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Last year, the Minnesota Technical Assistance program helped companies realize more than $3 million in energy savings
Maureen Holler: Packing it in
by judy woodward
When Maureen Holler, a senior majoring in biomedical
engineering, learned she would be interning
with Aritech, Inc., in Plymouth, Minn., she couldn’t
have been more pleased. Her assignment was to reduce
waste in the packaging and preparation of the
delivery system for an implantable device called the
Watchman, which helps prevent potentially lifethreatening
blood clots from forming in the heart’s
left atrial appendage and entering the bloodstream.
Holler’s mission was to improve the packaging of
the catheter that is threaded through veins in a patient’s
leg in order to introduce the Watchman into
the heart. “I was going to work on something that
was keeping people from having strokes,” she realized.
“How cool is that?”
 From Holler’s perspective, one advantage of her
internship was the opportunity to take ownership of the project. “Before this, I’ve worked on other people’s
projects, but this one was mine,” she explains.
“I came in not knowing anything about plastics, and
I had to work with outside vendors, do research. I
learned how to ask the right questions. It was trial
by fire, but I loved being thrown in.”
Holler said her biggest surprise of the project was
learning about the documentation requirements of
sophisticated biomedical engineering. “There’s so
much paperwork involved,” she said. “You can’t just
write things down in a notebook…I had to get all
these official approvals, because so much oversight
is required.”
According to Holler, problem-solving skills were
vital to getting started on the project. “I hadn’t had
a whole lot of engineering coursework in packaging
but my classes had prepared me to ask, ‘What angle
can I attack the problem from?’” she said.
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| Biomedical
engineering student
Maureen Holler, who interned
at Aritech, Inc.,
in Plymouth, Minn., last
summer, examines
the paperboard card
and Tyvec pouch that
houses the Watchman
Access System, which
will go through a sterilization
process before
it is used. |
Holler quickly zeroed in on three areas that could
improve the catheter’s bulky packaging. By replacing
the all-plastic tray with a paperboard tray that
contained a small plastic component to hold the
catheter in place, Holler demonstrated that the company
could save almost $6 in production costs for
each device produced, and reduce packaging waste
by nearly one-half pound. She also advised Aritech
to substitute less environmentally damaging plastics
for the polyvinyl chloride used in packaging. Finally,
she recommended replacing the sterilization
system currently in place with a method using less
toxic chemicals.
Her supervisor Mike Costello, director of operations
for Aritech, quickly recognized her efforts.
“There was a real alignment of the planets on this one,” he joked. Although some of her ideas were tabled
for a later date, Holler’s suggestions for packaging
modifications were “instantly implemented,” he
said. “She had the support of the entire company on
this one.”
Holler looks forward to the future with confidence.
“This was my first experience working in a
biomedical company,” she said. “It made me realize
that I have chosen a good major, and one where I can
make a real impact in someone’s life.”
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