When coronavirus swept the nation, no one was truly prepared for the damage it would cause. As it spread, some lived in sickness while others lived in fear. Meanwhile, healthcare heroes worked endless hours to do all they could. So, when the healthcare workers needed help, CIT Inc. was there.

As more and more people in the United States fell ill, more and more hospital beds were needed. There just weren’t enough. Larger cities couldn’t give help to all who needed medical attention because the hospital bed shortage was real and serious. How could those patients get treatment when there is nowhere to put them?

CIT had the answer – A portable, versatile hospital bed. The team got to work designing and manufacturing a bed to meet the needs of the coronavirus crisis. They had one main goal in mind, to create a bed that would accommodate the overflow of patients while still offering the support of a traditional hospital bed. People needed the beds, and they needed them fast.

Standard business hours and days did not exist. The design and engineering team worked around the clock to get their product ready. The first bed was sent to be tested just one week after CIT received the assignment. The following week, shipments were ready.

The CIT team took their responsibility seriously. These beds weren’t just another project. They were an urgent, critical need. The country needed them. The healthcare workers needed them. The many patients needed them.

During the coronavirus crisis, many businesses have changed their ways to help make ends meet. But CIT didn’t change ways, they just fulfilled their duty – to provide a high-quality product in a short amount of time.

The client, Direct Supply, deserved the hospital bed they asked for. The sick deserved, and desperately needed, a place to rest and heal. Now, they have it. The CIT designed hospital bed has been important during these uncertain times. It helped eliminate the hospital bed shortage.

The CIT team didn’t just accomplish another task. They didn’t just create another innovative design and product. They helped save lives.

Company goes from concept to first beds in 2.5 weeks

As coronavirus (COVID-19) rapidly spreads throughout the United States, it is causing a shortage of hospital beds impacting the delivery of healthcare services in places like New York. This has highlighted the critical need to ensure plenty of capacity for COVID-19 intensive care patients. With a shortage of beds, a portable, rapid-response bed was needed to shore up shortages in health care facilities during a crisis like COVID-19.

Indiana-based CIT Inc. was contacted by Direct Supply to manufacture a portable, versatile hospital bed designed to accommodate an overflow of patients while offering the support of a traditional hospital bed. CIT designed the first prototype and rolling out the first of thousands of beds this week. The to-market process has taken two weeks to complete. The design and engineering team collaborated and worked around the clock to complete this process in record time. 

 “Normally this process takes eight to 12 weeks. We’ve done it in two weeks,” said Wuertemberger, founder of CIT. “To go from concept to manufacturing beds is pretty amazing.”

 “I’m happy to keep our employees working to support medical services, so that emergency ‘healthcare heroes’ can have more beds for patients,” he said.

 CIT is focused on design, prototyping, and manufacturing solutions for companies in aerospace, automotive, cab and canopy, material handling and medical industries. Learn more at c-i-t.com.

 Direct Supply is an employee-owned company committed to Bringing What’s Next to Senior Health™ via world-class procurement, building management, care technology, and design and development solutions. Learn more at DirectSupply.com.

Recently, a CIT built cab was featured on the MCFA website and in Mystic Seaport’s video entitled “Mystic Seaport’s Long History with Lift Trucks.” Check out the video below to see a CIT cab in action.

I don’t want to name names, but I’m sure many of you have heard about the customer service incident that went GLOBAL via the internet this week.
So this week let’s talk customer service. Below is a nice little read. Most people even if they like your product, service, or company in general will let customer service incidents affect their position on continuing business, ESPECIALLY if there are close competitors. In professional relationships, having the last word is not NEARLY as important as having a great working relationship and continuing business. Even if they are wrong (which the customer never is) it is better to value the customer and resolve the situation. Hmm not too bad advice for those personal relationships either. =)

http://video.about.com/marketing/Tips-for-Customer-Service-Best-Practices.htm

For some of us/ you it is quarter end and semi-annual report time. Your  brain may be overworked and over used.. Take a break and check out this video on Brain Power. It’s pretty magical (pun intended).

or see their website for other great videos too.

http://www.ted.com/talks/keith_barry_does_brain_magic#t-517223

The “STACK” video is 5 operators playing large JENGA using their Caterpillar equipment driving experience.  The video of their skill is just impressive.   Caterpillar, one of our customers, posted this on their website and we keep watching it over and over.

Check it out.

STACK

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”
― E. Joseph Cossman

At CIT we have set the goal of “World Class Company”. If you research this online you will find that it is much more than just Quality or ISO certification, it is the totality of your business.

For example some techniques are:

• Make-to-order – CIT has our own Design/ Engineering department for new product development
• Streamlined flow – CIT has our facility set up so that products are streamlined machine to machine, and department to department. Raw material comes in one end of the building and goes out the other as complete products.
• Small lot sizes- CIT breaks down the run quantities to maximize efficiency while minimizing slow moving inventory.
• Families of parts – CIT manufactures similar part families within the same work cell
• Doing it right the first time – CIT has meetings daily with supervisors as well as job kick off meetings to ensure all are aware of the expectations before they start, ideally to exceed customer expectations
• Cellular manufacturing – This also goes hand in hand with our streamlined flow how our work cells are located to maximize product flow.
• Total preventative maintenance – By tracking and documenting the maintenance on our equipment, we schedule preventative maintenance BEFORE there are problems
• Quick changeover – CIT designs and builds most of our fixtures in house, by doing this they are built specifically for our needs
• Zero Defects – Our job is to correct and prevent defective parts reaching the customer
• Just-in-time – Our customer’s keep us updated with monthly reports on our on time delivery, we will continue assessing this to reach goals and reduce lead times
• High employee involvement – We strive to keep employees involved and aware by utilizing their ideas to make company wide improvements
• Cross functional teams – This is necessary to cross train employees, not only for staffing, illness issues, but so that employees are aware of cause and effect of their task
• Multi-skilled employees – Most of our Supervisors/Leads actually worked in their department prior to being promoted, they are hands on and typically able to do multiple jobs within the work cells
• Statistical process control – CIT is working on this area so that we can get a better handle on where and how improvements can be made. We currently review PPM’s by the entire plant as well as by product line.

This is pretty awesome, we have been featured on OEM Off Highways’s web site… check it out
http://www.oemoffhighway.com/product/11358968/contract-industrial-tooling-cit-cab-of-the-future

The recap from our ConAgg Expo show:

It went really well, we had about fifty solid leads, met a lot of great people, and even encountered bees… yes BEES!! (see attached pics)

Thank you to those that came out and visited our booth.  We got to meet with some folks from Ditch Witch, Terramac, Manitowoc, Manitou, KATV, and Watson just to name a few. We had some great products to show off  and also saw a lot of great products and opportunities.  It was pretty much the bees knees… oh yeah bees, our container to pack up and return our products back to Indiana got to be a temporary home/ hive for some bees.

We now have Robotic Welder 6 running in the Fab department. It has the brains and the brawn.. check out the video on our Facebook page.    ROBOT 6