Iowa is not just farm equipment. Heartland is set in the Des Moines metro medtech corridor — cleanrooms, FDA registration, and supplier-quality scorecards.
Iowa Medtech Manufacturing Simulation
Heartland Micromolding
Ankeny, Iowa
Step into the Chief Operating Officer seat at a 250-person, family-owned specialty micro injection molder serving the medical-device, microelectronics, and automotive-sensor industries. Iowa is not just farm equipment — and this simulation proves it.
Platform: ready today
The simulation engine, AI grading, instructor tooling, dashboards, and Privacy Mode enrollment that power Apex are the same technology that will run Heartland. Iowa medtech and community-college partners can preview the experience now using the flagship simulation.
Content: in development
The canonical seed, eight-week scenario arc, 14-stakeholder cast, dual-rubric scoring (Financial 50% / Cultural 50%) tuned for medical-device manufacturing, and the FDA / ISO 13485 / IEDA citation library are authored. Pilot launch: Fall 2026.
The Scenario
Ankeny, Iowa. Class 7 cleanrooms. Tolerances in microns. A founder who built it in a garage.
Heartland Micromolding, Inc. is a 250-person, family-owned specialty micro injection molder founded in Ankeny, Iowa in 1982 — at the heart of the Iowa / Midwest medtech corridor. Roughly 60% of revenue is medical devices — catheter components, drug-delivery, diagnostics — manufactured in ISO Class 7 and Class 8 cleanrooms under ISO 13485:2016 and FDA registration. The other 40% is microelectronics and automotive sensors. Annual revenue is approximately $78M. EBITDA margin sits near 16.5%.
Your largest medtech customer — about 28% of revenue — is consolidating its molding-supplier roster from 14 to 6. They want a 12% price reduction over 24 months, evidence of FDA 21 CFR Part 820 Design Controls maturity on a new Class III catheter component within 9 months, and a documented dual-source supply plan. A coastal private-equity firm has begun circling. The founding family is split on selling, recapitalizing, or staying independent.
You are the new COO. You have six weeks of relationship capital, no equity yet, and eight weeks of decisions ahead of you.
Iowa Medtech Context
The Iowa / Midwest medtech corridor — in a simulation.
Regulatory readiness context
- • FDA 21 CFR Part 820 Quality System Regulation — mock inspection in Week 5
- • ISO 13485:2016 — medical device quality management; CAPA closure tracked in scoring
- • FDA Class III catheter component readiness window — 9 months
- • Supplier-quality scorecard dynamics with medtech OEM Cardia Vascular Systems
Iowa medtech workforce & location
- • Ankeny, Iowa — Des Moines metro; Iowa medtech corridor hub
- • DMACC Industrial Tech program as cleanroom-technician pipeline (Week 4)
- • Iowa 260F blended training program option for 32-tech ramp in 9 months
- • IEDA Senior PM as a stakeholder (Iowa talent pipeline and grant alignment)
Why this exists
Iowa is not just farm equipment.
Apex puts students in a Fortune-500 frame. Prairie puts them in a small-town, family-owned ag-equipment supplier with a UAW local. Both are true Iowa stories — and both reinforce, accidentally, that Iowa manufacturing is heavy iron and farm country.
Iowa is also home to a quiet medtech and microelectronics manufacturing base — the kind of work that is performed in cleanrooms, audited by the FDA, and held to tolerances measured in microns. Heartland Micromolding is a fictionalized composite of that ecosystem, set in Ankeny — Des Moines metro — and built around the dynamics that actually break or make a specialty medtech supplier: customer consolidation, regulatory readiness, family ownership, and coastal capital.
Heartland teaches the same leadership skills as Apex and Prairie, but in a world where a single CAPA can lose a customer, a single FDA inspection can pause a line, and a single private-equity meeting can split a family.
Eight-Week Arc
The decisions you'll lead through.
Three Tracks
Apex, Prairie, or Heartland — three Iowa worlds, the same pedagogy.
| Apex | Prairie | Heartland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive parts | Ag-equipment precision components | Medical-device specialty micro injection molding |
| Setting | Des Moines, urban | Millbrook, IA — pop. 4,200 | Ankeny, IA — Des Moines metro |
| Company size | 2,400 employees | 340 employees | 250 employees |
| Player role | CEO | VP of Operations | Chief Operating Officer (COO) |
| Ownership | Corporate | Family-owned (third generation) | Family-owned (founder-led, 1982) |
| Workforce | National UAW | Local UAW (Local 847) | Non-union (employee council) |
| Regulatory frame | Generic | Iowa 260F & Manufacturing 4.0 | FDA 21 CFR Part 820 + ISO 13485 |
| Central tension | AI transformation under debt covenants | 15% cost ultimatum from #1 customer | Medtech customer consolidation + FDA Class III + PE offer |
Built for Iowa medtech
FDA-aware. ISO 13485-aware. DMACC- and IEDA-aware.
14 stakeholders, dual-rubric scoring
- • Founder, family CEO, VP Engineering, Director of Quality, Plant Manager, HR Director
- • Cardia VP Supply Chain & Director of Quality (the customer)
- • Coastline Capital MD (the PE offer)
- • DMACC Industrial Tech Dean & IEDA Senior PM (the Iowa pipeline)
- • Employee Council Rep & Des Moines Register reporter (the floor and the press)
- • Financial 50% / Cultural 50% rubric tuned for medical-device manufacturing
Real, verifiable citations
- • 21 CFR Part 820 — FDA Quality System Regulation
- • ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 14644-1 cleanroom classification
- • FDA Premarket Approval (PMA) for Class III devices
- • BLS OES Iowa wage data for molders & technicians
- • Iowa HQJ program & Iowa Code §260F training grants
- • DMACC Career Academy, AdvaMed, SelectUSA Medical Technology
Designed for
Who this simulation is built for.
O*NET SOC codes listed for procurement reviewers, state workforce board staff, and 260F program coordinators.