But politically, nobody wants to be the one to suggest opening the market, and have something bad happen again. But having a standard may give a lawmaker the will to stand up and say: we're not talking about casual opening of the border to whatever might come in, but rather a very thoughtful standard followed by respected companies. It gives them something to hang their hat on, and show they're not bending to the wishes of foreigners who want to come in and take over part of the market with what local competitors might try to portray as just foreign junk.
Tough, but voluntary
COCIR's proposal calls for a thorough quality management system, which is not the same as a quality control and inspection system. It would result in remanufactured products that must be as good as new, with thorough documentation and for the seller, responsibility, perhaps, of postmarket surveillance, in case there's a recall or a needed update. Most importantly, performance of the system has to be indistinguishable from one coming off the production line.
While that's not something that only the OEMs can do, it does require some scale in order to justify the investment in it.
This could be hard if your participation in the used equipment market is one of opportunity. It won't work if your thinking is, I can pick up one or two of this type of system and tomorrow it's one or two of that type of system. If the rules are that for each one of those, you have to have a quality-validated process for how each of those types of systems gets reprocessed, it might not be feasible.
But if you're a bigger player - not GE-sized, but if you're doing several of the same types of systems, and have some flow, or if you specialize in a certain device, brand or model, then you'll cover the cost of the investment. And quite possibly, have access to some international markets that, for now, remain shut.
Joe Shrawder is the general manager for GE Healthcare Systems Services. He has been with GE for almost 25 years, and with GE Healthcare since 2001.
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