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Companies across industries are repurposing their production and R&D capabilities to support the fight against COVID-19. Industrial companies are making hygienic masks, luxury hotels are becoming quarantine centres, and automakers are manufacturing ventilators. We analysed this trend deeply to identify potential areas of partnership for technology service providers.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a high demand for healthcare essentials, companies that typically make vastly different products are shifting to one common cause: produce as many masks, medical devices or shields to help fight the pandemic as possible.
- Automotive companies like General Motors are rigorously working to develop medical devices like ventilators to support COVID-19 patients
- LVMH, a luxury goods company is producing hand sanitizer in their perfume production lines
Production repurposing helps them to keep production lines up and running in times of low demand, generate moderate revenues, and positively impact their reputation. However, there are significant challenges involved in repurposing– especially in manufacturing:
- Supplier Identification for ad hoc requirements
- Product design for complex medical devices takes time
- Realigning production lines can be complex
- Regulatory challenges
Companies that are repurposing their production are leveraging expertise from the medical field, product design, regulations, manufacturing and supply chain to accelerate the time-to market. Some of the repurposing strategies for rapid product deployment are:
- Serving as Contract manufacturers for medical device and healthcare companies which are struggling with their production capacity
- Sharing of intellectual property (IP) of products on various levels
- Identifying ecosystem enablers that can solve supply chain and technology challenges
Technology Service Providers (TSP) can leverage their cross-vertical expertise and act as ecosystem enablers for these repurposing companies. Technology service providers with high-expertise in design, regulatory and product-development areas can enable cross-vertical partnerships among enterprises. Draup helps TSPs identify such opportunity signals and help them curate their value propositions for highly uncertain situations like COVID-19.
