Demand arrives in tender and export bursts: a fix for medical device makers

The container is booked for the twenty-eighth. Four thousand pairs of dressing forceps and a few hundred needle holders must be polished, passivated, inspected, poly-bagged and packed in stencilled export cartons by then. The workshop runs till ten each night for three weeks. Two cousins of the senior polisher come in to help at the wheels. The one final inspector sits at the lightbox until her eyes water. Then the truck leaves for the port, and a fortnight later many benches stand idle.

Our overview of device and equipment manufacturing HR flags this as one of the group's patterns. Orders cluster around hospital tenders and shipment dates. Overtime peaks, temporary hands arrive, and then the floor goes quiet. Planning headcount and shifts before the burst keeps skilled people from wearing out, and keeps the lot from failing at the last gate.

• Overtime is asked for on the day, not planned, so the same reliable hands stay back every evening.
• Helpers from a labour contractor, or relatives of workers, start on a spot-welding jig or a packing table within hours of arriving.
• The final inspection bench becomes the queue. Cartons wait at the lightbox while assembly is long finished.
• Supervisors stop checking route cards for lack of time, and gaps pile up for later.
• The phosphating tank and powder-coat oven skip their weekly cleaning, and maintenance inherits the damage after dispatch.
• Once the shipment leaves, skilled welders and polishers get short weeks and start taking calls from steadier employers.

A burst is paid for in three instalments. During the rush, tired hands make the slips that come back as complaints: a loose castor bolt, a misaligned jaw, a pouch seal with a channel. At dispatch, the unit pays liquidated damages on a late consignee, or air freight on a missed vessel cut-off, when inspection cannot keep pace. After the rush, the quiet weeks cost the people the unit most needs. A welder with no overtime for a month starts listening to the fabricator down the road.

• The order book is read by sales, not by the plant. Bid dates and rate-contract renewals are known weeks ahead but reach the shop only when the letter of award arrives.
• Overtime goes to whoever is willing. The same people carry each rush, and the rest learn that refusing is safe.
• Temporary hands are hired cold. Nobody kept a list of last season's helpers, so each peak starts from zero.
• Inspection capacity is assumed. Assembly can be stretched with extra hands. Judging a pass cannot.
• The lull has no plan. Training, maintenance and leave are never scheduled into it, so the slack turns into worry about jobs.

A helper learns to strap a carton in a morning. A decent welder can tack a bed frame on a jig within a week. Someone who can scan a hundred haemostats under a magnifier lamp and catch the one with a hairline crack at the box joint takes months. That is why inspection, more than assembly, sets the speed of a burst.

So train reserve inspectors in the quiet months. Build a defect library of real rejected pieces, each tagged with its fault, from burrs and pitting to skewed serrations and seal channels. Keep boundary samples that show just-acceptable and just-rejectable. Let trainees inspect in parallel with a senior, compare calls piece by piece, and sign them off only when their calls match. On the first morning of the next order, extra eyes already know the standard.

Order and date: tender or buyer, quantity by model, last dispatch date.
Hours needed: welding, coating, assembly, finishing and inspection hours per week, set against hours on hand.
Overtime rota: names, evenings and Sundays agreed in advance and rotated fairly.
Reserve pool: former workers and trainees contacted, with the tasks each may do.
Inspection capacity: signed-off inspectors, reserve inspectors, lightbox shifts and any pre-dispatch visit by the buyer's agent.
Limits: tasks temporary hands may not do, such as final release or record sign-off.
Rest: the longest run of late evenings allowed for anyone, and a day off after dispatch.
After dispatch: training, maintenance and leave planned for the quiet weeks.

• Lay the last three peaks on a calendar, with the date each order was known and the date the plant was told.
• Read the overtime register for those peaks and see how few names carried most of the hours.
• Count signed-off inspectors per shift in each peak, and the days cartons waited at inspection.
• List what happened to skilled staff in the month after each dispatch: short hours, leave, exits.
• Check whether anyone kept phone numbers of last season's temporary hands.

1. 1

   Read the tender calendar every month

   Sales and the plant head go through bids submitted, likely awards and export schedules together. The plant hears of a likely order when the bid goes in.

2. 2

   Convert orders into hours

   Turn quantities into assembly, finishing and inspection hours by week. The gap against available hours is the real headcount question.

3. 3

   Publish the overtime rota early

   Agree names, evenings and Sundays once the order is confirmed, and rotate them so the same reliable few do not carry every rush.

4. 4

   Keep a reserve pool warm

   Keep phone numbers of former workers, trainees and last peak's helpers, with the tasks each was cleared for. Call them before the award.

5. 5

   Train reserve inspectors ahead of need

   Use the defect library and parallel inspection in quiet weeks, so extra signed-off eyes exist on the first day of the rush.

6. 6

   Fence what temporary hands may do

   Packing, deburring, loading and simple sub-assembly are fair. Final release, record sign-off and critical fitting stay with trained staff.

7. 7

   Plan the lull as carefully as the rush

   Schedule training, cross-skilling, maintenance and leave for the quiet weeks, so skilled hands can see the months ahead.

The lull after a big dispatch is the cheapest time to build next season's capacity. Our page on planning headcount for hospital furniture makers works through tender cycles. The attendance and shift page covers rotas that share overtime fairly. For a short owner-level answer, read how to handle tender and export peaks. Our workforce planning service is where we help a unit turn its order book into a people plan.

Judge the plan simply. After the next rush, ask three things. Did the same three names carry the overtime? Did cartons queue at inspection? Is your best welder still with you a month later?