DFMA Case Study: Blood Gas Analyzer Redesign

DFMA Case Study: Blood Gas Analyzer Redesign

Hospitals require a range of cutting-edge medical devices; however, hospital equipment budgets are often constrained. As a result, a major medical device manufacturer needed a better way to produce industry-leading medical equipment at a reasonable price.

Specifically, the client wanted to improve the design and assembly of one of its series of blood gas analyzers. They turned to DFMA software to reduce part count, assembly time, and production costs.

Process

The team set goals for the blood gas analyzers to be durable and easy to use, manufacture, assemble, and upgrade. To facilitate upgradability, they designed each model to use a common platform. This would allow labs to add new analytes (e.g., electrolytes or a CO-oximeter module for hemoglobin analysis) as needed.

Designers paired up with manufacturing engineers to evaluate, using DFMA software, areas that could be improved on the series. For each part in the design, the teams asked:

• Does the part move relative to all other assembled parts?
• Should it be made of the same or a different material?
• Must it be separate from other parts, or could it be combined?

New Design Elements

The previous blood gas analyzer models used separate panels for the top, bottom, and each of the four sides. The new design required only two separate parts: a top and bottom panel that closed like a clamshell. The team also reduced the number of hydraulic system connections, which lowered the risk of leaks. They replaced loose screws that could fall into electrical components during repairs with captive fasteners and made several other optimizations to reduce the number of tubes and other parts required for the final product.

Results

The total part count fell by 48%.

A significant portion of this reduction resulted from redesigning the measurement model for the new series to utilize fewer components than the previous series.

Assembly time was cut by 20%.

Since the newer series contained fewer parts and used a simpler, hinged panel system, the final products took less time to assemble than the previous models. This also reduced labor costs.

Assembly operations were reduced by a staggering 81%.

The overall assembly was dramatically simpler, cutting more than four-fifths of operations tasks.

In addition to these successes, the newer series was designed to contain three more analytes than the previous series, increasing the devices’ functionality. Better still, they accomplished this while also lowering their costs.

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