Resource Allocation for Growth – Case Study

Background and Problem

A company producing Class I and Class II medical devices needed to optimize the use of their staff for higher growth. To assess the current state, a heat map was created; it showed heavy resource allocation at incoming inspection where 100% of the products were being inspected. Several new products were in the pipeline, and the leaders were concerned about staffing levels to support these products. Budgets were tight and adding headcount was a difficult proposition. Something had to be done.

Solution

A risk based approach was used to identify candidate products for reduced inspection. In the first phase of the project, some resources were freed up by switching to the use of AQL 4 sampling plan instead of 100% incoming inspection for these products. Next phase involved establishing  correlation between critical process variables that impacted product performance. SPC tracking of such variables was setup and product performance monitored. Over time, incoming inspection was scaled back and product quality was managed using control charts. This enabled the company with allocation of more resources to new product introductions without increasing headcount.