Ethicon Endo-Surgery

Innovate new and effective ways to treat patients

Ethicon Endo-Surgery is a healthcare organization that strives to innovate new and effective ways to treat patients. SIT worked with Ethicon Endo-Surgery (a Johnson & Johnson company) to improve The SEDASYS System. Ethicon Endo-Surgery purchased this piece of equipment but needed to improve the design in order to cut costs for production and materials while also improving the product. The SEDASYS System is a computer assisted personal sedation system that allows a physician to administer minimal to moderate sedation for patients during routine endoscopy procedures. The system monitors patient vital signs and can detect signs of over sedation and respond appropriately. Although this product is remarkable, it is expensive to produce. In order to reduce cost and retain the usefulness of the product SIT employed its “closed world method”. SIT laid out the components of the system and determined which component was necessary and which could be eliminated.

However, from looking at the system all components appeared necessary. Despite this seemingly impossible obstacle, SIT began to remove necessary components and find new and innovative ways to keep the system functioning properly. Throughout this process SIT found that you could not only eliminate one necessary component but two. SIT suggested removing the backup battery and the display screen while replacing the backup battery by hooking up the machine to another piece of equipment and channeling the images through an already existing screen in the OR. Removing these two components and then replacing them with existing assets cut production cost. SIT broke their structural fixedness, they rearranged the product in innovative ways to cut costs and create a better product.