How a Global Medical Device Manufacturer Transformed Operations With fabriq
A leading global medical device manufacturer specializing in cardiac technologies, surgical equipment, and implantable devices, has long been recognized for its strong commitment to quality, safety, and operational excellence. The company has many manufacturing sites that work at high volume and follow strict rules. They wanted to improve communication, reduce manual work and make problem-solving faster and more reliable.
Despite a strong culture of continuous improvement, legacy processes and non-digital tools were creating inefficiencies across their network. To address these challenges, the company partnered with fabriq to digitalize daily management. This helped elevate visibility and empower frontline teams with real-time data.
The Challenge: Manual Tools, Limited Visibility, and Slow Escalation
Before adopting fabriq, teams across the manufacturer’s global sites were relying heavily on whiteboards, spreadsheets, and email threads to manage daily performance. As one performance improvement engineer shared:
“Before fabriq deployment, we were using manual tier boards with whiteboards, email for performance tracking or Excel spreadsheets. Data wasn’t always updated in real time. There was a lack of visibility of all the information across all the manufacturing sites and lack of accountability and action plan tracking.”
These fragmented tools created familiar operational challenges:
- Information was scattered, inconsistent, or outdated by the time it reached decision-makers.
- Performance monitoring varied significantly across sites, making it difficult to compare, standardize, or share best practices.
- Escalations often required manual follow-up, slowing reaction time when issues occurred on the shop floor.
- Team leaders spent significant time preparing daily meetings, limiting their availability for value-added activities.
They wanted to continue delivering the highest level of product quality. Therefore they needed a modern, standardized, and real-time platform to support coordination across teams and sites.
Adoption of fabriq: A Shift Toward Speed, Clarity, and Standardization with a Digital Daily Management System
The company selected fabriq as the digital backbone for performance management across its manufacturing network. After a successful pilot, the organization deployed fabriq across multiple sites. fabriq helped to centralize communication, standardize daily routines, and enable real-time escalation.
One leader described the early phase of deployment: “We started with the first two sites in France that were not really well connected together, so we drove some standardization of those two specific manufacturing sites. And after we really deployed by waves, but after six months, we got almost 80% of the manufacturing site in Europe, which is 13 manufacturing sites, using the digital tool.”
By replacing manual preparation and multi-step reporting systems, fabriq helped streamline daily operations and boost overall responsiveness.
One manufacturing director saw immediate improvements:
“I believe prior to deployment, a team leader was using 15 to 30 minutes to prepare the team management and the tier board. Actually, now it’s done in less than 2 minutes. At first escalations were done manually. And now we have an automated notification system with escalation to go from tier 1 to tier 2, tier 2 to tier 3, or tier 3 to tier 4. And in one click, you can provide feedback on the action.”
The impact extended beyond efficiency gains. fabriq’s standardized workflows brought a new level of transparency. Teams could now see issues and improvements as they happened.
As another strategic sourcing program manager described:
“I would say that the biggest change since implementing fabriq has been clarity and speed. Team leaders are now able to report via fabriq issues or escalation directly up to one level, reducing sometimes tool potential downtime on the floor. fabriq contributed a lot to the reduction of tier 1 meeting time by almost 50%.”
Empowering Teams Through Better Problem Solving and Real-Time Performance Management
As the company expanded its use of fabriq, teams began to rely more on its problem-solving tools. These features gave operators, supervisors, and managers a shared view of performance drivers and action plans. This improved both communication and accountability.
One strategic sourcing program manager highlighted the value of having a more visual, structured approach:
“I really like the problem solving features. fabriq helps me visualize and communicate to management our performance in regards to our most critical business drivers, as well as progress on our annual goals.”
fabriq gave teams a consistent way to document line-down events, analyze root causes, and track countermeasures. This helped strengthen a culture of continuous improvement across the organization.
Real-time access to performance data also became a powerful catalyst for decision-making. As one manufacturing supervisor said:
“fabriq is helping us to improve efficiency on a daily basis because the data is accessible, at any level. From anywhere.”
Results: Faster Escalation, Stronger Accountability, and Reduced Downtime
The manufacturer has already seen measurable operational improvements:
- Significant reductions in meeting preparation time, freeing team leaders to focus on coaching and problem-solving.
- Near-instantaneous escalation workflows, ensuring issues reach the right level at the right moment.
- Greater transparency and alignment across teams and sites, thanks to standardized dashboards and shared visual management.
- A reduction of nearly 50% in Tier-1 meeting time, enabling more time on the shop floor.
- Improved line-down management, supported by clear visualizations and action-tracking features.
- A stronger culture of accountability, with every issue assigned, tracked, and resolved through a single digital platform.
One manufacturing VP described the improvement clearly: “Definitively today I don’t see any escalation not made in 48 hours.”
These changes have contributed directly to reduced downtime, faster decision-making, and improved coordination across an international manufacturing network.
Enabling the Future of Operational Excellence in Medical Device Manufacturing
In a highly regulated industry, precision, compliance, and speed are essential. This global medical device manufacturer has taken an important step toward digital operational excellence. By replacing manual tools with fabriq, the company now has greater visibility, better collaboration, and faster responses across all its sites.
The partnership has modernized daily operations and created a strong foundation for continuous improvement. Teams are now more aligned, more empowered, and connected in real time.
Curious how other manufacturers are transforming their operations? Explore how Nexteam digitalized communication and escalation across 23 sites with fabriq.
Get in touch if you’re ready to digitize your daily management system with fabriq.