This post looks at the megatrend of Aging Society and its potential impacts on our precision machining businesses. It is based on a presentation I attended at HORN Technology Days.

Our future is determined more by societal demands than it is by our workforce and current capability.

External Fixation, Artificial Joints, Human Spare Parts...
External Fixation, Artificial Joints, Human Spare Parts…

Why Aging Society is my choice for most impactful megatrend for our industry

  • Annual worldwide growth trend of 5% increase in Medical Technology Developments is  2X -3X current GDP growth. (Economically compelling)
  • Who is against improving the quality of life of the people we love? (Emotionally compelling)
  • Growth in the sector of Endoprosthetics- Human Spare Parts. (Aging and active population makes this compelling)

Because of this megatrend, our industry can expect to see growing opportunities in the production of

  • Surgical tools and instruments
  • Human spare parts and hardware (Bone screws, implants (including dental), joints, and hardware)
  • More challenging materials to process – ceramics, titanium, magnesium, and composites.

What will the keys be to growing in participation in this field in the future?

  • Flexibility and speed of processes and capacity
  • Systems built on assuring quality
  • Taking advantage of  cost effective technologies to build in process assurance, and cost effective minimum waste provision of parts. 

Over the long run, our businesses seldom grow faster than GDP. Knowing that the impacts of our aging society will grow faster than GDP provides a roadmap for savvy managements to plot their course to use their companies to serve this growing market.

You can see the aging of society every day – at work, shopping, and even in our schools (universities).

What are you doing to meet the demands that this megatrend is creating for your precision machining business?

Horn is working on developing tooling technologies and processes to improve your capability and performance, improve cost effectiveness and innovate your production.

New technologies call for - new tooling technologies. Thread Whirling Head for Bone Screws.
New technologies call for – new tooling technologies. Thread Whirling Head for Bone Screws by HORN.

What are you doing to take advantage of this  growing 2X-3X  faster than GDP opportunity?

HornUSA- Tools for Medical Technology

Tired of innovation? Fed up with other people’s ‘good ideas?’ Here are 6 rules to stifle innovation from one of Americas most readable writers on management, Rosabeth M. Kanter. *

  1. Be suspicious of any new ideas from below.
  2. Make people go through several organizational levels before getting your approval.
  3. Give criticism at every opportunity.
  4. Keep people in the dark about what is going on in the firm.
  5. Manage tightly; control everything to the nth degree.
  6. Have the attitude that top management already knows everything there is to know.

Come to think of it, these sound quite a bit like the PPAP process.
I had the distinct pleasure of working in shops where these were the basis for how management managed.
They were great examples of how I did not want to manage when I got my chance.
How many of these ‘rules’ are alive and well in your shop?
How many would your employees say?

Kanter in book
Into innovation? Here's your book.

*Rosabeth M. Kanter wrote these in 1991.  I found them in The Quest for Competitiveness: Lessons from America’s Productivity and Quality Leaders  Y.K.Shetty Editor, Vernon M Buehler Editor. If you can find this book (try Amazon) buy it!
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