. According to GlobalData forecasts, the market for AI and ML platforms will reach $52B in 2024, up from $29B in 2019. In the past few years, we have seen some of the largest players in the medtech industry invest in AI and ML. These technologies can potentially transform many aspects of patient care such as diagnosing, managing, and treating diseases and health issues.

3. A shift from mass-production to patient-specific implants

Patient-specific implants are a growing and advancing field within medtech. The medical device industry is slowly shifting from mass production to mass customization. Every body is different, and the closer an implant can mimic the natural body, the better. With the surgical benefits and potential for customized implants, more manufacturers now seek to make them more mainstream. We are already seeing major manufacturers, software companies, and hospitals partnering to produce custom implants for more unique cases.

4. Specialization in production technologies is coveted

The outsourcing trend in medical devices remains strong. While OEMs are looking for strategic CDMOs, there is also an increased demand for partners specialized in different production technologies – combining polymers and metals, for example. In addition to cost-efficiency, flexibility, and reduced time to market, OEMs face several challenges unique to their industry. Production technologies must be well adapted to high demands on complex geometries, precision, advanced surface treatments, and exacting hygiene requirements.

Also read: Life science: Advanced injection molding and metal machining in demand

5. Increased demand for medical device cleanroom production

A cleanroom environment is one of the keys to producing medical devices that meet today’s regulations for quality and safety. While focusing on the core business and reducing time to market is important for OEMs, we are seeing more medtech companies looking to outsource cleanroom production to a specialized CDMO. There is an increased demand from the medical device market in general and the diagnostics market in particular.

6. MDR puts high demands on the medical device industry

In 2021, the new MDR came into effect, aiming to increase safety and efficiency in the EU medical device market. To ensure products are MDR compliant, more OEMs turn to CDMOs to assess their MDR readiness, analyze their existing and future product portfolios, and accelerate time to market. CDMOs that understand the entire requirement and have the capability set are also trusted to take responsibility for more steps throughout the value chain; from design and manufacturing to packaging, distribution, and logistics.

7. The pandemic footprint in life science will linger

Since the coronavirus outbreak, the medtech industry has experienced great upheaval. With the increased need for intensive care, the demand for life-sustaining equipment and medical devices such as ventilators became exceptionally strong. This led to substantial delays in non-urgent procedures impacting the supply and demand for many medical devices. Although the industry is moving into the recovery and thrive phase, the pandemic footprint will linger, and a central challenge will be rapidly scaling up production to meet global needs.

There is opportunity on the horizon

Even though there are many challenges to navigate in the medical device industry, there is opportunity on the horizon. One key to success will be to build strong partnerships. Smart outsourcing – whether in the early design and development phases, manufacturing, or support after your products hit the market – can add the expertise, capabilities, and capacity to move faster and enter the market more competitively.


Are you curious to find out what that kind of partnership could look like? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at Elos Medtech.

Conny Jacobsson Elos MedTech

“Our focus on quality work and continuous improvements has taken the Tianjin production site to where it is today”

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Having worked many years in China, Conny Jakobsson has gained lots of local knowledge to use in his new role as Managing Director at Elos Medtech’s production site in Tianjin. He is passionate about continuous improvements, innovation and creating employee engagement. With these driving forces in mind, he wants to contribute to the development of the factory and meet the medical device market’s growing demands in China and globally.

Hi, Conny! You are the new Managing Director at Elos Medtech Tianjin, but you are not new in China, right?

True, I have been living and working in China for the last 18 years. I first moved here thanks to a position I had at Ericsson, after which I took on new challenges at electronics manufacturer Flextronics. At Flextronics, my role was to manage and develop one of their factories. Later on, I  was also a part of a joint venture between Flextronics, Ericsson and a state-owned enterprise in China. In September 2017, I was contacted about the role of Managing Director at Elos Medtech’s production site in Tianjin.

A lot of valuable experiences gained then, I assume?

For sure! My journey has given me experiences from both the customer’s and supplier’s side of businesses which I think is valuable regardless of the industry, country or position you are operating in. As for my new position at Elos Medtech, I find my previous experiences with medical equipment and their distribution to be an advantage. But also, the local knowledge and contacts I have gained from working with management, manufacturing and distribution of products in China are very helpful!

I bet! So, what were your expectations for the job as Managing Director?

