A Case Study: Reliability-based Product Development and Improvement Model

摘要

A field data-driven reliability and improvement program was introduced to ForHealth Technologies, Inc. (FHT) in December 2004 for its IntelliFill i.v. (IFiv) System. Since then, FHT has developed and executed a unique reliability-based product development and improvement model. As a result of implementing this model, from January 2005 to February 2007, the reliability of IFiv System improved its Mean Syringes Between Failures by 1703%, Operator Interventions Per Thousand Syringes by 45%, and Mean Time Between Failures improved by 1725% with system uptime of over 99%. Furthermore, system-related product costs were reduced by over 40%. IFiv has now delivered over 16 million doses without any medication errors and helped hospital pharmacies realize their drug cost savings along with higher operational efficiencies. The purpose of this case study is to share FHT's success story of conducting reliability-based product development and improvement program, while keeping the process simple with fast results. This model is applicable at system level for all industries with positive bottom line impact.