Frontline vOICES: Enda Cafferky on Digitalization at Merit

This week’s episode welcomes the seasoned and tenured IT specialist, Enda Cafferky. Enda has vast amounts of experience in the industry as IT director of Merit Medical. Merit Medical has made massive advancements in digitalisation over recent years, making significant use of operational technology, governed by Enda. Merit Medical specialise in manufacturing disposable medical devices, used in interventional, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. They are a leading manufacturer in the medicinal industry, with over 7,000 employees worldwide.

Throughout the interview, Enda illustrated Merit Medical’s digitalisation journey, along with the key barriers to adoption. He emphasises the importance of having key performance indicators on this journey, ensuring concrete evidence can be demonstrated on a journey which is software-heavy. He further discusses future trends within the industry along with some advice for other professional IT leaders on how to advance their digital transformations.

Jump straight into an interesting, and technical interview below.

A key reason for the introduction of this research project is to showcase a variety of companies’ digital transformations, and the benefits as a result. Merit Medical has undergone significant advancements in its digital technology, specifically in its integration of legacy systems with modern technologies. Enda illustrates how Merit Medical’s digitalisation journey has been a gradual process, ensuring that proper procedures are in place as they connect their legacy systems sequentially. Enda emphasises the importance of this saying, “…because rather than, you know, sort of bringing everything in and switching on digitalisation, we've brought in parts of systems. We've brought in new systems to, you know, to engage with our older systems.” This periodic integration of legacy systems can ensure that the transformation is efficient and safe.

In addition to this, an important outcome as a result of Merit’s digitalisation is through live updates to systems. Live updates to systems allow Merit to monitor, and maintain their machines continuously, ensuring they can prevent potential failures and get updates on the operation of a system. Enda explains how this is a key performance indicator for Merit, bringing the data into hourly meetings and being able to plan effectively for the future. Enda states, “So that feeds into the planning of systems and the purchasing of systems as well, so that, rather than any decisions being made on old information, everything is, 24/7 live information.”

With all business endeavours, especially related to new technology, there is an influx of roadblocks which companies will encounter along the way. These can range from simple headaches to pushbacks from colleagues. One big challenge which companies have is the ‘red tape’ aspect of new technologies. When introducing something new onto a factory floor, it must be secure and the implementation of the system is correct. Oftentimes, there is a significant amount of documentation which professionals go through as well as testing, all of which slow down the process of adoption. Enda states, “You have to get them validated, and you have to test them, and get them up and running in production. So, it’s a lot of time.”

One of the biggest barriers to the adoption of digital technologies is approval from senior management. Oftentimes, companies are focused on short-term returns on investments, and they want those returns to be felt sooner rather than later. Digitalisation transformations are long journeys, they take time and effort, along with significant initial investment in some cases. The adoption of new technologies, or integration of legacy systems is always worth it. Production will increase, and efficiencies will increase but they take a longer time frame than some other investment projects. It can be difficult to keep shareholders and senior management onboard when there is no initial ROI. Enda states, “They (new technologies) will be sold, as a huge return in investment. But in order to make the initial investment to buy those automated machines or new technologies, you have to convince senior management that it’s worth getting it. Then obviously they want to see the return as quickly as possible.”

The importance here is to keep decision-makers involved, record the advancements and be transparent. Reiterate the fact that digitalisation takes time and rigorous testing to ensure sufficiency and safety, Rome was not built in a day!

In addition, a significant challenge which companies encounter is a lack of expertise or experience. With the implementation of these new technologies, they can sometimes come with new additives, they sometimes require specific knowledge or expertise. To combat this, either new training or personnel could be required. Enda explains how Merit Medical brought in an expert team to counteract this lack of expertise. Once the base infrastructure is in place, then you can continue to train employees and take over from outside experts. Enda explains, “There might be an engineering manager, and you move them into a position to try and make them an automation expert, and that doesn't work. I think you have to get the expertise in place, and then begin to build your long-term strategy for the business.”

The biggest question that everyone is asking is what direction digitalisation will go in the coming years. With new developments in AI and log-based forwarding, there is a variety of different directions it could go. Oftentimes it can be incredibly difficult to predict where digital technologies will ultimately end up. However, it is often good advice to make predictions based on trends which have emerged in recent years.