What I was looking forward to the most, was to be a part of Elos Medtech’s continued work towards world-class manufacturing. I am passionate about business development, creating employee engagement, building relationships with customers and making progress every single day at work. This includes improving the business that we already have, as well as expanding our operations.

Elos Medtech’s production site in Tianjin, China opened in 2010. The production has mainly been focused on mechanical components for Novo Nordisk’s nearby located plant. The healthcare company is a world leader in diabetes care, with manufacturing dominated by various types of reusable insulin pens. In order to meet and exceed Novo Nordisk’s requirement of components of the highest possible quality, we have continually advanced our expertise and production processes during these years as well as expanded our customer base. This focus on quality work and continuous improvements has taken the Tianjin factory to where it is today and I am committed to intensifying this even more.

An equally important part of our operations in Tianjin has been to expand Elos Medtech’s presence in Asia. We want to serve more customers and include additional medical device products to our manufacturing in Tianjin.

Exciting! Can you give any examples of how you are working with these areas?

As in all Elos Medtech’s factories, high-quality work is a cornerstone of the Tianjin production site. We produce components using exactly the same material and procedures as in the production sites in Sweden and Denmark. In other words, continuous improvement is nothing new to us, but we are now taking initiatives to work with it in an even more strategic way. One example of this has been to incorporate the Lean concept “Go to GEMBA”. The whole production site is now involved in identifying areas for development, from operator to manager, and improvements are made immediately at the production floor. Failure modes, as well as possibilities, are identified and handled during the actual production process. This way of working saves considerable amounts of time and costs.

Is innovation also a part of this?

Absolutely. My view is that a culture of continuous improvements and business development fosters innovation. We welcome every new idea or solution from our employees, in all parts of the organization. In addition, we have invested in recruiting quality, technical, process and CI engineers to our team to come up with new solutions to improve process quality and minimize waste.

How is this culture affecting the operations at the Tianjin production site?

It keeps us on our toes, and we are well-equipped to provide customers with an optimized production process and high-quality products. Our engineering team can manage our customers’ entire projects all the way from prototyping and sample deliveries to approvals, serial production and final delivery. Also, since we have all the resources available on site, lead times are short and customer support is quick.

What does the future have in store for the medical device market in China?

The market is growing tremendously! There is an increasing need for Chinese customers to work with a local supplier that has a global presence. There is also a growing demand from global customers to have a supplier with local presence and manufacturing in China. At Elos Medtech in Tianjin, we have both!

There is a great commitment and engagement among our employees to continue to develop and expand our business. With this engagement, we are ready to meet more customer’s demands on capacity and innovation in the medtech industry, both locally in China and globally.

If we put work aside, what do you do when you are not on the factory floor?

Since I am working in Tianjin but live and have my family in Beijing, I commute between the two on a weekly basis. After work hours I try to take time to play squash, tennis or golf. The weekends are spent with family and friends, often enjoying dinner out in the city pulse of Beijing before I go back to the production site. It is a nice balance really!

Thank you for a really nice chat, Conny! We are happy to have you onboard and are looking forward to our continued and shared venture!

If you are interested in getting to know more of our employees at Elos Medtech, visit our Knowledge Blog. Also, stay updated on our social media channels!

5 Injection Moulding Trends in the Medtech Industry

5 Injection-Moulding Trends in the Medtech Industry

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The art of injection-moulding has been around for decades. But over the years, the technique has become more refined and the materials more sophisticated. Today, it is possible to produce plastic details with maximum precision and accuracy in dimension and surface. However, new market demands are constantly challenging the production process. In this blog post, I will share 5 injection-moulding trends in the medtech industry and what we do at Microplast to keep up with the new demands.

1. Injection-moulded products produced in Europe are becoming more attractive

The last fifteen to twenty years, China has had a dominant position in mass production of injection-moulded plastic products, and many companies have outsourced their production to the country due to its low labour cost. But we are now starting to see companies returning their production to Europe because of quality reasons. Chinese medtech companies purchase moulding tools as well as injection-moulded plastic products from Europe because of the poor quality in their domestic market. At Microplast, process control and quality follow-up have always been an extremely important part of our production process to meet the most stringent requirements on quality. We follow appropriate ISO standards and ensure a high level of process management and control. Quality awareness permeates our entire operation.

