Continuous Improvement Advisory Leads to Enhanced Culture Shift at MMIC

Mobile Medical International Corporation (MMIC) provides a full line of U.S. healthcare code compliant temporary facilities. Their products include temporary mobile and modular surgery and sterile processing units. Located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, their St. Johnsbury facility employs 27 FTE and has been in operation since 1996. From surgical to sterile processing to water quality, MMIC has pioneered the development of temporary, on-site medical solutions to help hospitals and healthcare facilities maintain control of critical processes while keeping trained staff fully employed.

Having worked with VMEC, part of the MEP National Network™, many times over the last several years on lean-based projects and wishing to further their commitment in establishing lean principles, MMIC contacted VMEC seeking to pursue strategy deployment and continuous improvement as a multifaceted way to engage employees, investors, suppliers and others.  

VMEC took the initial steps in this advisory phase to gain an understanding of bottlenecks and provide coaching by training workers on Lean principles aligned to the company's strategic goals.  As team members practiced and applied concepts learned from earlier work, VMEC provided coaching during “cycles of learning” (PDCA) to support the organization's ability to sustain, ensuring that the principles learned are continued and become a structured routine. Deeper challenges were noted and reviewed for potential actions not included in the original scope of work leading to ongoing advisory which assessed and removed additional challenges in continuous improvement using fundamental lean concepts to recognize progress.