Date of Graduation

5-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Industrial Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Pohl, Ed

Committee Member/Reader

Rainwater, Chase

Abstract

The term “disruptive innovation” has been the buzzword of industries looking to create technological advancements in their respective fields ever since the term was first coined in 1995. In order to invest in the future of the industry, companies are beginning to focus on new, innovative ideas that come into the market as a low-cost alternative to the sustaining innovations currently in place. Similar business-models can be seen in the healthcare industry, as physicians look to disruptive innovations to provide methods of diagnosis and treatment that are easier to perform and maintain. Companies, from medical device manufacturers to the hospitals using these devices, are now working to comply with the Federal Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007’s requirements of Unique Device Identifiers on all equipment – a new, standardized identification system to ensure all necessary information about a device is provided. This honors thesis analyzes the recent history of disruptive innovations, in all industries and specifically healthcare, and the emergence and benefits of Unique Device Identification. Modeling of the implementation of Unique Device Identifiers in an industrial setting resulted in a 16.55% time improvement of the affected phases of the recall process, preventing 30 fatalities. When a benefit-cost analysis was performed – comparing the value of a human life to the cost of UDI implementation – the benefit of implementation outweighed the costs by 277%.

Keywords:

Disruptive Innovation; Healthcare; Transportation; Reliability; Medical Devices; Real-Time Location Systems; FDAAA; Unique Device Identification; Agent Based Modeling

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