Medical Design Briefs: 2021 Technology Leaders - 2

TECHNOLOGY LEADERS Electrical Connectors/Wires/Cables
Surgical Robotics:
The Art of Saving Costs with Cables
E
ver hear of the respected bicycle
manufacturer known as Can non -
dale? You probably have. Perhaps
you even own one of their bikes. I
actually do. Since 1971, Cannondale has
produced among the most well-recognized
and trusted, high-performance
bicycle brands in the United States. But
they don't make gear systems.
For that matter, Cannondale doesn't
produce hand grips, seats, rims, spokes,
hubs, sprockets and chains. Even the
paint used to beautify their venerated
machines isn't actually made by Can -
nondale. The truth is that Cannondale
makes bike frames. Everything else is
sourced from a trusted stable of suppliers
that Cannondale has carefully vetted
to ensure that every component their
bikes are made from meets the maker's
rigid standards. And even though
Cannondale does not manufacture
more than the bike frame itself, we still
turn to Cannondale to sell us a whole
bike - well, unless one is a cycling
purest that assembles bicycles one part
at a time. For the rest of us though, we'd
prefer to just be given the entire bike.
The da Vinci Surgical System, currently
among the world's most popular surgical
robots, is a veritable labyrinth of components.
From plastics to wires, and from
pulleys to cables, their robot is made up
of countless parts. And just like Can -
nondale, the surgical robot's maker,
Intuitive, does not actually manufacture
the smorgasbord of components contained
within a single da Vinci robot.
Similarly, as a manufacturer of some of
the key motion control components of
surgical robots, Carl Stahl Sava Industries
likewise does not actually manufacture
everything that a cable assembly may
comprise.
In each of these scenarios - the bike
and the shifters, or the surgical robot
and the cables - turning to a single
source for the completed product is the
way these products are typically sold. So,
like one buys a whole bike from
Cannondale, one buys a whole robot
from Intuitive. Unless one does not.
2
Plasma-welded 7×37 tungsten mechanical cable used to power a motion control system in the miniature actuators
of a surgical robotics application. (Credit: Carl Stahl Sava Industries)
You see, unlike the aforementioned
deeply respected bike and surgical robot
makers, too often, customers purchasing
precision components do not use a single
source. Rather frequently actually,
the makers of today's most modern surgical
robots, for instance, will use multiple
component makers and have each
section shipped to multiple sources and
leave assembly to, well, multiple manufacturers.
While necessary in some workflows,
the objective should always be to
limit the number of components changing
hands in an urgent effort to outpace
global competitors.
Said plainly, the more turnkey a supplier
can be, the lower the exposure to
increased costs, a lack of accountability,
and ultimately painful delays. Taken
individually, any of the three - cost, liawww.medicaldesignbriefs.com
bility,
or delay - is enough to put a
device maker at the back of the line,
because make no mistake, in the world
of surgical robots, the market is proliferating,
and how fast a robot goes to market
is directly tied to how quickly a
source can produce and assemble components.
Cost,
Accountability, Delays: The Three
Killers of Competitive Advantage
" If a tree falls in a forest and no one
is around to hear it, does it make a
sound? " This well-known metaphysical
question has popularized a centuriesold
debate. If the tree is capable of
making a sound as it falls, would say
some, then yes, the tree made a sound.
If, however, no one is there to hear the
sound of it falling, philosophically
Medical Design Briefs 2021 Technology Leaders

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Medical Design Briefs: 2021 Technology Leaders

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