Building Your Design Controls (and Pitfalls to Avoid)

Global Medical Device Podcast · 29 Mar 2023 · 35m · Episode 312

What this episode covers

Tom Rish, Director of Guru Services at Greenlight Guru, explains how to build effective design controls for medical devices by distinguishing between vague user needs and measurable design inputs. He argues that engineers should start from a clean slate rather than copy-pasting from previous Design History Files, as this prevents the solidification of tribal knowledge and leads to better designs. Rish emphasizes involving manufacturing, regulatory, and clinical teams early in the process to ensure the final product solves the actual clinical problem rather than just meeting arbitrary specifications.

Mentioned

Companies
Greenlight Guru
Tools
SolidWorks
Also
Tom Rish, Etienne Nichols, ISO 13485, FDA 21 CFR Part 820

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Let's Combinate · 21m

    157 - Design Inputs that Don't Suck, Risk Control Measures and Problems with Verification with Chuck Ventura

    Chuck Ventura, founder of Ventura Solutions and CEO of HemoTek, explains why poor design inputs are a primary cause of delayed product development and verification failures in medical device and combination product projects. He advocates for spending 30% of project time on design inputs using concurrent engineering, where systems engineers collaborate with verification teams early to define clear acceptance criteria. Ventura also clarifies the structural relationship between user needs, risk controls, and design inputs, arguing that risk controls should serve as parent requirements to design inputs to ensure traceability and effective risk management.

  • Being an Engineer · 52m

    S1E17 Precise Speech, Customer Success, & General Engineering Love | Jesseca Lyons

    Jesseca Lyons, a mechanical engineer and customer success expert at Greenlight Guru, discusses her passion for engineering, particularly in the medical device sector. She explains how she uses precise documentation and design controls to ensure safety and efficacy, drawing on experiences at Beckman Coulter and CRI. Lyons emphasizes the importance of understanding the 'why' behind customer requirements, such as a specific color choice for a device handle, to avoid misinterpretation and ensure the final product meets the intended perception of quality. She also shares insights on design for manufacturability, highlighting the challenges of assembling complex tubing systems and the need for clear, unambiguous instructions to reduce labor costs and errors.

  • Let's Combinate · 26m

    176 - The Fastest Way to Ruin Drug/Device Development (And How to Avoid It!) with Eric Sugalski

    Eric Sugalski, founder and CTO of Archimedic, explains that the fastest way to ruin drug-device development is premature concept lock and misaligned outsourcing strategies. He argues that companies must distinguish between needing overflow capacity versus specialized expertise, such as human factors or industrial design, to avoid the 'piecemeal approach' that destroys innovation. Sugalski emphasizes the importance of early, hands-on user research and open-source quality management systems to bridge the gap between engineering and clinical reality, warning that locking down requirements before validating use cases injects costly redo loops into the project.

  • Manufacturing Happy Hour · 31m

    A Look Inside Medical Device Manufacturing with Philips’ Natalia Mendez

    Natalia Mendez, VP Head of Manufacturing Medical Devices at Philips, discusses the unique regulatory and operational challenges of medical device manufacturing, comparing it to aerospace and pharma. She emphasizes the critical importance of early involvement of manufacturing, quality, and sourcing experts in the product design phase to ensure supply chain resilience and meet customer needs, such as a 48-hour delivery requirement. Mendez also highlights how regional regulations, cultural preferences, and geopolitical factors influence global manufacturing footprints and product design.

  • Being an Engineer · 43m

    Dakota Welker | User Needs, Design Inputs, Verification & Validation

    Dakota Welker, founder of Think MedTek, explains his four-phase product development methodology for medical device startups, emphasizing user needs, design inputs, verification, and validation. He details how he rescues stalled projects by clarifying scope and documentation, and describes a specific case where bringing manufacturing in-house and negotiating with multiple vendors reduced costs by 50%. Welker also discusses his transition from automotive and pneumatics to medical devices, his focus on CFD tools like Simscale, and the importance of balancing engineering rigor with client communication.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Global Medical Device Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.