Group Cheesecake

MED-BOXSIGHT Cheesecake

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1. Need Specification

The need

A way to reduce the time for pharmacy setup

Problem description

Currently, One2One clinic carries all of its equipment,tools, and medicines in a travelling luggage. Afterpacking all their goods in their office, they have totransport the luggage to the slum area they will be goingto, unpack all their equipment, tools, and medicines atthe spot, and pack it again to bring back to the office.This practice of carrying all the goods in a travellingluggage brings about a lot of problems, especially to thepharmacy. One of the biggest problems of carrying medicine in atravelling luggage is that it is nearly impossible for thepharmacists to keep the medicines in an organized way.Even if they try to organize the medicines at the timethey are packing, the medicines will be scattered allaround the luggage by the time that they arrive at theslum after a long journey on the tuk-tuk and on the rough

Group Cheesecakeroads. The pharmacists then have to rummage through allthe scattered medicines in the luggage to look for themedicines they need and take them out to organize them onthe table that will serve as a pharmacy. When they are ina rush to pack all their medicine back to leave after theservice is over, the pharmacists simply sweep all themedicines back into the luggage because they already knowthat there is no point in trying to organize the packingprocess. The problem becomes worse when they are trying tocheck their inventories back in the office. They have togo through the rummaging process all over again to checkwhat they have used and what is left. This requiresunnecessary man effort and is very time-consuming. It is also difficult tomaintain the medicines in agood condition whiletravelling with the medicineinside the luggage. Since theroads are very rough and themedicines move around in theluggage, some fragilemedicines get damaged easily.Maintaining the interiortemperature of the luggage is another issue. Normalmedicines have to be stored at room temperature, andvaccines have to be stored at around 4℃. It is impossibleto lower the interior temperature to 4℃, so One2One haseliminated the option of taking vaccines to the slums fromthe start. Instead, they will bring babies who need to bevaccinated to their office, which requires extra time andeffort. Even maintaining the interior temperature at roomtemperature is difficult under the strong sun of Cambodia,which will damage the medicine quickly.

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Damage of the luggage itself during the travel is alsoanother problem. After dragging the luggage through theunpaved roads of the slum a few times, the wheels of the

luggage gets broken easily. Because One2One does not havethe funds to purchase another luggage when it is broken,they have to actually carry the malfunctioning luggageall the way to the slum after getting off the tuk-tuk.

Market description

Our product that can solve the problem described above ismainly targeted for medical clinics all around the world.Although we are going to start with One2One in Cambodia,the range of the usage of the product need not to belimited to One2One or to Cambodia.

In Cambodia alone, there are 11.6 million people, which is80% of the whole population, who are designated as ‘poor’

Group Cheesecakeby the UN, and 23% of the population live on $1.25 a day.Worldwide, more than 3 billion people live on less than$2.5 a day, and more than 1.3 billion live in extremepoverty, that is $1.25 a day. To assist these people inpoor regions which lack normal health service, many mobileclinics are under operation. We believe that this largenumber of poor people and mobile clinics which serve thesepeople will become the future users of the product.

Competition

Currently there is no medical case in the market thatspecific for poor transportation condition. For thoseusers that have such needs, they would rather use atypical medical case or suitcase that without goodprotection instead. Besides, the medical case in themarket is mostly designed for hand-carrying, that suitcasedesign is usually not available. As the volunteers fromOne-2-One favour suitcase style, they may find no choicein the market.

As of medical devices transportation, usually a protectioncase is included when the device is purchased. However,such protection case is designed only for that specificdevice and its outlook is sometimes bulky. There is verylittle transport case that is capable for most devices.However, they are similar market in photography industrythat there are protection cases that are capable for mostlens and can provide sufficient protection.

For vaccine transportation, there is currently commonsolution that use refrigeration system to cool downvaccine to 2 to 8 degree celsius for up to 16 hours, andthe cost of such product is affordable to most NGOs. There

Group Cheesecakeis a fierce competition in this market. However, suchvaccine carrier is usually an isolated product that thereis currently no medical case with inbuilt vaccine carrier.

