DEERFIELD, IL—Medical equipment maker Baxter International is expanding its Cleveland, MS, plant, with plans to add 50 to 100 new employees in about two years.

Designing a new medical device is a bit more complicated than designing a toaster or an automotive cooling system. Besides the issues common to any product—feasibility, usability, and design for manufacture and assembly—there are also issues of biocompatibility, sterilization and FDA regulations to deal with.

INDIANAPOLIS—Arcamed Inc., which makes trays for surgical instruments, is investing $1.4 million in new equipment for its assembly plant here and will add 71 jobs by 2016.

WASHINGTON—Medical device manufacturers scored a political victory when the Senate voted in a nonbinding resolution to repeal a new device tax.

Medtronic Inc. is a leading manufacturer of catheters, defibrillators, pacemakers, stents, valves, surgical instruments and other medical devices. The company operates state-of-the-art assembly plants around the world.

Kaizen (continuous improvement) is a key principle behind lean manufacturing initiatives in all industries.

Plant floor layout in the medical device industry is typically dictated by the types of products being produced.

Traditionally, hearing aids, pacemakers, defibrillators, cochlear implants, neurostimulators and other medical devices depend on lithium-ion batteries. However, batteries add extra weight. Batteries also raise numerous safety and reliability concerns.

LONDON—GlaxoSmithKline has launched a program to recycle used inhalers.