OBJECTIVE

Transform written assembly instructions and/or CAD drawings onto the digital Visual Factory platform for improved line efficiency.

My responsibilities fell under the bio-lab manufacturing arm of Tecan Group, where I worked closely with production personnel and Manufacturing Engineers to re-design the assembly process through user-centered design practices.

ROLE & DURATION

Needfinding

User Research

Usability Testing

Information Architecture

                                         

Oct '19 - Oct '20

THE PROBLEM

How might we reduce production errors and improve line efficiency for product-specific assemblies through digital line tracing and visual aids?

User Personas

Evaluating User Needs

To contextualize this problem and better inform my design decisions, I spent most of my time on the production floors speaking directly with the production personnel and getting real-time experience with assembly practices prior to optimization.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MY OBSERVATIONS

01 | Personalization

Many workers had adapted their own assembly methods, separate from official instructions, based on what worked best for them over time.

02 | Time

Test verification required hard copy paperwork that needed a large amount of time to be allocated in the assembly process for completion.

03 | Documentation

Reference back to work instructions was sometimes inconvenient - hard copies were tucked away and not ideal to whip out on the assembly table. Production personnel who did refer back to the written instructions were often thrown off by the older format.

04 | Accountability

There were few checkpoints in the assembly to aid in line tracing and worker accountability. Production lines were batching - a technique that can easily lead to product-specific assembly errors.

Features to Note

The vast majority of my time at Tecan is enclosed under NDA. Here is a quick look at some key features of Visual Factory that worked to alleviate a few of the production challenges mentioned earlier.

Challenges

Uncharted Territory

One obstacle that presented itself in the early stages of my work, was the uncharted territory that came with working on the Visual Factory project. The project had had interns working on it in the past, but nothing had been released or really fully developed yet.

Since I was working independently, with the guidance of the Manufacturing Engineering Manager, it was freeing to explore different design solutions; however, it also proved to be difficult when it came to feedback and iteration. I was able to get periodic input from stakeholders, but oftentimes I had to do my best to make my own judgments.

Challenges

User Research & Usability Testing

Surprisingly, I also struggled with the research stages of my process. The one unique thing about my time at Tecan was that I had direct access to the users I was designing for - they were just a short walk from my desk! The only problem was that it took the operators some time to get comfortable with speaking to me about some of the issues they were having with the work instructions. Thus, most of the learning ended up coming from observational research.

This challenge only grew as I switched to telework in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. I no longer had optimal access to the operators and consequently had to make less-informed design decisions.

Takeaways

With such a rich environment to begin my professional journey with, it was difficult to say goodbye to my coworkers at Tecan. Throughout my year, I learned just how dependent the design process is on user research, something I will have in the back of my mind as I go forward in my career.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of a company that provided massive support to medical labs around the world when the COVID19 pandemic hit, and the opportunity to contribute to their efforts was nothing short of fulfilling. In the future, I hope to offer up my knowledge and hard work to companies whose services positively impact the world.

Interested?

I am always looking for new ways to get involved in my community and gain experience in industry - let's connect!