Need criteria

The product needs to have a long life span of at leastseven years as there’s going to be an one off investmentfor the project. The product must be self sustaining andbe able to adapt in all-weather condition includingprotection from the sun and the rain and be able tomaintain a suitable temperature for the medicine.

The manufacturing cost for the product must be as low aspossible (maximum 100 USD) since most of our target buyerswould be NGOs and small medical teams and clinic in thedeveloping countries. With small cost, we hope to make asmall profit which will in turn be invested in themanufacturing and the scaling up of the project.

There’s also a need to create a product which can bescaled up and also adaptive in many areas and regions. Theproject should be simple and easy to operate so that anypeople can be able to operate it effectively andefficiently. The simplicity of the project also has to bein the strength of our team.

Brainstorming idea

We spent quite a number of the time allotted to come upwith and to test ideas and to see which one would work. Wehave at least tested on 5 different design all trying to

Group Cheesecakeincorporate different elements of the needs criteria. Tofurther filter out the needs criteria we have minimizedthe concepts that we would be focusing on the prototyping.

Incremental innovation

We had a debate on whether to invent a whole new projectfrom the scratch or to improve on the existing product.From the market research, we found out that there aresimilar products that exists in the market but most arenot for the medical or pharmaceutical usage. The groupsuggested that we should adopt existing product and adjustit to suit the medical needs.

Technical Feasibility

We also wanted to ensure that we are able to manage thedesign of the product by ourselves. Since we did not havea person with expertise in manufacturing or productbuilding, we have to ensure that the product that wepropose is within the group’s capability.

Group CheesecakeDesign It was also important to ensure that we had enoughphysical protection so that the medicine and the bottlesthat hold the liquids and other sensitive equipment do notbreak or cause spillage and they do not have to undergothe recalibration process every time after a slum visit.The pharmacy station should also be portable enough thatit can be transported on to a tuk-tuk or be carried by asingle person. We also took into account the ergonomics ofthe design whether it is adaptive to environmental andhuman factors such as the feel of the carrier. And alsohas to feature minimal compartments so as to reduce thenumber of moving parts in the product.

On the above choices we came up with the following finaldesign.

2. Med-Box First Stage Prototyping

Group CheesecakeAccording to our need statement “to reduce the time taken

for pharmacy setup in slum clinic”, our finalized concept

is expected to combine the features of both pharmacy

station and drug carrier. Moreover, it shall provide

physical and thermal protection for the drugs and medical

equipment in order to maximize the One2one medical team’s

service quality in the slum clinic.

After having a preliminary idea of the fundamental design

features and functions of our prototype, we divided our

concept into four different functional blocks so that we

each could focus on researching individual component’s

characteristics and design criteria. They are the Exterior

Design, Interior Design, Choice of Wheels and Vaccine

Carrier Design. Furthermore, models of these functional

blocks are constructed for better demonstration and

understanding of their features and functions. Our

research outcome is stated as following.

Exterior Design

Design Features

Our product should have structure similar to a luggage. It

is equipped with a case, framework, pulling rod and

wheels. Furthermore, a foldable table is installed in the

product. Hence, the same drug carrier that carries drugs

and medical equipment to the slum clinic can also be

instantly transformed into a pharmacy station. Such design

Group Cheesecakeis believed to reduce the time and resources required for

the pharmacy setup. The model of exterior design is as

demonstrated in the following diagram.

Figure 1 Exterior Design Model

Furthermore, a pair of retractable table stands is fitted

at the built-in table to provide greater support and

stability for the pharmacy station. The height of

individual table stand can be adjusted in order to adapt

to the rocky road in the slums.

Also, all drugs should be kept in the drug carrier

throughout the medical service to prevent degradation of

drugs due to exposure to the sunlight. Locks can be

installed to prevent drug-lifting in the crowded service

area in slums.

Size and Color Specification

Our product size is estimated to have size similar to a

standard 28’’ luggage with width 39cm, height 70cm and

depth 35cm. Such dimension is slightly larger than the

Group Cheesecakecurrent drug carrier adopted by One2one medical team and

provides maximum volume of 95.5L to accommodate sufficient

drugs and medical equipment to serve the slum dwellers.

