Upper & Lower Shell Assembly Module Productivity & Cost Savings Activities

Abstract

At a manufacturing site in Puerto Rico, compressor failure and upper shell damage were identified as major contributors to yield loss and downtime in the automated assembly line for glucose sensors. The main root causes of these conditions were associated to components dimensions. After evaluating each process, it was found that increasing the dimensions of each component improved compressor retention at the subassembly stage and enhanced the upper shell’s resistance to the ultrasonic welding process. These were validated throughout effectiveness runs which enabled a 15% and 20% improvement for yield and downtime metrics, respectively.