Finding the right quality fit
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
- Europe
Country
- Germany
- United States
Product
- InfinityQS ProFicient
Tech Stack
- Statistical Process Control (SPC)
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
medi Manufacturing is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of medical compression products, orthopedics, prosthetics, and compression sportswear. Headquartered in Bayreuth, Germany, medi applies 60 years of German design, research, and manufacturing to garments for people who suffer from venous disease, lymphedema, swelling, and varicose veins. medi’s products are available through distributors, pharmacies, retailers, and hospitals in more than 125 countries.
The Challenge
As a Medical Device manufacturing company, medi is committed to delivering quality garments that consumers feel safe and confident wearing. At its Whitsett, North Carolina, facility, medi was using its own proprietary software for data collection and quality monitoring in its manufacturing processes. However, error codes in the software produced a large amount of paperwork because operators could not easily make changes to incorrectly entered information. Making corrections often took as long as an hour and a half, and duplicate data entry created variations in reporting. Also, in order to maintain compliance with medical safety regulations on technology used in manufacturing, medi needed to validate its software to demonstrate its reliability and effectiveness. The homegrown system was outdated, and medi was uncertain whether it could satisfy the strict validation requirements. Rather than continue with its homegrown software, medi sought a new solution that could drive quality improvements and increase efficiency while facilitating the validation process.
The Solution
medi found its answer in InfinityQS® ProFicient™, an enterprise quality hub powered by a Statistical Process Control (SPC) analysis engine. medi installed ProFicient on its Whitsett facility’s terminal server and purchased 30 user licenses. To provide medi’s shop-floor operators with an intuitive experience, InfinityQS custom-configured ProFicient’s graphical user interface. Before the “go-live,” an InfinityQS third-party affiliate validated the software to ensure compliance with industry regulations. Validation by medi’s own staff would have taken six months; with InfinityQS’s thorough template and work instructions, it took only a week. With InfinityQS’s Dynamic Scheduler, medi’s operators now obtain a shop-floor checklist for scheduled quality checks and receive notifications when data collection is needed. Dynamic Scheduler automatically notifies key personnel if data collection is not performed, ensuring quality checks are completed in a timely manner. To reduce manual input, save over 500 labor hours per year, and improve data collection, medi integrated a number of its machines with ProFicient: knitting, dyeing, sewing, finishing, returns, and final inspection. In some cases, medi enabled measurements to feed directly into the database. A key integration is with the CMD-100 machine, which checks stocking compression. medi’s stockings have multiple levels of compression to accommodate different severities of affliction; too much compression can be harmful.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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