MD&M West Show Preview

MD&M West, an MD&M Event
February 4–6, 2025
Anaheim Convention Center
www.mdmwest.com

Previously known as Informa Markets Engineering (IME) West, hosting five co-located shows — MD&M West, ATX West, D&M West, Plastec West, and WestPack — these related industry sectors are now merging into a single unified show: MD&M West.

The focus of the conference and trade show is not changing. The MD&M umbrella is designed to unite a community of multiple special interests who all share a single goal — to advance their knowledge, contacts, and progress in the rapidly accelerating world of advanced manufacturing.

KEYNOTES:

Tuesday, February 4 9–10 AM, Level 3 Ballroom

Driving Growth and Innovation in Medical Device Design, Manufacturing, and Packaging

Nicholas Webb, a renowned healthcare futurist and medical device technologist, known for his dynamic and upbeat delivery, will equip executives and leaders in the medical device industry with actionable insights and powerful takeaways. Through his presentation, he will help attendees learn how to navigate the rapid chaotic changes that are occurring in medical device design, manufacturing, and packaging in 2025 and beyond. This engaging session will provide attendees with the tools they need to drive growth, innovation, and exceptional technologies, in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Key Takeaways

Patient Consumerism and New Care Delivery Models. In an era of hyper-consumerism, patients are becoming more empowered, seeking seamless, transparent, and value-driven healthcare experiences. Webb will provide insights on how changing healthcare delivery models will offer new innovation opportunities for medical device companies. These trends include the decentralization of care, point of care (POC) testing, asynchronous telemedicine, and the impact of AI-driven clinical care agents.

Leveraging Emerging Technologies. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), and business intelligence (BI) are transforming medical device design, manufacturing, and packaging. He will highlight how these technologies can improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and provide other key organizational benefits. By harnessing the power of AI, BI, and RPA, industry leaders can streamline processes, enhance decision-making, and deliver better technologies to the marketplace.

Addressing Staffing and Provider Burnout. The ongoing challenges of staffing shortages are critical issues that the medical device industry must address. Webb will present insights on how to apply human experience innovation (HXI) strategies that focus on creating supportive work environments, enhancing employee engagement, and reducing burnout. By prioritizing the wellbeing of their workforce, organizations can improve staff retention, productivity, and recruiting. He will also discuss how enterprise innovation (EI) can achieve a 60 percent better return on stated enterprise goals.

Building Future-Ready Strategies. To thrive in a landscape of rapid change, medical device organizations must develop future-ready strategies at both the enterprise and departmental levels. He will share insights on how to leverage massive and rapid change to build resilient and adaptable strategies. These approaches will empower leaders to anticipate market trends, respond to competitive pressures, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Based on his just-released book Chaotic Change, Webb’s presentation will provide attendees at the MD&M conference with the foresight and practical tools needed to drive growth and innovation through future-ready strategies.

Wednesday, February 5 9–10 AM, Level 3 Ballroom

AI and the Future of Manufacturing: Envisioning What’s Next

On day 2, acclaimed futurist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Shawn DuBravac will present a forward-looking perspective on the future of manufacturing in the AI era. Dr. DuBravac’s keynote delves into AI’s transformative impact on the manufacturing industry, challenging traditional methods and redefining manufacturing’s potential. Dr. DuBravac will explore how AI not only disrupts existing processes but also creates vast opportunities for manufacturers to innovate and lead. The discussion will cover emerging trends and strategic insights, equipping leaders to navigate this evolving landscape effectively.

Manufacturing is at a pivotal moment, confronting the challenges of increasing efficiency, adapting to market changes, and meeting the growing demand for customization and sustainability. AI is at the heart of this transformation, equipping manufacturers with advanced tools for optimizing production processes and enhancing product quality. The integration of AI goes beyond improving operational efficiencies; it is fundamentally reshaping how manufacturing is conducted and how industries engage with innovation and technology.

Key Takeaways

Practical Examples of AI in Action. He will explore real-world case studies showcasing successful AI implementations in manufacturing, emphasizing the tangible benefits and lessons learned from these initiatives.

AI’s Transformative Impact on Manufacturing. He will help attendees understand how AI technologies are reshaping production processes and what this means for the manufacturing sector.

A Vision of the Future of Manufacturing in the Digital Age. DuBravac will examine how digital technology is revolutionizing manufacturing practices and redefining industry standards.

Inspirational Perspectives on Guiding Manufacturing into a Prosperous Future, Powered by AI. He will help attendees discover ways manufacturers can embrace technological innovations to build a dynamic and competitive future.

