100th Unit The First 100 single-pass DTO systems are shipped. Six lessons from the first 100 — and what they mean for the next 100. Read the lessons →
Perspectives

Find the Bottleneck — Throughput Lessons From an FDA Vial Decision

When the FDA approved Moderna to pack 14 doses per vial instead of 10, US vaccine capacity rose 20%. Find the constraint; don't just add machines.

Engineered Printing Solutions addresses a fundamental manufacturing challenge: identifying and eliminating production bottlenecks to increase efficiency without proportionally increasing costs.

The vaccine vial example

The article uses the COVID-19 vaccine distribution as a case study. When the FDA approved Moderna to package fourteen doses per vial instead of ten, the national vaccine supply increased by twenty percent without requiring any changes at any stage of the supply chain. This example illustrates how finding constraints — rather than simply adding resources — can dramatically improve output.

Apply the same lens to your print line

The company applies this bottleneck-hunting philosophy to direct-to-shape printing operations. Rather than assuming the printer itself is the limiting factor, our sales engineers examine upstream and downstream processes: part loading, pretreatment procedures, and unloading activities frequently present optimization opportunities.

Beyond manufacturing equipment, EPS offers complementary solutions including pretreatment systems, mechanical feeders, robotic load/unload mechanisms, and servo-controlled fixtures.