In a recent development project, PIA Automation became involved early in the development of a sophisticated medical device. The goal of this collaboration is to lay the groundwork during the development phase for stable, scalable, and cost-effective automation later in the product lifecycle.

In many projects, automation is not considered until products are already close to series production. At this stage, adjustments to product design or process flows are often time-consuming and involve carry additional risks.To address this challenge, the customer deliberately chose to integrate PIA’s automation expertise at an early stage.

Focus: Ensuring automation readiness during the product design phase

Working closely with the customer’s development teams, PIA analyzed the product design with future assembly, testing, and handling processes in mind. The goal was to identify critical aspects early and define design measures that enable efficient automation.

Key areas of focus include:

• Product variants and scalability requirements
• Joining strategies and process sequences
• Testing and quality assurance requirements
• Variant and scalability capabilities

This early consideration helps minimize the need for design changes and provides a solid basis for decision-making during the industrialization phase.

Reduced complexity instead of later corrections

The added value of this approach becomes apparent even during the current project phase: Through targeted adjustments to the product design, the complexity of future assembly and testing processes has been significantly reduced. At the same time automation levels, cycle time targets, and possible plant concepts can be realistically evaluated long before concrete investment decisions are made.
The result is clear: Companies gain early insight into technical feasibility, risks, and scalability options.

Measurable added value for medical technology already in the development phase

The benefits of early automation integration are particularly evident in medical technology. Experience from comparable medical projects shows that, through the close integration of product development and automation expertise:

• up to 80 % fewer design changes are required after the design freeze
• the industrialization phase can be shortened by approximately 20–30 %
• time-to-market can be significantly reduced
• validation and audit risks decrease, as product and process designs are consistently aligned with one another

For medical companies, this means, above all, greater planning certainty and more informed decisions even before specific production lines are commissioned.

Automation as a strategic component of product development

The project underscores a core principle of PIA: Successful automation does not begin with the first system, but with the right decisions made during product development.