Moreover, the color of the case is specified by our

customer representative Dr. Annie to be earth-toned color

such as green, brown and grey or red that symbolizes red-

cross. Black and white should be forbidden because both

symbolize death and funeral.

Choice of Material

The drug carrier can be made of plastic polymer. The hard

outer case provides greater physical protection for the

drugs and medical equipment from external environment.

Furthermore, plastic is waterproof and prevents drugs and

medical equipment from getting wet especially during rainy

season in Cambodia. Moreover, the drug carrier can be

covered with reflective paint to reflect solar radiation.

Such feature can provide thermal protection for the drugs.

Interior Design

One2one team currently spends thirty minutes of its 3 hour

service in the slum clinic in setting up the pharmacy

station by arranging all drugs according to their utility

from the luggage to an additional table. Current method

adopted by the medical team lacks organization of

inventory and the drugs tend to scatter in the luggage

during the transportation.

Group CheesecakeOur team proposed to install drawers in the luggage case

to provide built-in organization for the drugs and medical

equipment. Such feature can save the time from rearranging

the drugs and allocate more time to serve more patients in

the slums. Four to six drawers can be installed according

to the drugs’ utility. They are for example, treatment of

common diseases such as common fever and antibiotics,

Vitamins, emergency kit, drugs for specific diseases and

wound treatment tools and dressings. Furthermore,

additional one to two larger drawers can be fitted to

accommodate delicate medical equipment such as blood

pressure gauge, ultra-sound device and weighing machine.

Furthermore, individual drawers can be subdivided into

smaller compartments using soft pad as partitions. The

partitions can be removed or secured at fixed position

with Velcro tape (hooks and loops fastener); hence they

provide great flexibility in adjusting the compartment

size. Moreover, the soft pads also act as shock absorber

and hence maximizing the physical protection of the drug

vials. The model of interior design is as indicated as

below.

Group CheesecakeFigure 2 Interior Design Model

Choice of Wheels

One2one medical team currently adopts a medium-sized

luggage with four built-in small wheels as drug carrier to

the slum clinic. The luggage wheels are as demonstrated in

the following diagram.

Figure 3 Luggage Wheels used by One2One Medical Team

These wheels are 5cm in diameter. They are not replaceable

and are easy to break when travelling on the stony road in

the slums. Furthermore, they tend to trap dirt and debris

especially during rainy season in Cambodia at when the

roads become muddy and covered with trash.

Group CheesecakeOur team examined several types of wheels that are

available in China online stores and Hong Kong market

based on these three criteria; they are the number, size

and design features of the wheels.

Number of Wheels

Our team decided to use four wheels. This is because four

wheels instead of two will provide greater distribution of

weight and support for our product. User can drag the drug

carrier in a vertical position and hence bearing less

burden of the load. Furthermore, more wheels can also

provide user with greater flexibility in switching between

two or four wheels depending on the road conditions.

However, four wheels occupy more space in the Tuk-tuk

during the transportation of the drug carrier from One2one

main office to slum sites. Additionally, more wheels will

increase the carrier contact surface area with the stony

road in the slums. Smaller wheels tend to trap in the dent

and lead to tumbling of drug carrier. These problems can

be compensated by increasing the wheel size.

Size of Wheels

Our team suggested the optimal wheel size to be between

eight and ten centimeter in diameter. Smaller wheels tend

Group Cheesecaketo trap in the trough and are easily damaged when

travelling on the rocky road in Cambodia slums. Larger

wheel provides greater stability but increases the product

weight. It also increases the distance between the center

of gravity and ground surface, causing the drug carrier to

be less stable.

Wheel Design Features

The wheels should have 360˚ rotation so that the drug

carrier can be easily moved in all directions. Moreover,

the wheels should have minimal gaps exposed to external

surrounding to prevent accumulation of dust and debris

that will eventually damage the wheels.

