Year: 2019-20

Company: Medtronic

Liaison(s): Richard Velasco, Trinidad Mireles, Crystal Achenbach

Originally founded in 1949, Medtronic (MDT) is now a world leader in the development, manufacturing, and sale of high-quality medical devices. By maintaining its core values of “alleviating pain, restoring health, and extending life,” MDT is able to positively contribute to the global community through its products.

Medtronic tasked the team with addressing inefficiencies in their manufacturing process, pertaining to the calibration of assets and raw material inspections.

Calibration: In the calibration department, the team created a baseline of cost savings within the calibrated assets and analyzed additional cost-saving methods. An updated database of relevant calibrated assets was created to reassign assets with respect to their calibration needs and final product impact. Then, the team determined if assets had unnecessary planned calibrations in order to reduce overall calibration frequencies. Finally, the cost of unplanned calibrations was calculated, then used to evaluate the effects of the out-of-tolerance assets and production line moves.

Inspection Process: Within the Internal Quality Control department (IQC), the team was assigned to create a dashboard displaying metrics that will promote transparency and assist in the reduction of raw material inspection time. In order to accomplish this task, the team analyzed the current inspection process, researched common inventory software, and assisted in the dashboard design and implementation.

With the completion of these projects, the team increased both efficiency and cost savings for Medtronic’s Neurovascular Manufacturing department.