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Newsletter 2005 issue 1 |
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Supply Lock Down
Endocardial Solutions, Inc. knew the answer to high supply costs wasn’t putting a lock on the supply closet.
“We’d been looking at scrap cost, component shrinkage and finished product scrap,” said Mike Costello, director of manufacturing at Endocardial Solutions, Inc. (ESI). “Those costs were about $20 per (catheter) unit. We looked at consumables. They were costing around $35 per unit—almost twice as much.“
Costello tracked the supply costs for producing its catheters, used for diagnosing a heart abnormality. “We were looking to save money and that’s where there was the most to save,” he said. “We made the big pie chart and a few of the items made up over half of the supply cost.”
Costello requested a MnTAP intern to investigate ways to reduce the four most-costly supply items.
Clean room wipes
The intern evaluated the use of wipes in the clean room, where catheters are assembled. ESI used two grades of wipes in 12 different operations.
Only minimal particle shedding is acceptable for wipes used in more critical steps—like those near the end of production. The less particles shed, the more expensive the wipe.
The intern observed that most employees did not use the full surface area of the wipes. He instituted smaller wipes at several of the work stations, reducing solid waste by 950 pounds per year, saving $8,800 annually.
The intern learned that wipes could be laundered, like lab coats, at less than half the cost of purchasing new. The intern wrote procedure changes to designate which work stations could reuse wipes. Laundering wipes reduced solid waste by an additional 500 pounds per year, saving $5,200 annually.
Fluorinated solvent losses
ESI uses a fluorinated solvent to dry and clean catheter parts and assemblies at various points in production.
Catheter surfaces were hand cleaned in three production steps using a solvent-soaked wipe. Technicians folded oversized wipes and used a squirt bottle to soak them with solvent. Switching to smaller wipes, that did not need folding, helped reduce the volume of solvent absorbed. Also, plunger cans that pump a small, uniform volume of solvent to the wipe replaced the squirt bottles, cutting solvent use from 16 to four grams per use. This reduced solvent use by about 32 gallons per year, saving $7,000 annually.
To remove water residue left from cleaning, catheters were immersed in a solvent-filled tray. A significant amount of solvent was lost through splashes, spills and absorption during solvent transfer and filtering. The intern redesigned the bath to reduce exposed surface area and make solvent transfers easier.
Because the bath’s main parameters are staying the same—like the size of the bath and the time the catheters reside in the bath—ESI doesn’t need to revise the basic validation for the procedure.
The bath will be continuously filtered instead of filtered once a day. The cleaner fluid will reduce the potential for contaminating catheters with water or particulate. By reducing the number of transfers needed each week, ESI will save $7,000 annually from reduced solvent losses.
Reusable shoe covers and Teflon rod
Disposable booties were replaced by launderable, over-the-calf shoe covers. Over the expected three-year life, ESI will cut solid waste by 1,300 pounds per year and save $5,100.
ESI uses Teflon rod as a form to braid wires around when building the catheter’s inner structure. Although the intern was not able to reduce this waste, he discovered that the company could reduce its cost by $4,200 by purchasing with an annual contract. He also set up a recycling service for the used rods.
“Kevin is a really hard worker. It was incredible to see his energy level,” commented Costello. He was so pleased with Kevin’s work that he helped the intern obtain a full-time engineering position with St. Jude Medical, which purchased ESI in 2004.
See the complete intern project summary.
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