Navigating the Dynamic Manufacturing Tech Space: Challenges and Opportunities for Professionals

Kim Jessum, VP Legal, Global Legal Business Partner, and Chief IP Counsel U.S. and Secretary, Heraeus

Kim Jessum is a seasoned legal professional with extensive experience in intellectual property and corporate law. Currently serving as VP Legal and Global Legal Business Partner at Heraeus Medical Components, she provides counsel for a Fortune Global 500 company operating in various industries, including medical, pharmaceutical, and automotive. Leveraging her expertise in ensuring regulatory compliance, mitigating legal risks, and providing legal guidance, Kim successfully drives business growth and navigates complex challenges across all units she oversees at Heraeus.

In an interview with Business Management Review, Kim Jessum shares her insights on the current and future trends and challenges in the ever-changing manufacturing tech space.

How Do You Implement And Ensure Manufacturing Processes Comply With Industry Standards And Regulations?

Ensuring that manufacturing processes comply with industry standards is critical to a company’s compliance program. To achieve this, manufacturing companies must be wellversed in the legal, regulatory, technical, and corporate governance requirements that apply to their specific industry. This necessitates having compliance officers and offering compliance training, which can be tailored to the unique needs of different businesses.

Staying informed of antitrust laws, particularly for global companies, remains crucial as different nations have varying regulations governing corporations. Companies must have a thorough understanding of the laws, regulations, and policies applicable to imports and exports, as well as domestic and overseas inspections for compliance. For medical device manufacturers, especially, familiarity with FDA and similar regulations for selling medical devices in various countries is critical.

"Intellectual property challenges are top of mind for many manufacturing technology sector leaders, who must balance the need to protect their business interests while also complying with evolving legal requirements"

Lastly, having the right people in place is essential to ensure compliance. Compliance experts should be appointed, and regular training and updates provided to keep staff informed of any changes in the law. Companies should also establish internal and external hotlines for compliance issues, providing staff with a reliable means of reporting and addressing any compliance concerns.

What Are Some Of The Challenges Currently Impacting Business Leaders In The Manufacturing Technology Sector?

In my experience as a lawyer, I see business leaders in the manufacturing technology sector currently struggling with numerous challenges, including the complex issue of intellectual property rights. Many companies face the dilemma of who owns the intellectual property when manufacturing products for customers. In such cases, if the customer provides the design, the manufacturing business often wants to own the intellectual property related to the manufacturing process, which is its expertise, while the customer certainly wants to own any intellectual property related to the design. The customer often also wants to own any Intellectual property in the manufacturing process.

In addition, there are ongoing debates among leaders about whether to grant patent protection to their manufacturing processes, as enforcing intellectual property rights in manufacturing processes against others can be challenging. As a result, many companies are incorporating trade secret protections into their business operations and processes.

Yet even this approach is being challenged, as federal authorities seek to limit non-compete agreements and the confidential information held by employees who leave organizations. This raises concerns that departing employees may steal intellectual property more easily if there is no legal non-compete agreement or provision in place.

I believe that intellectual property challenges are top of mind for many manufacturing technology sector leaders, who must balance the need to protect their business interests while also complying with evolving legal requirements.

Where Do You See The Industry Heading In The Next 12 To 24 Months Concerning Some Of The Trends You Are Currently Witnessing In The Manufacturing Tech Space?

As the manufacturing tech space continues to evolve, there are still a lot of uncertainties about what the future holds, particularly considering the COVID-19 pandemic. While many companies are currently hiring and expanding their operations, others are tightening their budgets in anticipation of a possible economic downturn.

One ongoing challenge that is likely to persist in the coming months is supply chain disruptions. While the industry has become more adept at managing smaller disruptions, the current supply chain challenges are still significant and require companies to focus on redundancy and resilience to mitigate disruptions.

Fortunately, recent advancements in supply chain management have enabled manufacturers to better forecast future needs and manage their networks more effectively. As a result, companies are becoming more proactive in managing their supply chains, which should help them weather future disruptions and emerge more resilient in the long run.

What Would Be Your Piece Of Advice For Budding Professionals To Effectively Navigate This Dynamic Manufacturing Tech Space?

Companies should make sure that they are cost-effective, that they are correctly utilizing people, and that they have experts both inside and externally to assist and guide them. Companies, in other words, should not take quick routes. I believe the majority of successful companies are cautious and cognizant of the laws and restrictions. The laws may change a bit with each government administration, where some government agencies are stricter in enforcing certain laws and more companies are subject to investigations. As a result, businesses must ensure that there are no compliance issues.

Besides that, companies ought to have the ability to ensure that they are complying with all regulatory requirements, as well as being as efficient as possible while being competitive in the industry. As we witnessed with COVID-19, keeping employees from repeatedly jumping ships is quite challenging. I believe there are still some challenges in attracting and retaining certain employees, which may result in high turnover costs and negatively impact their bottom line. Businesses must provide their employees with competitive benefits, as well as keep an eye on the economy and respond accordingly.