All organizations must continuously improve products and services. It’s a matter of survival: Evolve or die. That pressure is especially keen in the medical device industry, where your manufacturers must demonstrate long-lasting value and efficiencies. A big step toward improving value is by reviewing the hardware systems that support medical devices. The better these components and equipment perform, the longer the lifecycle of your manufactured products.

That’s where Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VAVE) comes into play. It’s a proven strategy that identifies design improvements in a finished product to optimize its operations. VAVE also incorporates associated processes, such as ongoing manufacturing, testing, logistics, and technical support.

There are multiple ways to increase value and efficiencies through VAVE, and the engineers at MBX Systems are experts in all of them. Dig into our 6-point checklist to discover how to optimize your hardware systems for true value and cost reduction of ownership.

MBX’s 6-Point Checklist To Optimize Hardware Systems

1. The Medical Device’s Hardware System

The hardware system includes everything that supports the medical device, such as the CPU, memory, hard drives, and more.

Some of the factors we consider:

• Do the individual components best serve your medical device for optimal performance and reliability?
• Are they compliant? And have they been validated as such?
• Would newer or competing components offer better performance, efficiencies, and/or cost?

VAVE Value for Hardware Systems:

• Maximize uptime
• Increase system longevity
• Improve cost efficiencies

2. Packaging

This is just what you think it is: Everything that supports the system during transport and at deployment. These factors have a lot more impact on value than you might expect.

Some of the factors we consider:

• Is the unit over-packaged, causing extra handling due to weight and dimension?
• Can the packaging be optimized for more cost-effective deployment?
• Could the packaging be designed for multiple uses before disposing?

VAVE Value for Packaging reduces costs around:

• Medical Device Transport Logistics
• Deployment
• Materials

3. Cabling

Our customers are often surprised by how much value the VAVE process brings for cabling, including all the connections to components within the system, such as barcode scanners, monitors, printers, etc.

Some of the factors we consider:

• Is it clear which cables are associated with their component counterparts?
• Can labeling and/or color coding the system shorten and simplify installation?
• How is the entire system bundled for ease of installation out of the box?

VAVE Value for Cabling:

• Speed system implementation
• Save labor costs
• Improve ongoing maintenance

4. Functional Testing

Believe it or not, some organizations inadvertently neglect to test how firmware and components all work together. Validating the interconnectedness through functional testing offers significant value.

Some of the factors we consider:

• Are your testing processes not only validated for quality control, but also traceability?
• Which processes can be automated to save time and money?

VAVE Value for Functional Testing:

• Improve quality control
• Reduce downtime
• Decrease product and labor costs

5. Circuitry Testing

Similar to functional testing, we examine and ensure that all the electrical components within the embedded system are properly connected and aligned.

Some of the factors we consider:

• Is your system incorporating the appropriate lights, timers, and other circuitry elements to optimize performance?
• Are you able to test circuitry systems on the production floor? Or is that process relegated to pre-production situations?

VAVE Value for Circuitry Testing:

• Reduce errors and failures, and therefore downtime
• Optimize device performance
• Improve cost effectiveness

6. Medical Device Serviceability

We recognize the critical need to minimize any downtime related to a necessary component change in medical devices. Our VAVE strategy ensures you have the ability to quickly upgrade or replace a component, in many cases without taking the hardware system completely offline.

Some of the factors we consider:

• Does your embedded system include components that are within easy reach, without dismantling everything?
• Are you using components that are highly available and swappable with similar, high-quality ones?

VAVE Value for Serviceability:

• Minimize and/or eliminate downtime
• Make technology field-serviceable
• Reduce manual labor costs

Contact MBX Systems and let us help you gain even more value from your medical device manufacturing. 

Download the full PDF below.

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