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Personalized Automation: FITme's Journey to Increase Productivity by 346% with 3D Printing
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Device Management Platforms
- Wearables - Implants
Applicable Industries
- Buildings
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Mass Customization
- Time Sensitive Networking
Services
- Training
The Challenge
FITme, a Korean-based company specializing in manufacturing implants for facial reconstruction, faced a significant challenge in scaling up their processes for mass personalization. The conventional process of fitting a ready-made silicone implant onto bone structure with manual carving was time-consuming and lacked precision. Surgeons had no tool to analyze patients' scan data and relied solely on photographs. This led to side effects such as bending and movement of the implant, resulting in patient dissatisfaction. The medical tourism industry in Korea was rapidly rising, and FITme had to meet higher demands and reduce lead time. The process of designing custom nasal implants that conformed to the variable shape of patient nasal profiles was a daunting and repetitive task for design engineers. It took up to three months to adequately train new engineers in designing patient implants, which was also expensive.
The Customer
FITme
About The Customer
FITme is a Korean-based company that specializes in manufacturing implants for facial reconstruction. They are pioneers in the field, focusing on 3D printing and engineering to provide better fitting implants and faster service to their patients. They aim to improve their production processes with mass personalization through 3D technology. FITme is committed to reducing the manual effort and time spent designing implants, and they strive to provide a solution that reduces lead time and meets the increasing demands of the rapidly rising medical tourism industry in Korea.
The Solution
FITme collaborated with Materialise to develop a custom plugin that automates the workflow while retaining key manual design steps for the design engineer. The plugin, named FITme Nasal Implant Wizard, streamlined the design process. After the design engineer prepared the segmented parts of the patient, the custom plugin imported the segmented parts as 3D models into 3-matic, where the parts were merged and warped into a single object. The plugin then set the sketches by automatically creating the base and center sketch plane based on the engineer's landmark indication. The sketches auto-aligned to the midface, and the engineer had the flexibility to adjust the sketch planes. Once the engineer completed the sketch, the plugin superimposed the sketch to the nasal structure and created the base profile of the nasal implants. The plugin automatically created the profile of the implant with a single click, perfectly conforming to the unique shape of each patient's nasal bone and cartilage structure.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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