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AR Prototyping with Medtronic

Prototyping in advanced manufacturing

Medtronic, plc is the world’s largest manufacturer of medical devices with their operational headquarters in Minnesota, USA.

Medtronic engineers use Jig Workshop 3D presentation tools running on iPad with ARKit in a closed-loop manufacturing domain to bring life-saving products to market. Benefits include reduced time and costs in design, prototyping, collaboration and training.

Example of  a Medtronic Six Sigma Cardboard City Process Station used in prototyping manufacturing assembly

Prototyping new medical devices often uses traditional Six-Sigma ‘Cardboard City’ simulations of a hospital surgical room or device manufacturing environments. This process takes 2-3 weeks to construct and requires up to 20 experts, users, and support staff across multiple business units to be physically on site.

These usability simulations, whilst valuable, go through an average of 4-5 iterations and changes costing around $30,000 each time.

With Jig Workshop, Medtronic staff now create 3D scenes of their medical devices in CAD level of detail within hours, a vast improvement on cardboard mock ups. These prototypes are easily shared in-app or via a link then presented in augmented reality on Apple iPad for real-world comparison and rapid iteration.

William Harding, Distinguished Technical Fellow and Chair of Medtronic's Technical Fellows says:

“Using JigSpace as part of our lean manufacturing development efforts has enabled Medtronic to create and test solutions in a matter of hours versus weeks, where the savings associated with the tool’s usage, at just one of hundreds of facilities, is an estimated $30k per model developed.”

Experts in offices around the world can view and collaborate without having to travel to the sites, reducing interruptions and costs.

Video recordings of the AR presentations, or marked up 3D Jigs, are saved directly onto the iPad or desktop app as artefacts for internal reference.