How Corporate College Helped MUM Industries Scale Unified Culture

Smart Business Magazine highlights how manufacturer maintained consistent operations during multi-state growth

When Anna Nocera joined MUM Industries in 2013, the electrical enclosure manufacturer was a single-location operation with 40 employees. By 2017, the company was expanding rapidly, acquiring businesses in California and Texas.

This multi-location evolution created a critical leadership challenge: upskilling a growing workforce while ensuring a unified culture across a widening geographic footprint.

As profiled in the June 2026 issue of Smart Business Magazine, MUM leadership needed to provide every employee with the same conceptual tool kit. The goal was to shift the organizational mindset toward a proactive view of change, which they accomplished with the help of Corporate College^®, a division of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C^®).

The engagement began with an initial Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt class of 10 to 15 leaders, including the company president. This first cohort laid the foundation for a core philosophy of continual improvement.

"The Six Sigma coursework that we started in 2014 with Corporate College was really important at that time, and continues to be, so that everybody has the same fundamental background," says Nocera, now corporate director of human resources.

By grounding leadership in the same metrics and methodologies, MUM Industries successfully bridged its regional gaps. The Corporate College training allowed teams in different states to speak the same language, understand the same metrics, and maintain identical continuous improvement projects.

Instead of operating as isolated factories, the scattered locations survived rapid scaling by adhering to a singular, cohesive corporate culture. Today, the foundational tools provided by Corporate College continue to keep the growing organization aligned, developing and moving forward.

Read the entire story in Smart Business Magazine.

June 08, 2026

By Anthony Moujaes, 216-987-3068 or anthony.moujaes@tri-c.edu