Inefficient product design

The Issue:

I worked for a medical equipment manufacturer and provider. When I worked for them I was at a local facility that rented highly specialized equipment to local hospitals. One of the pieces of equipment that we provided was a complicated cardio-pulmonary air mattress. This mattress was inflated through a blower-motor attached to the foot of the bed. Air was passed into the mattress and entered a complex manifold system made out of plastic. There were six identical chambers, all connected in series, that pushed air to different parts of the mattress. The valves could be opened or closed in different orders to create a percussive effect that would help break up phlegm in the patient’s lungs.

The issue was that the design of this manifold was such that it was made from ABS plastic and molded as a single unit. During the routine handling of these mattresses, either by hospital staff or company employees, the different hose connectors on the manifold would become cracked and broken.

If a single hose connector was damaged, the entire mattress had to be pulled from the available inventory, packaged into a box, and shipped to a repair facility where the manifold would be replaced. This shipping cost the company approximately $35 each way due to the size and weight of the mattress, and the entire process would take 7-10 business days for the mattress to be returned ready for service.

The process was very costly in terms of shipping expenditure and loss of revenue while the inventory was out for repairs.

The Solution:

I examined the design of the manifold and called the manufacturer who made the item for us. Changing the material that the manifold was made with from ABS Plastic to high strength aluminum increased production costs by $0.05 per unit. This change alone drastically increased the durability of the manifold as aluminum components were much harder to damage than plastic ones.

Additionally, I worked with the manufacturer to redesign the manifold so that instead of one single piece with six chambers in series, the new aluminum parts were separate individual chambers. This made no impact to production costs or time. However, it now allowed for parts to be more easily replaced.

Finally, I suggested a process change, that the company send the manifold components to the warehouses directly. The medical equipment technicians were more than capable of swapping out these components and there was no need to send the entire mattress back to the repair depot. Shipping a small, lightweight aluminum piece to us, one way, was considerably less expensive than shipping a mattress round-trip.

The Results:

After the company calculated the cost savings on this it resulted in a $1.7 Million dollar savings per year just in shipping costs when deployed nation-wide.

Additionally, by having the components as individual chambers, it allowed the technicians to return beds to service more quickly, thus reducing the profit loss due to broken equipment. For example, if Bed #1 had manifold #2 break a replacement part is ordered and the bed is pulled from service. If Bed #2 has manifold #1 break, then a replacement can be ordered, but the working manifold #1 from bed #1 could be pulled and installed in Bed #2. This means that Bed #2 is ready to return to service within an hour. Bed #1 now has two broken parts. The net result is that we have one bed in repair status instead of 2. It may take somewhat longer for this bed to be returned to service, but the profit loss is minimized due to the other bed being available again so quickly.