Case Study

Medical Device Plant Optimization

Project Snapshot

Our client is a global provider of equipment for the respiratory therapy industry. This company designs and manufactures hospital equipment such as medical and lab vacuum/air systems, respiratory equipment, vacuum pumps, and oil-less compressors.

The client acquired another organization to expand their portfolio of suction and oxygen therapy products. In 2016, they made the strategic decision to combine both plants under one roof in an ISO certified facility.

Our client wanted to preemptively double production without expanding the plant’s physical footprint. The goal was to support future state growth, the order entry process, and the required supply chain improvements.

Sterling’s Role

Sterling created detailed plant drawings of plumbing, electrical, and internal IT work. We created a current state of future state plan with 3D Solidworks. From there we worked with different vendors getting quotes for plumbing, electrical, and internal IT. We scheduled timelines for all the work, along with replicas of the production lines and their functionality. After being mapped out, everything was moved and put in place through implementation of innovative ideas and strategies. 

Project Challenges

Sterling deployed an Industrial/Manufacturing Engineer Lean/Six Sigma specialist to oversee and manage project and plant relocation.
Two assembly facilities of comparable size and capacity were brought under one roof.
Increased productivity by eliminating the amount of WIP through time studies.
Sterling successfully completed plans, layout, and line modifications in 3 months.

Increased productivity by 72% on the first product line.

Eliminated redundancies and the queue time for parts in the system while reducing the amount of failures.

This analysis was duplicated on the second line and increased productivity by 20%.

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