GE Healthcare achieves lean efficiency in Milwaukee facility with OTTO M software and OTTO 1500 self-driving vehicles delivering parts for more than 2,000 medical equipment repairs per week, reported Elizabeth Engler Modic in Today’s Medical Developments magazine.
GE Healthcare’s 280,000ft2 facility in Milwaukee, WI is a mega center for medical equipment repairs. Multiple U.S.-based repair operations are consolidated into this site, which functions as a showcase for the use of advanced technology to improve process in material handling. The facility upholds lean manufacturing principles to achieve its mission: provide customers with reliable, consistent, fast, quality repairs so hospitals can restore operations quickly and focus on delivering the best patient care.
In previous repair centers technicians pushed carts to move equipment between repair cells, shipping, and other technicians. This manual process worked in batches, making material flow inefficient. Finished repairs would be added to other types of equipment on the nearest cart, which was pushed around to pick up other finished repairs before proceeding to shipping. The time taken for finished repairs to reach shipping was dependent on what other types of equipment were in for repair, which led to delays.
Additionally, other facilities suffered from wasted floor space due to the need for bulky carts and fixed infrastructure. This reduction of productive floorspace decreased the number of repair cells and limited throughput. GE needed a better material handling solution that fit the demands of their team.
“We needed to find an on-demand solution for moving materials throughout the facility,” says Patricio Espinosa, director, Americas Repair Operations, GE Healthcare. “OTTO Inventory Movement Platform is a perfect solution because it gets materials where they need to be, when they need to be there.”
Today’s Medical Developments is the only trade publication exclusively dedicated to the design and manufacturing processes for medical devices, implants, and equipment.
The OTTO self-driving vehicles will be showcased at industry’s most important event, Drive Manufacturing Summit, Oct 2-4, 2017. This unconventional conference will bring 350+ industry leaders together to network, inform and determine how change can be integrated back into their facilities.
Visit www.drivemfgsummit.com
About OTTO Motors
OTTO™ Motors, a division of Clearpath™ Robotics Inc., designs, manufactures and operates self-driving vehicles to automate material movement inside busy factories and warehouses. Using self-driving technology much like the Google Car, the easy-to-use OTTO vehicles move inventory in a safe and flexible manner throughout the indoor supply chain. Customers include Fortune 100 brands like General Electric, John Deere, and Toyota.
Media Contact
Company Name: OTTO Motors, a division of Clearpath Robotics Inc.
Contact Person: Meghan Hennessey
Email: press@ottomotors.com
Phone: 519-513-2416 x833
Address:97 Randall Dr. Unit 2
City: Waterloo
State: Ontario, N2V 1C5
Country: Canada
Website: www.ottomotors.com