Enda provides an array of future trends which he predicts or has seen in the industry. One thing which he notes is the increased use of low-code or no-code applications for faster and easier development. Low-code or no-code applications allow untrained professionals to perform intricate software tasks, which previously would have required people with vast experience and education. This allows for accelerated projects which can tie in a variety of different professionals. Enda alludes to this by saying, “When you're trying to develop applications, develop dashboards, generally, up to a few years ago, you would have needed very much a developer expertise in programming… so I think that's been a huge change.”

Enda also predicts that automated manual processes will continue, piloted by AI. AI has already been used extensively in a variety of different locations but will continue to drive automated processes. However, Enda emphasises the importance of encouraging the use of AI that is trusted, because of publicity issues of free AI. He states, “Rather than Chat GPT or public AI. So making sure that everyone using it is aware that, if you put a lot of information into something that's in a public forum, it stays public.”

With the upcoming implementation of NIS 2, and the emphasis on the importance of protection within industries, companies are changing and evolving. Companies are starting to alter how they operated previously with new considerations for security and protection. Enda illustrates a few alterations undertaken by Merit, as a result of NIS 2.

Enda explains how they emphasize ensuring the separation of development, test and production environments. Without protection and a secure gap between the two environments, these can be attacked and attackers can move laterally across different environments. Enda states, “To make sure that we're very clear that we're completely separating those environments, terms of networks, V Lanning, making sure that there's no connection between those environments.”

Enda also references the fact that they have begun adopting secure practices such as HTTPS and multi-factor authentication, even in testing environments. From a protection perspective, because of the requirement for certificates for HTTPS and multiple confirmations under MFA, the security of a system massively increases. Enda says, “We might have been a bit lapse with using TLS or HTTP, especially in Test and Dev environments. So we're now making sure that we completely use HTTPS and complete secure environments when we're starting in Developmental environments, even going from Development to test to production environment.”

In addition, Enda alludes to the importance of cybersecurity and the importance of internal and external teams for comprehensive monitoring and response. In a system or workplace, all departments must be on the same page and understand, “their role when something happens.”

Enda finishes the interview by providing invaluable advice to IT professionals who are endeavouring to their digital transformations. Enda places a specific emphasis on planning and incremental implementation of digitalisation. From the outset, companies need to specifically plan and anticipate where their digitalisation will lead. They need to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the journey is a step-by-step process. Enda says, “I think you have to plan as well as you can for your own company. You really can't turn on digitisation. It's something that you're probably going to add modules. You're going to add parts to it as you go along.”

Enda also encourages collaboration with all departments to determine what is critical and who needs information the quickest. This is especially important concerning incremental digitalisation journeys. The problem the manufacturing industry has with digitalisation is it does not want to ‘disconnect’, it has production standards which need to be met and companies do not want to spend a lot of time in downtime. As a result, different departments need to work time together to communicate, what is essential and what can they halt for a short time, to not drop output margins.

Enda says, “I think one of the hardest parts with the digitisation journey is that, in a manufacturing environment, you have to keep producing. You have to keep your numbers up. You have to keep everything running as much as possible. So, in order to increase your capacity and increase your manufacturing, you have to add in different parts and different machines as you go along and keep everything running as normal. So that's the challenge.”

Enda concludes the interview by calling on business leaders to be agile, and capable of adapting to changes in the environment. Digitalisation journeys are ever-changing and evolving and in a way, never ending. Companies need to be prepared for their digital transformation to change over time and scale as the industry changes and advances.

Enda’s interview offers a comprehensive description of the digitalisation journey that Merit Medical has undergone in recent years, highlighting the benefits as a result. Enda illustrates not only the benefits but also the challenges coupled with any business endeavour. Key takeaways include the importance of incremental implementation, maintaining live updates for effective planning, and securing senior management's buy-in for long-term investments. In addition, Enda emphasises the importance of thorough planning, adaptability and the ability to continuously learn, for any IT leaders embarking on their digitalisation.

Additionally, Trout can support these digital transformation initiatives by ensuring robust data security and providing comprehensive solutions tailored to each company's needs. Trout's expertise in cybersecurity and digital innovation can help safeguard the integrity of the data while enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of digital systems. With Trout's support, companies can confidently navigate the complexities of digitisation and achieve their strategic objectives.

Watch the Interview in Full Below 👇