2. Automation is leading the way for injection-moulding in the medtech industry

In recent years, a wave of automation has swept over the medtech industry worldwide. There is an ongoing trend to increase production efficiency with the benefits of reduced human labor costs, saved energy and materials – but more importantly – improved quality, accuracy, and precision. To meet the demands of tomorrow’s market, Microplast recently extended our production site in Sweden and made ambitious investments in the latest high-tech robots, injection-moulding machines and equipment for clean room manufacturing. This allows us to further increase and streamline our production of injection-moulded products.

3. More partners along the supply chain are realising the advantages of traceability

Traceability is an important factor in the production of medtech products, especially the small plastic details used inside the body, as non-compliant materials can be a matter of life or death for the patient. Today, more partners along the supply chain are realising the advantages of traceability. It is in multiple partners’ interests to comply with local and international policies and regulations, and reduce the risk of non-compliant materials entering the supply chain. Traceability also provides coordination between authorities and relevant bodies, and can be used as a method of stock control and monitoring. At Microplast, the injection moulding process is fully traceable, from the point at which the thermoplastics material is delivered to us, until the products are delivered to the end user. Every batch has its own unique identification, allowing it to be traced at any time through our database.

4. Higher demands on delivery precision and packaging of medtech products

We can see a clear trend where more customers place higher demands on delivery precision and packaging. Many companies want to maximise the efficiency of their logistics and have their products delivered to the door – sterilised, packaged and ready to use in a clinical situation. At Microplast, we now have the possibility to carry out the actual injection-moulding of the plastic products in clean rooms, where we also perform testing, product assembly, packaging and labelling. Thanks to our VMI system, we can also guarantee that our customers always have the right number of products at the right time.

5. Customers request a single source from design to manufacturing and distribution

Another strong trend in the medtech industry is that companies want to outsource not only the manufacturing, but the entire production process – to one single contract manufacturer. The reason is higher demands on work processes, documentation, quality, accuracy and precision. To meet this challenge, Microplast is offering a complete performance, meaning that we take care of everything from design and manufacturing to packaging, distribution and logistics. To us, an important part of this is working closely with our customers, especially in the design and development phase, bringing knowledge to the table and helping our customers make the right choices of materials and injection-moulding processes right from the start of their product’s life cycle.

We produce more than just a piece of plastic – we produce life-changing medical devices

At Microplast, we have been producing injection-moulded plastic products since 1971. A lot has changed over the years, but one thing has remained the same – our products still make a difference. Our products are used in medical areas such as diagnostics, cardiac rhythm management and in vitro fertilisation, meaning, we actually help save people’s lives.

It is with great pleasure I can say that we look forward to new market demands in the medtech industry, so that we can continue to improve life saving products! Does that make sense to you? Please let me know by sharing your thoughts it in social media.

Also, read:

The Microplast Story – from a basement operation to over 900 injection-moulded parts

We now double our capacity thanks to our new factory at Microplast

The expert of thermoplastic components with fine tolerances

4 techniques for measuring injection-moulded plastic parts

Mathias Andersson Managing Director at Microplast

“We now double our capacity thanks to our new factory at Microplast”

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Because of a growing medtech industry and high customer demands, Elos Medtech decided to expand their factory in Skara, Sweden. I interviewed Mathias Andersson, Managing Director at Microplast, about his role at the company, the reasons for the expansion and in what way the expansion will benefit Elos Medtech’s customers.


Mathias, tell me about your career at Microplast. What does your role as Managing Director involve?  
Well, I started working as Managing Director at Microplast in March 2012, a little over four years ago now. When recruiting for my position, they were looking for a market-oriented Managing Director who would be assigned the mission to increase turnover while maintaining profitability. The mission was also to, within five years time, expand the factory. But thanks to all of the competent employees and their hard work, the expansion of the factory didn’t need to wait that long, but saw the light of day already after four years.

In my job, I mostly work with strategic matters to continue to enable future growth. I often discuss with our customers about their future needs, and together we create what we call a road map, which enables us to plan ahead to make sure that our customers’ needs are in line with our capacity. In this way, we make sure to always stay at the forefront of our industry. Another part of my job is to make sure that we have the right organization and competence, and that we invest in the latest equipment, to maintain a high degree of automation. Beyond that, I have traditional Managing Director tasks, for example responsibility for the operations and budget.   

