College - Author 1
College of Engineering
Department - Author 1
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Manufacturing Engineering
College - Author 2
College of Engineering
Department - Author 2
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department
Degree - Author 2
BS in Manufacturing Engineering
College - Author 3
College of Engineering
Department - Author 3
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department
Degree - Author 3
BS in Manufacturing Engineering
College - Author 4
College of Engineering
Department - Author 4
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department
Degree - Author 4
BS in Industrial Engineering
Date
6-2022
Primary Advisor
Mohamed Awwad, College of Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department
Additional Advisors
Tali Freed Ph.D, College of Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department.
Abstract/Summary
Eagle Medical Incorporated is a contract medical device packaging and sterilization company. The company purchases thermoformed medical packaging trays, which maintain the sterility of medical devices, from various manufacturers. To ensure packaging quality and to prevent cleanroom contamination, Eagle Medical inspects and sterilizes each blister tray that they order. This process is an essential non-value-added activity that creates a bottleneck. Cleanroom employees must stop packaging medical devices and attend to the processing of blister trays and packaging solutions. The blister trays arrive at Eagle’s facility in nested stacks. Vibration and movement during shipping further compresses the stacks, which makes separation (denesting) time-consuming. Currently, two employees work simultaneously to manually denest, inspect, and sterilize the trays. They are able to sterilize one blister tray every 1.65 seconds. Eagle Medical is looking to expand this process capacity by 150-200%. The cycle time must be reduced to 0.66 seconds per tray to meet Eagle Medical’s throughput requirements. After conducting research, direct time studies, and observations of the process, the project team concluded that an automated system is the most appropriate solution. The team intends to create a system that utilizes off-the-shelf components to automatically perform the denesting, inspection, and sterilization process. By fully automating this process, clean room employees can focus their time and expertise on the packaging of the medical devices rather than on the blister packaging itself. This shift in resources will allow Eagle Medical Incorporated to meet their expanded capacity goals.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/imesp/261
Included in
Biomaterials Commons, Biomedical Devices and Instrumentation Commons, Electro-Mechanical Systems Commons, Industrial Engineering Commons, Manufacturing Commons, Other Engineering Commons, Quality Improvement Commons, Risk Analysis Commons