Team Flo on the GO!-Celeste O.

Since the start of our project, we have identified our problem, thus creating a problem statement as well as come up with a solution most beneficial to Mother’s Milk Bank.

Problem Statement: Across the nation, thousands of new mothers are in need of donated breast milk. In Texas, thousands of parents use donated milk to nourish their infants. Austin Mothers Milk Bank serves mothers and babies in central Texas, specifically preterm babies and those suffering allergies, formula intolerance, or infectious diseases. The Milk Bank has the opportunity to move to a larger facility which will enable them to serve more babies by increasing their workflow. Team Flō of the Ann Richards School brings three years of STEM and two years of Biomedical classes to design an improved workflow plan for Mothers Milk Bank.  With an improved workflow and larger space, the organization will be able to distribute greater amounts of breast milk and help more mothers in need in central Texas.

Solution: A floorplan to increase breast milk production and increase workflow. We are thinking about the possibility of making a 3D printed floor plan to be able to move the machinery models.

For more on our problem and solution, you can read our team blog post.

Steps taken to achieve solution:

On February 27th we visited Mother’s Milk Bank in their current location and boy o’ boy did we learn a lot and then some. We got a very helpful crash course on breast milk production by the Mother’s Milk Bank operations manager. With our visit to the current facility Team Flo was able to better understand the necessity of our project. The current facility is experiencing some storage shortage as well as space difficulty in general. The operations manager also provided us with some statistics such as the expected increase of breast milk production to increase by 18%! This means that right now the milk bank is producing around 3000 3 ounce bottles per week, this should increase to about 3,540 in their new facility. On our visit, we physically saw the layout of the current facility and got a more in-depth look at what we need to solve and how to go about it. In our visit, we also learned more clearly what the layout of the new facility will be.

 

 

 

 

After our visit to the current facility of Mother’s Milk Bank, we got to work. We gratefully received a list of the appliances and machinery that will be installed in the new facility and got to finding the measures online. Team Flo has been hard at work trying to find the best place for each machine but also trying to find where each machine goes because each machine has a specific purpose for a specific step in the breast milk processing. In addition to finding the measures, we are also needing to know the function of each machine, which at times can be difficult. We are at the moment taking into account the function and measures of each machine to find the best possible place for them as well as putting them in the appropriate room.  

Thanks to Mother’s Milk Bank director and the operations manager we have received much information that has aided us greatly. We are in constant contact with them and appreciate their cooperation.