The Challenge
Ablation Frontiers’ family of Cardiac Ablation devices experienced high market adoption rates and rapid growth in sales upon launch. As demand skyrocketed, excessive manufacturing complexity and resulting lead times, the Cost of Goods Sold, and the need to improve the devices’ clinician interface threatened continuous growth and profitability.
The Solution
Applying our rigorous approach, REV.1 evaluated the existing design and proposed five alternative design path solutions. In only six months, REV.1 executed the selected design through to validated, molded parts and the creation of new assembly procedures, tooling and manufacturing fixtures.
The Result
Our approach reduced the part count from 33 to 7, and decreased assembly per device time by nearly five hours. Ablation Frontiers was acquired by Medtronic in 2009.