The ODT Top 10: Resilience, Reinvention, and the Road Ahead for Manufacturing Partnerships
To view our article on the Orthopedic Design & Technology Magazine website, click here.
New insights from the latest Top 10 Companies report and OMTEC 2025 highlight several recurring themes in orthopedics. Among the many dynamics impacting the industry is resilience—the key to success of any size OEM or supplier. There are dozens of factors that companies must address at any given time to maintain its present and future growth momentum. Organizations that have the fortitude to tackle planned and unplanned industry dynamics will always find a way to succeed—a commendable trait.
OMTEC 2025 highlighted many of the issues currently challenging orthopedic implant manufacturers. At the forefront of discussion was the global impact of digital innovation, material science, and supply chain resilience on the industry. These market forces are shaping business strategies and the ecosystem in which the Top 10 companies exist. These big earners and their OEM suppliers are responding in their own ways, but they are all being tested by the same forces.
One of the most common tests for orthopedic implant firms and their contract manufacturers is supply chain intelligence and the need for suppliers to be a strategic partner rather than a mere vendor. Such a role change is not a new revelation—this transformation has been common practice for many years now. It’s surprising, however, that this partnership attitude is still not fully embraced at the OEM level, though it’s certainly discussed and sporadically implemented.
During OMTEC 2025, the CEO of a major OEM supplier emphasized the ongoing evolution of strategic partnerships between OEMs and suppliers. “OEMs must stop treating CMOs [contract manufacturing organizations] as vendors,” the CEO said. “They’re engineers. They’re builders. Treat them like it.”
This advice affects the Top 10 companies slightly differently. Stryker Corp. and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., for example, have invested heavily in multi-site global networks but are now doubling down on strategic sourcing relationships—not just pricing leverage. Arthrex and Globus Medical Inc., on the other hand, possess significant nearshore capabilities and are positioned to lead in both response time and risk buffering. Meanwhile, Orthofix Inc. and Embla Medical, as more focused players, are building leaner, more collaborative supply chains to stay competitive despite their smaller scale.
Granted, these OEMs may sometimes act more transactional than as a partner. Thus, it’s important for their suppliers to challenge them in order to maximize the true vision for their relationship objectives.
At OMTEC’s Supply Chain Symposium, multiple speakers warned that many companies have not yet built supply chain resilience. Such operational continuity can only happen when manufacturing knowledge and sourcing strategy are linked from day one and then practiced consistently on an ongoing basis.
Common topics in reinvention were automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Not surprisingly, AI was everywhere at OMTEC 2025, and its dominance at the event showed the technology’s implementation continues to move steadily from theory to competitive advantage. While there is some marketing hype surrounding the AI nomenclature, it’s exciting to see the ways in which AI is helping reinvent the orthopedic industry.
This reinvention is driving value in machining, inspection, and design workflows. One supplier’s inline AI inspection demo showed the ways in which systems can detect surface flaws on implants during production—reducing scrap, tightening tolerances, and accelerating throughput. ODT’s Top 10 companies are evolving in this area, too. Johnson & Johnson MedTech and Medtronic are integrating these technologies into smart factory initiatives, bolstering robotics-driven surgery with AI-enabled instrumentation pipelines. Enovis is also making a mark by embedding AI in pre-op planning and post-op recovery tools, extending automation beyond the shop floor into patient-facing solutions.
Other OEM suppliers at OMTEC 2025 showcased closed-loop machining in which systems adjust toolpaths in real-time—critical for high-volume hip and knee production, where material variability can destroy accuracy. In 2025, this level of automation is no longer optional. It’s fast becoming table stakes for any OEM supplier seeking consistent quality and cost efficiency to remain competitive for their OEM customers.
Regarding reinvention, it’s interesting to note that materials still matter. Continuous improvements in resorbables and advanced metals are on the rise. While some industry professionals have downplayed the importance of future innovations in key materials while emphasizing that enabling technologies are the only key drivers to move orthopedics forward, many players at OMTEC 2025 proved that material innovation is still a battleground. Some examples mentioned at the show:
Fort Wayne Metals previewed absorbable magnesium alloys for temporary load-bearing implants—a potential win in trauma and pediatrics.
Arctic Biomaterials featured X3 Fiber, a high-strength resorbable composite that could redefine fixation and sports medicine applications.
If successful, these materials offer competitive paths to reimbursement differentiation and surgical simplification. The ODT Top 10 are more than likely watching closely, as they always need new ways to compete and differentiate. Smith+Nephew and Orthofix are well-positioned to integrate bioresorbables into their soft-tissue and spine lines, respectively, while Embla Medical—eyeing biologically active materials—is already making progress in this regard.
The Top 10 companies that incorporate resorbables into their pipelines early may also reduce regulatory friction around explants and revisions, giving them an edge in value-based care (VBC) models. And VBC is where the industry is moving, whether it likes it or not.
Another popular discussion topic at OMTEC 2025 was the need to rebuild trust and technical fluency between OEMs and suppliers. As one OEM supplier executive candidly stated, “Many procurement teams don’t understand the products they’re buying. That has to change.” Many suppliers would wholeheartedly agree with this statement.
While there is positive movement in this area, product knowledge and education is not always perfectly executed. Some OEMs are taking proactive steps, though. Globus Medical and Arthrex, for instance, are embedding design-for-manufacturing (DFM) practices early in the R&D process. Additionally, Zimmer Biomet is investing in internal design/prototyping labs to close feedback loops with external partners faster, and Johnson & Johnson MedTech is training sourcing teams alongside engineers to build cross-functional fluency in materials, tolerance specs, and risk classification.
These strategies are not soft initiatives—they’re core competitive differentiators when consistently implemented and executed.
Companies engaged in M&A are beginning to realize the benefits of acquiring resilience as well as revenue. One of OMTEC’s clear signals was that M&A in 2025 is less about footprint and more about functionality. Case in point: Zimmer Biomet’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Paragon 28 wasn’t just an extremities grab—it brought additive manufacturing capability and regulatory agility. Similarly, Enovis and Embla Medical are targeting smaller, IP-rich companies that bring automation, AI, or breakthrough material science into their platforms.
Meanwhile, private equity players are showing interest in CDMOs with bioresorbable experience, or those with automation-friendly lines that can scale fast under tariff or recall pressure. It could be said that orthopedic M&A is shifting from asset accumulation to supply-chain engineering.
The central message from OMTEC 2025 is clear: leadership in orthopedics is being redefined. For the Top 10 orthopedic companies, this moment is about more than defending market share—it’s about resilience, reinvention, and the mindset to build manufacturing agility; embrace co-development with suppliers; standardize smart automation; invest early in material innovation; and stay out front on regulation.
Successful companies going forward won’t necessarily have to offer the most products—they’ll have to demonstrate the most adaptability. OMTEC 2025 participants not only presented challenges for orthopedic companies, they provided the playbook to future prosperity. For the Top 10 companies and their key suppliers, the next chapter is already underway.
MORE FROM THESE AUTHORS—Juggling the Orthopedic Manufacturing Challenges of 2025: Nearshoring, M&A, and Tariffs
Florence Joffroy-Black, CM&AA, is a longtime marketing and M&A expert with significant experience in the medical technology industry, including working for multi-national corporations based in the United States, Germany, and Israel. She currently is CEO at MedWorld Advisors and can be reached at florencejblack@medworldadvisors.com.
Dave Sheppard, CM&AA, is a former medical technology Fortune 500 executive and is now focused on M&A as a managing director at MedWorld Advisors. He can be reached at davesheppard@medworldadvisors.com.
To view our article on the Orthopedic Design & Technology Magazine website, click here.
