iiMED Committed to promoting the Development of Human Talent in Reynosa

Name of the company: IIMED Mexicana

Employees: 820

Beginning of operations: 2013

Sector: Medical

Products: Orthopedic girdles, compression boots, insulating bags, passive spheres

iiMED Medical Devices was opened in September 2013 in the Reynosa Industrial Park its processes are focused on the manufacturing of medical products which are orthopedic girdles, compression boots, insulating bags, passive spheres

The emergence of the company

iiMED is the commercial name because they changed activity to produce medical products, reason why they decided to move in 2013 to a larger facility aiming to capture more customers from the medical sector.  As reference, it was in 2003 that IIMAK Mexicana was born focusing in the production of ‘thermal transfer tape,’ these tapes are used in an identification system, in particular regarding bar codes.

The presence of the company includes countries as the United States – with its headquarters in Amherst, New York – the European continent, Brazil and Mexico with its plant in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.  Its workforce is integrate by 820 jobs and had a growth of 120 thousand square feet on its infrastructure.

Talent development: their vision

One of iiMED’s commitments on their vision shows how they want employees to see the company.  Focusing in the development of human talent, they had different strategies that they implement to incentivize the growth and development of each person.  At union level, there are scholarship programs for people studying and for workers’ children.

Once they are part of the company as associates, they are encouraged to continue studying, at a high school level or a professional career; people work all week and on weekends they are dedicated to their studies.

“We have identified this people in order to internally develop them for other positions that could be opened.  For example, we currently have people that entered as operators and after escalating some positions, today are production leaders.  Likely, there is people that were production leaders and today are working as supervisors; this at a unionized level,” said Rusbel Garcia, human resources manager at iiMED.

At trusted level in the development plan and retaking the vision of the company, what they want is to prepare them in a specific area.  For example, Rusbel said that he is currently studying a master’s degree in Management and Leadership, this as part of the formation that, as human resources manager needs to have a future vision and implement more projects in benefit of the company.

On the other hand, employees from the engineering area are developed with Six Sigma or Lean courses (to mention a few,) or are studying a master’s degree in quality.  “We also have groups of people studying English, and despite the help this represents for the company, is a personal-professional development,” Garcia said.

Its processes

“Fortunately, we have a demand of the compression therapy area of orthopedic sashes where as in the clean room, our customers have keep us the product demand, this help us continue growing, hiring and being a better option for human capital and to develop it, in our operative areas as well as in management or trusted areas,” noted Rusbel Garcia.

Technology transfer is received from the corporate, in this aspect engineers develop and renew the Lean processes by making improvements to already established processes, and with this they can economize time in product elaboration, but they also improve product quality or even optimize the workforce required for the product.

iiMED is growing thanks to the demand of its products that have increased 20 % in the last year, and products in which they are working by making renovations, for example: the laminate in fabric for orthopedic sashes.  “The medical part has yielded and enabled us to continue growing,” Garcia explained.

Finally, Rusbel Garcia said that: “Reynosa has characterized by providing a great opportunity, to find direct workforce, as well as for the quality of people in performing their work.  This workforce is very qualitied, many investors see Reynosa as a growing area, - and it is – because Tamaulipas and in fact the northern border is the best option for investors due to its proximity with workforce, and because currently most of the maquila companies have the opportunity of growing.”