Norman Noble’s extensive capabilities and experience in medical device contract manufacturing include the manufacturing of finished Multileaf Collimator (MLC) housing assemblies, which are used in Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) machines. Lean manufacturing work cells are used to produce finished tungsten leaf components as well as a full array of housings and related components for complete MLC Assemblies. Materials used include tungsten, tool steel, PEEK, titanium and aluminum.
Lean Cell Manufacturing
When certain commercial criteria are met, NNI partners with many of its customers employing manufacturing systems wherein the equipment and associated work stations are aligned in a single flow process. The equipment capacity of each machine within the cell is carefully balanced so that process bottlenecks do not occur within the Manufacturing Cell. In many cases, the amount of equipment that is included within a cell is dedicated to single customers and is also balanced to support annual forecasted volume requirements.
All of the equipment required to produce customer product requirements are linked together within our vertically integrated facilities in the same work space. Products, or groups of similar products, are processed completely within the cell from start to finish. Lean manufacturing, in contrast to batch processing, lends itself to efficiency and yield improvements, reduced inventory levels, optimized use of facility space, shorter production cycle times, higher capacity and customer response time. In partnering with our customers with supply agreements, many of these efficiencies can be passed on to our customers through cost savings.