Environmental Scan 2017: Human Capital Issues within the Medical Devices Sector
This environmental scan covered all five sub-sectors of the industry. Due to the large number
of surgical / medical gloves manufacturers in Malaysia and the different requirements for
human capital, the medical consumables sub-sector was split into two segments for the
purpose of this environmental scan – medical/surgical gloves segment and other medical
consumables segment. On the other hand, the other four sub-sectors (diagnostic imaging,
orthopaedics and prosthetics, patient aids and other medical devices) was combined together
as non-consumables segment because of the small number of players.
Employment Size and Location of Main Business Activity
In terms of employment size, 54% of the MedDev companies are SMEs while 37% are large
companies. The other 9% were reluctant to reveal their employment size. (See Appendix 2.3.1
for more information). The surgical/medical gloves segment requires a lot of manpower to
support their manufacturing activities as compared to other medical consumables segment
and non-consumables segment, especially for the washing and packing of gloves (See
Appendix 3.1 for further information).
Geographically, the main business activities of the industry tend to be concentrated around
Kuala Lumpur, with 45% of the companies operating in the Klang Valley. Penang is another
key hub for the industry, hosting 16% of the companies that mostly manufacture more
complex products which require higher technology. (See Appendix 2.3.2 for more information)
Industry Automation
The surgical/medical gloves segment has the highest automation adoption in the medical
devices industry, with all the surveyed companies in the segment indicate that at least 11%
of their business processes are currently automated and 17% of them claim that 51% to 80%
of their business processes are automated.
All the surveyed non-consumables companies also say that they have implemented some
form of automation in their business processes. 45% of the companies highlight that 31% to
50% of the business processes are automated, whereas 15% indicate that 51% to 80% of their
business processes are automated.
The automation adoption level is the lowest within other medical consumables segment, with
12% of the companies not implementing any form of automation and 55% of them have 30%
or less of their business processes automated.
At the moment, only 42% of the surgical/medical gloves manufacturers, 27% of other medical
consumables companies and 20% of the non-consumables companies employ robots or other
labour saving devices as part of the automation process. Within the next 12 to 18 months, 33%
of the surveyed surgical/medical gloves manufacturers, 15% of the other medical
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