Furthermore, caster brake should be installed in all four

wheels in order to provide greater stability when the drug

carrier is at stationary and is transformed into pharmacy

station in the slum clinic. The wheels should be equipped

with shock absorber such as spring or soft pad to maximize

physical protection of the drugs and some delicate medical

equipment. Additionally, the wheels should be common in

Cambodian market and are easily replaced once broken.

The following diagram indicates some of our choice of

wheels:

Group CheesecakeFigure 4 Choice of Wheels

Vaccine Carrier Design

Our team hopes to include vaccine carrier in our product

design in order to increase the availability of vaccines

for the slum dwellers. The carrier will provide both

thermal and physical protection for the medicine.

Similar to the commercial vaccine carriers, our product

shall consist of heat insulator, coolant and digital

thermometer to monitor internal temperature change. The

choice of heat insulator to construct the outer case of

the vaccine carrier includes polystyrene and aluminum foil

woven cloth. This material is light and together provides

sufficient heat insulation for small amount of vaccine

carried as well as cheap and easy to obtain in Hong Kong

convenient stores.

Group CheesecakeNevertheless, most of the low-cost vaccine carriers

introduced to developing countries do not guarantee

freeze-safe of the medicines. The vaccines are often

damaged and wasted due to over-freezing or insufficient

thermal protection. Most types of vaccines have optimum

temperature range between 2˚C and 8˚C. Hence, we propose

to adopt phase change material1 with melting point at 5˚C

as our product coolant. The suggested phase change

material is Paraffin or specific mixture of plant oils.

The following diagram shows the model of vaccine carrier:

Figure 5 Vaccine Carrier Design

The four functional blocks are presented to the guest

Professor Jim Patell from Standard University Design

School, our customer representative Dr. Annie and our

supervisors, Professor Ying Chau and Yuki. Due to the

1 Phase Change Material is material that melts or solidifies at specific temperature; it is capable of storing and releasing large amount of heat energy due to its high heat of fusion.

Group Cheesecakelimited time (3 months) and resources, our team is advised

to specify only on one functional block.

Since our product design is customer’s need driven and

supported by technological innovation, we take Dr. Annie’s

feedback into account and focus only on the exterior

design of our product in this semester.

3. Second Stage Prototyping

Description

Based on the feedback received in the first stage

prototyping, a second prototype, a look like model, was

built for a better understanding of the working mechanisms

of the complete product. This prototype was an integration

Group Cheesecakeof the features described in the previous prototype. Based

on the feedback received in the previous stage, the

vaccine carrier feature was not incorporated into our

design at this stage to be reconsidered at a later stage.

Picture of second prototype (a) Med-Box on site (b) Med-Box during travel

Some of the working mechanisms figured out with the second

prototype are:

- Table arrangement

The table is folded and attached to the side of the

suitcase when the One2One team is travelling with

Med-Box to the site of medical service at a slum.

When they arrive on site, the table is unfolded and

fixed with extendable legs. Extendable legs are used

to adjust the length of the leg on uneven grounds so

that the table is not tilted.

- Frame and wheels installment

Group CheesecakeFour sturdy wheels are used to distribute the weight

of the luggage handled by the carrier. The base of

the suitcase has to be large enough so that the whole

suitcase does not topple over easily.

- Exterior protection

To prevent the drawers from freely moving around or

being opened by slum residents during travel or on

site, an additional layer of sheet is placed on top

of the drawers. This sheet can be locked or opened

with a zipper.

Evaluation

- Build from scratch vs. combine existing parts

It was essential to choose whether we would build our

product from scratch or build it by combining

existing parts before progressing on to the next

stage. The build from scratch approach enables us to

fully develop our ideas but may require unnecessary

efforts and time spent in trying to figure out what

has already been figured out. The combine existing

parts approach enables us to spend more effort and

time in figuring out how to integrate many different

existing parts into one whole product.

- Open source

Open source is a universal access to product design.

