• WITNESS software
• simulation
• medical Technology
• medical Devices
• modelling
• DES
• availability
• OEE
• VSM

A medical technology company, BD Medical, is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. One of their key products, Sterifill, is produced on a line that is currently running at an Overall Equipment Effectiveness of 55%.
The demand forecast over the next 5 to is showing an increase higher than 35% for this product, which means that from next year onward this process will be capacity constrained.
The aim of this project was to use simulation to propose different scenarios to increase the throughput and the availability of the manufacturing cell which is located in a clean room environment.
To reach the goal a deep data analysis has been necessary, with a special focus on the breakdowns’ information.
The creation of a value stream mapping was conducted to better identify the major wastes in the process.
Once the model has been created and validates, different scenarios have been tested to identify the best solution for the company, calculating the availability and throughput increases and also the net profit value for each scenario.
The results obtained and highlighted in this paper show the possibility for the company to apport modification to the production plan with an increase in the availability and in the throughput of the line, reaching the request demand in the following years.