Case Study

Designing a Medical Cart Around the Full Hospital Workflow

Healthcare
Development
Automation
Workflow

A medical cart program for metabolic therapeutics company Fractyl Health began as an industrial design engagement. Once Product Insight examined how the cart would actually function throughout its cycle, it evolved into a broader product architecture effort. We helped transform the system into a more durable, serviceable, and scalable platform designed around the realities of hospital use.

Challenge

The product was primarily being evaluated through the lens of clinician interaction, despite needing to support cleaning staff, service technicians, manufacturing teams, and long-term fleet maintenance. Without a broader systems approach, the existing architecture risked creating durability, serviceability, and maintenance challenges under real hospital conditions.

Solution

We reframed the effort around the full lifecycle of the product, expanding the definition of the user to include clinicians, cleaning staff, service technicians, manufacturing teams, and support personnel.

We mapped how the cart would be shipped, assembled, cleaned, serviced, repaired, and returned to use. Physical mockups and workflow testing helped uncover issues related to accessibility, weight, maintenance, alignment, and durability. The resulting architecture emphasized serviceability, repeatable assembly, interchangeable components, ingress protection, and simpler, more robust construction methods.

Outcome

The final platform improved durability, maintainability, and consistency across the product fleet. Service access became faster and more intuitive, component replacement became more reliable, and the system better tolerated the realities of hospital cleaning and daily use.