"GROUP IQ" LEADS TO SUCCESS
Opening the door to a new market is an everyday challenge faced by companies as they work to stay competitive in a constantly changing global economy. This challenge is even more difficult when the company is launching a direct sales initiative designed to transform its marketing efforts from reactive to proactive selling.
To expand into the healthcare market, Valley Craft sales manager Peg Larson began calling on hospitals in the Minneapolis area to see if they had a material handling need that needed to be addressed. She quickly learned there was a need for a better medical waste disposal system and began visiting hospitals to see how they were currently handling materials and waste in their organizations.
In Minnesota, as with many states, regulations require medical waste containers to be closed to prevent contact with disposed items. “There was only one product on the market that allowed personnel to dispose of waste without touching the container,” says Peg. “However, we found out they weren’t very happy with it. The lids were breaking and they couldn’t get the replacements they needed.”
One hospital put Peg in contact with a medical waste service provider that manages waste for healthcare providers across the country. “We invited them to visit Valley Craft to learn more about our manufacturing capabilities,” says Peg. A team from Valley Craft then took several designs and prototypes to present to a major medical client in southern Minnesota—soliciting feedback from key sourcing people in the maintenance and waste management area.
To generate design solutions that would achieve the requirements described by customers, Valley Craft created a cross-functional research and development team comprising design, manufacturing, engineering and sales—working in partnership with the customer and end user. The team used a lean manufacturing tool known as 3P (Product Preparation Process). The process seeks to meet customer requirements by starting with a clean product development slate to rapidly create and test potential product designs that require the least time, material, and resources.
“In a multi-day creative process, the team identified several alternative ways to meet customer needs,” says Josh Rodewald, engineering manager. The designs were then “Moonshined” and analyzed. Moonshining uses ingenuity and rapid prototyping to test designs and see how well they solve product and process challenges and fulfill customer requirements.
“This is the first time Valley Craft used a 3P process for the rapid development of a new product solution,” says Josh. “The process has shown great success and received positive feedback from our team members and customers.”
Valley Craft’s General Manager, Roger Goff, says the development of the medical waste product line is a story that goes to the heart of capitalizing on the “Group IQ” – bringing together a team of diverse employees to design and produce a better solution.
The end result was the development of a transport rack for management and transfer of medical waste receptacles along with a “step-on” container for hands-free disposal of bio-hazardous waste. Thus far, Valley Craft has designed four transport racks to fit the needs of the medical waste contractor and hospitals in Minnesota, Arizona, Florida and Montana.
The final piece of the puzzle was put in place when Valley Craft’s lean production team absorbed the additional work and produced the new products ahead of schedule. “This opportunity—which would have been nearly impossible to achieve two years ago—was met with a renewed entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm by our employees,” says Roger.
“Not only did Valley Craft achieve the delivery timeline with a unique design that excited the customer and end-user, but we were successful in exceeding their expectations in overall performance! This proved to be a unique opportunity for us to partner with a customer in providing solutions that enhance their core product,” Roger adds.