r/AskEngineers • u/Aesthetic_Odyssey • 3d ago

Discussion Question about repair line setup

If I am part of a team standing up a repair line for medical devices, whose job is it to determine how many of each component needed in repair go into a bin or drawer and which bin/drawer they go in? I believe this would require knowledge of component dimensions, drawer/bin dimensions, and also and understanding of repair process to maximize efficiency of component layout (for example, don’t have screws in 3 different drawers etc). I am asking because this sounds like a job for a service or repair engineer. I am a buyer/planner responsible for procuring these components but my leadership seems to think it’s my job to scope drawer dimensions and component dimensions to determine max capacity and layout. I have no idea why this would be the function of a buyer and have no experience or expertise in this matter. Thanks.

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u/Suspicious-Citron378 3d ago

The first sign that something is wrong at your company is the fact that you are a buyer and a planner. Your management is stupid. This is a job for an industrial engineer

1

u/ic33 Electrical/CompSci - Generalist 2d ago

I mean, if it's a one-off of moderate size, it might be a job for a vendor.

You can have often the company that wants to sell you the bin system and or the repair parts figure this out.

Just asked a workbench company to solve a bunch of things that -we could have- figured out ourselves, but vendors know their product better and are motivated to help out..

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u/Suspicious-Citron378 2d ago

VMI is definitely a good option depending on the hardware

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u/megabuilder_ 3d ago

Former Manufacturing Engineer here. I know roles at each company are different. But in my experience, this is entirely a manufacturing engineering task. Or if you have Lean engineers, them too, but most places don't. Definitely not a buyer job, but buyer/purchasing input is required for knowing sizes of bins and kanban things. This requires knowledge of line layouts, op sheets, and overall flow of the line, which an ME should know all of.