Boston Scientific makes efficiency savings of $150,000
- Industry
- Pharma & medtech
- Location
- Port Melbourne, Australia
- Project goals
- Identify areas of inefficiency cardiac battery manufacturing line
Achievements with Simul8
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Offset labor costs to make savings of $150,000
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Transformed static spreadsheet results into visual simulation of process
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Identified further key areas for process improvement
About the project
Boston Scientific is dedicated to transforming lives through innovative medical solutions that improve the health of patients around the world.
Historically the company used spreadsheets to model capacity of their production lines. This provided the business with static results but couldn't identify potential areas for improvement.
The spreadsheets also couldn't take into account real life variability. For example, when time to process work can potentially differ each time the process is run, this meant the results were inaccurate and didn't match the real life system.
In help clearly identify areas of inefficiency in their cardiac battery manufacturing line, Simul8 software was used to create a simulation of the production process that allowed engineers to visualize the line being run.
"Using Simul8 we could visualize the production line and actually see queues building up in our process. From this we tested various scenarios to improve efficiency resulting in savings of nearly $150,000."
Principal Industrial Engineer, Boston Scientific
The result
Using simulation added a new dimension that the spreadsheet couldn't provide. It also added a new level of accuracy to the data that showed a queue build up at the backfill process on the line that wasn't identified in the spreadsheet analysis.
This discovery was key to adding time limits and strategic WIP to counteract the work flowing into the next process that offset the cost of direct labor to manage the inventories for a saving of approximately $150,000.
Learn more about Simul8 for pharmaceutical and medtech process improvement
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