Lean Manufacturing and the Helix Growtth® Program
Echoing the lean operations of our parent company, Freudenberg-NOK, Helix Medical has rolled out lean manufacturing via the proprietary Growtth® program throughout our North American manufacturing operations – Carpinteria, CA; Baldwin Park, CA, and Gloucester, MA.

The Growtth® acronym stands for “Get Rid of Waste Through Team Harmony”. The program is company-wide and mandates incorporation of lean practices throughout manufacturing and business processes. Using lean manufacturing tools such as Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, 3P, and Six Sigma, the goal is to drive out waste, optimize value-adding activity, and shrink lead times.

Our lean philosophy focuses on the customer’s requirements and Takt time, which drive and determine balanced workflow, proper layout and the required work sequence to meet demand, while achieving exceptional quality. This approach also enables us to poke-yoke processes and lock in a consistently high performing, low DPMO production line with maximum flexibility for the customer.

Click here to learn more about the FNGP / Helix Medical Growtth® program.

Scientific Injection Molding (SIM)
Why is scientific injection molding important? Many answers to this question lie within the principles of lean manufacturing. The practice of lean manufacturing is a culture for many who realize that it is critical to remaining competitive, especially in today's economy.

Many medical device manufacturers now require that their injection molding partners have scientific injection molding (SIM) capabilities in place. The industry and device manufacturers are demanding molders to have capabilities to produce very complex parts with tighter tolerances, backed by robust process validation.

Read “Scientific Injection Molding: A Tool for Lean Manufacturing” by Frank Staples, Director of Technology with Helix Medical and a Six Sigma Black Belt, published in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of Medical Design Technology.