It is different from a patent in that a patent

prohibits others from using the product design but an

Group Cheesecakeopen source rather promotes the use of the product

design. Our design of Med-Box can benefit a wide

range of people who are willing to build such a

product by uploading the design of Med-Box on an open

source platform. Carefully choosing materials that

can be easily found everywhere is a crucial decision

to make if we plan to utilize the open source

concept.

Evaluation and Future Plans

- Although the third prototype is of similar scale to

the actual Med-Box, it is necessary to optimize the

luggage dimension and volume to ensure a user

friendly experience.

- The current choice of material adds too much weight

to the prototype. Thus, a lighter, sturdier and

water-proof material must be chosen for the product.

- The vaccine carrier feature was left out in the

current stage. However, we are hoping to add this

feature in our final product.

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4. Final Prototype

The design of the Med-box can be briefly described in 4

different parts – Exterior design (including cover, table,

supporting structure), interior design (including shock-

absorbing structure, drawers, interior layout) and wheel

designs. Each design is coherent to other structures and

Group Cheesecaketherefore the limitations of other designs have to be

consideration when designing one structure.

Exterior Design

There are two major parts of the design – the case and the

table. The case is a 20”x14”x32” box with five covered

surfaces, and one surface is left for the opening of

drawers and storage space. A handle is attached with the

box for carrying function. The table is 20”x16”x32” that

consists of a table and four legs. While transporting, the

case is covered by the table, which the proposed design is

that the four legs of the table is totally fit to the four

edges of the case that can serve as the extra protection

to the case, and also reduce the hard components in the

case. When the setup of the pharmacy station, the table is

unloaded from the case and can be used independently.

Prototyping Method

The real scale prototype of the exterior concept is built

from metal channel and wood board. The metal channel is

served as the main physical support and the wood board is

for coverage.

Metal channel is high recommended for prototyping as the

rigger of a large size prototype can be composed within

short time and with low cost. Besides, a certain degree of

further modification is also applicable after the

Group Cheesecakeconstruction of the prototype. The drawback of it is that

the prototype would be overweight. And as the cutting of

metal channel has to be done in workshop or metal stores,

design drawing with clear dimensions (in terms of λ). The

common metal channel found in metal store is of λ = 1.5”

or 2”. Remarks: the prototype may not be in exact scale

due to the factor of λ and the small variation of

thickness.

Wood board is not compulsory is the design, its purpose is

to cover the Med-box. For further design, it is possible

to change with other materials especially with water-

proof.

Interior Design

The design makes use of the concept of camera bags that

different bottles are separated by the soft materials to

prevent the hard collision between two fragile bottles and

also promote compartmentalization for better organization

of drugs. However, there are other existing solutions that

we can also implied including the air cushion that is used

in express.

Prototyping Method

The interior prototype is made with market-available

resources including drawers and yoga pad. The yoga pad is

cut accurately to fit in the drawers. Yoga pad is a good

Group Cheesecakechoice for demonstration because it can easily demonstrate

the shock-absorbing feature. Further materials can be

investigated to serve the same function, and it is

important to find out which material can provide the best

protection and also requires supporting documents from

other researches.

Wheel Design

The wheel used is a 4” multi-directional wheel without

break. In further prototyping wheel with break should be

used to introduce the stationary. Eventually four wheels

are used and arrange in the four corners of the base. It

is observed that when using two wheels, the holder (user)

has to carry a lot of the weight of the Med-box that this

weight should be carried by the wheels in the four wheel

base design. Moreover, a way that can provide an extremely

rigid wheels or an easy way to replace the broken wheels

shall be introduced in case of broken wheel.

Prototyping Method

The wheels can be directly installed on the metal

channels. However there are some limitations and

Group Cheesecakeprecautions for the layout. First, toppling is a huge

problem when the weight inside the Med-box is not

balanced. Currently a tricky method is used that extended

the wheels from the base to form a larger separation

between the wheels to reduce toppling, and further method

shall be discovered to solve this problem. The second

problem is that the four wheels are too smooth to all

direction, that drafting would occur when turning. In

further prototyping, more combination of wheels shall be

tested, and the degree of movement of the wheels maybe

limited to a fix number.