Medrad Inc., Heilman Center Plant, Indianola, Pa.
Employees: 176, non-union
Total Square Footage: 154,000
Primary Product/market: medical diagnostic-enhancing fluid delivery systems and MR coils and accessories
Start-up: 2002
Achievements: 2003 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; inventory savings from demand/pull purchasing agreements with six key suppliers totaled $1 million; quality control team cut inventory from $1.5 million to $54,000 from 2006 to 2007; since 2003 has exceeded goal of increasing revenues by 15% annually
Medrad Inc.'s gleaming bright facility just outside Pittsburgh, where nearly 200 employees systematically put together medical imaging devices, stands in stark contrast to the gritty steel mills that forged this region's industrial identity. The difference isn't just the clean working environment that's inherent in producing medical equipment; rather, it's a modern-day approach to manufacturing that stresses flexibility to foster efficiency and productivity.
It's an elasticity that's evident on a mid-November afternoon when production worker Rosanne Rings builds an interface for Medrad's eCoil, a probe device used in prostate, colon and cervical examinations, just hours after working on an imaging screen display for another product at the other end of the Heilman Center plant in Indianola, Pa. Rings, like the rest of the workers at the 5-year-old facility, is cross-trained to work multiple job functions.
View article on one page