Braun & Co’s 1962 Double cuff tourniquet machine is a tried and trusted medical device that is still significantly used throughout the NHS and overseas hospitals today.
Being powered by compressed air (rather than electricity) there’s no power lead to trip over, it doesn't have a tricky user-interface or an exhaustive set of instructions to read. And being analogue, it doesn’t have any of the complexity or cost of a digital machine. It’s easy to use, reliable, portable, and very straight forward to use - and as such, is loved by the nurses and clinicians who do.
As a product, it works perfectly, over 55 years is testament to that. But under pressure from an increasingly competitive market, Braun & Co asked us to help them update and improve it - without losing any of its DNA, functionality or familiarity.
Our primary objective was to implement a strategic development process in order to identify the product’s good points and address issues with: user-centred design, value engineering, and medical device regulations.
Braun & Co had no experience working with an external R&D consultancy, until now they had always developed their products in-house. Therefore, a lot of time was spent discussing the product development process, in particular with design being embedded at the start, which forged a better working relationship and deeper trust.
“Braun & Co were quite rightly protective of their tourniquet machine and as such were very wary about whether an external business could help them with their needs. It took a lot of trust for us to become seen as an effective partner in R&D. Braun & Co wanted to launch at a global medical exhibition so part of the success was completing the project on time.”
Before
After
Following on from the understanding the product and requirements stages we went into competitor analysis before creating a design and specification brief. A new concept design and iterative prototyping followed which helped develop a fully working prototype to put in front of focus groups for evaluation, before going through the final engineering, optimisation and design for manufacture phases. Meeting a very aggressive lead time, we managed to help Braun & Co launch the new tourniquet machine at a global medical exhibition in Germany.
“We selected Pd-m because of their experience in medical device design, they had a solid track record and good reputation. We first met Richard at Arab Health, the global medical and life sciences exhibition in Dubai. Richard and his team dealt with our project with enthusiasm and attention to detail, with a focus to deliver on time and within the agreed budget.”
Work packages