Prior to Microplast – what was your occupation?
The last ten to fifteen years I have worked with Marketing and Sales in leading positions. During that time, I operated within business-to-business and worked mainly in the plastics industry. Just before I started working at Microplast, I worked as Marketing and Sales Manager at a company manufacturing plastic packaging for the food industry. My responsibility was dairies in the Nordics and food-service products in Europe. There are tremendous demands in the food-industry when it comes to for example clean environments, therefore it has a lot of similarities with the medtech industry. In addition, I have also worked with technical support with a focus on quality, product training and sales support, among other things. One could say that I have a solid background and experience in different businesses, mainly within the industrial segment.

So, tell me a little bit about Microplast. What kind of business do you have there?
Microplast was founded in 1971, so we turn 45 years this year! Elos Medtech acquired Microplast in 2011, at that time we were 13 people working here. Today, we are 24 people working in the facilities, which consist of both office space and a factory. At Microplast, we manufacture technically advanced plastic parts for the medtech industry. We manufacture plastic parts for products such as hearing aids, pacemakers, diagnostics, analysis instruments, disposable articles for blood analyses, dental products and surgical instruments suitable for orthopedics. Above that, we  provide production in clean rooms, as well as produce and assemble products, which we deliver to our customers after sterilization.

We also offer a number of different refining steps where we use ultrasonic welding, machining, printing, assembling and packing. We do everything we can to give our customers as much value as possible. We work with all kinds of plastics but mainly high performance plastics like for example PEEK, POM and PVDF. These plastics replace metal and are meant to cope with specific demands such as chemical resistance or heat resistance, or be exposed to pressure or heat. We also work with polyolefins like for example PS, PE, PP in medical grades to use in disposable labware products.         

Soon, you will inaugurate your new factory expansion at Microplast. What are the main causes for the expansion?
One of the objectives when I started as Managing Director was to increase sales and consequently expand our factory. Our current factory has become too small, with no room for the production lines that we need. Due to the increased demands from both current and new customers, we needed to expand, which we of course are glad to do! Our new factory will handle projects from both new and present customers, and the purpose of the expansion is to be able to grow long-term with our customers. Our workshop is now attached to the new factory as well, so we have the possibility to broaden our post processing in form of assembling, completion of products and much more. To deliver finished details is an increasing demand from our customers, one that we will be able to undertake more of with the new expansion.         

What was your role in the project, and how has the process proceeded?
In autumn 2014, we started with the planning of building the new factory, and the board gave clearance for construction start in spring 2015. My role in the expansion process was to be a part of a steering group consisting of a couple of key persons. Together with an internal construction coordinator and an external project leader, the steering group has made sure that the functions and spaces which we have ordered are at the right place at the right time, and in line with our budget and strategy plan. Subcontractors and an architecture firm have been responsible for construction, architecture, and project management. From the moment we put the shovel in the ground, the project has taken us little less than a year. For such a major project, the process has been really efficient. The new equipment consists of several new machine lines. However, we will not fill the whole factory from start, but we will successively invest in new equipment to be able to adjust our equipment to the future needs of our customers. We now have the possibility to double our capacity compared to before, which is great!

What have you got planned for the inauguration day?
The inauguration will take place the 26th of April, which is the same day as the Annual General Meeting, which will be held later that afternoon. There will be a guided tour of our facilities, both the present and the new one. Inauguration speeches will be held and we will have specially invited guests such as shareholders, stakeholders from Elos Medtech, the municipality, press, vendors and customers.

What will the expansion of the factory mean for the customers?
Our customers will be able to assign more production to us and we will be able to offer a commitment that means more processing and more delivery of finished products. We will have a high degree of automation, with focus on quality as usual, which means that we will be strong compared to our competitors. Our expansion enables us to grow with our customers. Our goal is to grow and expand our business to meet the increased requirements in the medtech industry. We also create a platform to increase and supply the right competence internally.

What kind of challenges and trends do you see ahead, within the medtech industry?
The product development is much faster today than it was before. Today there is a larger focus on both patient safety and patient benefits. This will lead to higher demands, both on the manufacturers and the product owners, which are our customers. A challenge is to cope with these demands and make sure that we always are best when it comes to quality, delivery and production. With our new factory, we believe we are a force to be reckoned with in the future, within the medtech industry.  

Thank you for a nice chat, Mathias. Your expansion of the factory at Microplast sure sounds exciting, as well as promising for the future of the medtech industry. If you have any questions, please contact us or visit our website to read more about Elos Medtech and Microplast.