When skilled labor is on a volunteer basis and revenue streams are nonexistent, it’s almost unthinkable to set a goal of doubling capacity with lean production standards—but Mobility Worldwide undertook and achieved the unthinkable.
Based in in Columbia, MO, Mobility Worldwide is a charity that builds carts for individuals with physical disabilities in resource-poor countries where wheelchairs are neither affordable nor equipped for rural durability. The organization began in 1994 when Larry Hills, a missionary in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), told Rev. Mel West, a pastor in Columbia, of the great need for three-wheeled, hand-cranked wheelchairs for victims of polio and landmines. West contacted his friend and inventor, Earl L. Miner, and the two began working on a prototype design.