Medtronic
Medical #1: Engineering Projects
Medtronic manufactures medical devices that require a lot of precision to work properly. One of the devices uses tubes that have to be cut to a specific length, with a tight tolerance on the final dimension. The current cutters often produced tubes that didn’t meet the requirements, so Apex was asked to help develop a prototype for a new cutter.
Problem
The development of product required cooperation between the customer, who brought the medical knowledge, and Apex, who provided the technical expertise. Proper testing, communication and feedback were all crucial to the success of this project. Setbacks were expected, but both parties believed they could be overcome.
Solution
After building an initial prototype, extensive testing was done to see if it produced satisfactory products. Changes required by the customer were incorporated into the next version of the prototype. Apex suggested some design changes to ease manufacturing and operation of the prototype. A second prototype was made and the testing, feedback and redesign loop was repeated a few more times.
Results
The final prototype of the cutter produces tubes that are very precise, quickly (less than 10 seconds per tube), with only 5 minutes of operator training. The customer was extremely pleased with the result and ordered 20 more units. This project is a perfect demonstration of setting expectations, as well as collaboration between Apex and the customer to achieve a goal.
Successful re-engineering of an existing tool
