Manufacturing technology Manufacturing technology
The limits of automation
Automation has undergone technological updates over the years, leading to more flexibility in what manufacturers can build. But have the economics behind setting up an automated product line changed that much in the past few decades? Peter Littlejohns speaks to Ken McClannon, technical business unit director for Jabil Healthcare Pharmaceutical Delivery Systems group, who explains how the core principles of why we automate have remained the same since he started working in the field in the mid-1990s.
he word manufacturing no doubt evokes images of mechanical titans churning out items on a conveyor belt. But ask the average person what they think the sector looked like 30 years ago and you can bet they’ll describe more grubby jumpsuits, hard hats and safety glasses, with human hands still carrying out a portion of the labour. It’s true that medical device production now looks different to back then, but according to Ken McClannon, technical business unit director for Jabil Healthcare Pharmaceutical Delivery Systems group, the comparison isn’t as night and day as some might expect. “I’m 25 years working [in manufacturing] now,” he says. “I’ve been working on fully automated production lines for 25 years, so for me there was no ‘before automation’. The automation has evolved over that time, but the principles of high- volume automatic production are still the same as they were when I started.”
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In McClannon’s area of the Jabil business, the inhalers, epinephrine auto injectors and other drug- delivery systems churned out in their millions are never touched by a human hand until they reach the end customer. Far from a slow build up in technological capability to reach this high-volume production though, Jabil, like many other contract manufacturers, merely pivoted their already established automation capability from one industry to another out of necessity. “We were making mobile phones for companies like Nokia and Motorola. The first flip phone Nokia ever produced, we manufactured,” says McClannon. The catalyst for change came when consumer electronics started to become a fashion accessory. With a near constant stream of competing models released into the market, the necessity to innovate meant products that once remained desirable for
Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
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Shutterstock.com
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