This keynote aims to help attendees to gain a deeper understanding of how AI is revolutionizing manufacturing, encouraging them to rethink their approaches and strategies. This session is essential for manufacturing professionals who aim to drive their organizations toward a future defined by innovation and resilience, where the best days of manufacturing are still ahead.

Keynote Networking Breakfast

On both days, attendees can connect with like-minded professionals in advanced manufacturing for a Keynote Networking Breakfast. The breakfast is an opportunity to build relationships with potential partners and connections, engage in valuable discussions, and gain access to key insights that will shape their understanding of advanced manufacturing. The breakfasts will take place at 8 AM in Level 3 Ballroom.

MUST-SEE SESSIONS

From Design to Production: Transforming MedTech with AI and VR

Time-to-market is crucial in medical device manufacturing. In this session, Séamus Maguire, global vice president of lean systems at Freudenberg Medical, explores how digitalization boosts efficiency in product launches and production scaling: Discover AI-powered design optimization, virtual reality (VR) factory layout planning, and virtual operator training to reduce scrap, minimize machine downtimes while ensuring operational excellence and the highest quality standards.

How is the manufacturing flow, are ergonomics efficient, can takt times be hit and further optimized? As time to market is critical in the medical device industry, agile strategies for optimized manufacturing layout planning and process simulation are key — strategies that go beyond cardboard and adhesive tape. The solution lies in VR, which enables Freudenberg Medical experts to visualize, analyze and refine layouts to minimize risk and ensure operational excellence. All involved functions can collaborate remotely — even together with customers — in virtual environments when new products are being introduced, mature products are transferred to cost-effective countries or new sites get validated. Maguire will explore how VR accelerates the transition from concept to reality, enhances competitiveness and drives innovation in medical device manufacturing.

AI-Powered Robots and Sustainability

The manufacturing industry produces a significant environmental impact in terms of energy consumption, generation of waste that goes to landfill, consumption of natural resources (e.g., materials and water), and emission of harmful pollutants. There is a growing and urgent interest in improving the sustainability of manufacturing operations by reducing its environmental impact. Every technology that gets deployed in manufacturing needs to be critically analyzed from the environmental sustainability perspective. The recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) enable robots to program themselves from task descriptions.

In this session, Satyandra Gupta, cofounder and chief scientist at GrayMatter Robotics, discusses how these advances have led to the realization of smart robotic cells for use in manufacturing applications and increased human productivity to deal with labor shortages. These cells also eliminate the need for human operators to perform ergonomically challenging tasks and empower them to perform a much higher value-added task of optimizing the finishing process. Robotic automation solutions are enabling manufacturers to increase productivity, improve process consistency. As the role of robots is rapidly expanding in the manufacturing sectors, people are beginning to think about the environmental impact of robotic automation.

Impact of Novel Materials on Medical Device Design and Vice Versa

Medical devices are composed of a variety of specialty materials, with each selected based on a particular need or function. In recent years, many new materials have been brought to market by resin and specialty-material suppliers. In particular, these materials include multi-functional composites, high-performance resins and metals, electronic materials, bioresorbable materials, and bioactive composites (including those with pharmaceuticals). Shifts in medical-grade materials have also incorporated improved durability and reusability, additive manufacturing, reduced biocompatibility risk, lower cost manufacturing, and greater sustainability.

In this session, Rob Klein, senior principal materials engineer at AtriCure, will review the medical device classes with Class II and III patient-contact (open surgical, minimally invasive and endoscopic, robotic, and implants) and will discuss how new materials are impacting medical device design. He will also look at how new device types are driving adoption of new materials. Klein will incorporate several case studies into the session.

The Smart Manufacturing Imperative: Trends, Technologies, and Triumphs

In today’s rapidly evolving industrial landscape, smart manufacturing isn’t just an option — it’s an imperative. This high-impact panel brings together manufacturing industry advisors at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and innovative end customers to dissect the transformative journey of Industry 4.0, with a focus on manufacturing process.

Topics include emerging trends reshaping the manufacturing sector, including generative AI (GenAI), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), etc.; innovative technologies driving unprecedented efficiency and quality, such as high-performance computing, digital twins, etc.; and real-world success stories from industry leaders who have mastered the smart manufacturing journey.

The panel will explore how top-tier companies are leveraging smart manufacturing to dramatically boost operational efficiency, enhance product quality and consistency, accelerate time-to-market for new innovations, and drive sustainable practices and reduce waste.

Whether you’re an executive charting your company’s smart manufacturing strategy, or a process engineer aiming to optimize operations, this panel offers invaluable insights to propel your organization to the forefront of smart manufacturing.

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