When it comes to choosing a medical packaging company, some companies never look further than who’s listed on their Approved Supplier List (ASL). We totally understand why - that is what they are there for, after all. Being on your ASL validates that they stack up in terms of quality, compliance and on-time delivery, but plenty of suppliers who aren’t on the list also have those qualities. And a vendor who’s not on your ASL (yet!) may have a whole lot more to offer in certain scenarios.
We believe that being on your ASL is a box that needs to be checked, but we aim to provide a whole lot more than that. It is our goal to be a true medical packaging partner to your company.
The Make-Up of a True Medical Packaging Partner
The reality is, having your name on an approved supplier list is great, but it’s not the only mark of a successful contract medical packaging company. Here at T.O. Plastics, our top priority is being a top-notch partner to every company we work with. Large, small or startup, we’re focused on doing what it takes to help you succeed… by being a true partner.
What does true partnership look like? For one thing, it looks like a commitment to collaboration and communication. Here’s a look at how that plays out in three areas: research and development, design engineering and creative costing.
Research and Development
During the initial research and development phase, we take a soft collaborative approach to learning about your medical device. In addition to the physical aspects of the device, we seek to understand its critical functions and how it might interact with its potential packaging. Beyond protecting your device, we believe packaging can enhance the end-user experience. Our R&D process takes into account all aspects related to the device to develop an ideal packaging solution.
Design Engineering
Medical device packaging is a unique niche for engineering. There’s the housing of the device, security, sterilization, functionality and usability to consider.
Depending on the makeup of your team, you may or may not have design engineers on staff. For startups and other companies who don’t have engineering departments, we have engineers who can step in and take on packaging design. Our engineers are also great at collaborating with medical device engineers.
Either way, when the device experts and the packaging experts come together, their shared expertise can result in some truly innovative packaging solutions.
Creative Costing
Affordability is an obstacle for many medical device companies—especially startups. When there’s a challenge to paying the upfront costs of prototyping and tooling, we figure out a solution with our partners.
For instance, we’ve been able to develop creative cost structures where the expense of tooling and prototyping is built into production. This way, we’re able to disperse costs and effectively reduce the cost of entry for companies who need help getting started.
Your Contract Medical Packaging and Sterilization Partner
A partnership is about doing what it takes to help the other be successful. And that’s a philosophy that’s built into our medical packaging partnerships. Need help with research and design? We can do that. Not sure about how to engineer packaging that protects your device and makes it user friendly? Our engineers can problem solve right alongside you. Struggling to budget for prototyping and tooling? We can alter the cost structure to make it work.
At the end of the day, when you decide to partner with T.O. Plastics on your medical packaging, we’re going to do everything possible to make you successful.
