Analysis of Tissue Engineered Knee Meniscus Production System using Discrete Event Simulation

摘要

Current treatments for knee meniscus injuries rely on surgical repair or replacement with cadaver grafts, which do not produce the optimal outcomes in the longer term. As a result, tissue engineering (TE) alternatives that involve creation of biological substitutes using living cells and biomaterials are now being actively investigated. While a majority of TE efforts till date have focused on the development of the underlying biomedical technology, these need to be complemented by developing appropriate production systems to enable their cost-effective translation to hospitals. This study is the first attempt to design and analyze such a production system for engineered knee meniscus. We use process modeling and discrete event simulation to characterize the performance of the system by evaluating specific key performance indicators (KPI): resource utilization, production lead time, and throughput rate. Simulation experiments were designed to examine the sensitivity of the system to changes in the machine resource level with the goal of minimizing the number of machines while maintaining the resource utilization within a feasible range. Best-case scenarios were determined based on the system's KPIs. The model and these early outcomes lay the foundation for future research relating to supply chain mapping, inventory policies, and economic analysis of TE.