KANSAS CITY โ More than seven years ago, the operations team at Crest Foods relied on a clunky quality control process that resulted in โa lot of paper shufflingโ and a โquite lengthyโ feedback loop, said Jared Stumpenhorst, an operations manager at the Ashton, Ill.-based dry food manufacturing company.
โWe were constantly reacting,โ he recalled. โWe werenโt getting ahead of anything. โฆ The reaction was at best an hour after an issue, but in a lot of cases when we were looking at broader trends it was a day later.โ
The company has since transformed its frontline operations by adopting a software solution developed by Miami-based QAD Redzone. Mr. Stumpenhorst discussed the benefits of using the Redzone Compliance Module during a webinar hosted by Food Business News.
โIn the first 90 days, we got rid of all that paper,โ he said. โBecause our quality technicians were doing the work in Redzone on the iPads โฆ they were doing the work at the line side so they would be giving real-time feedback โฆ so we could make a correction in the moment. So now that hourlong feedback loop was a matter of minutes. And that was a dramatic change for us.โ
He added that adoption of the tool has created a more โunified understanding and appreciationโ among the companyโs maintenance, sanitation, production and quality assurance groups.
Common industrywide pain points in manufacturing include limited real-time data visibility, communication gaps and barriers, a lack of accountability and a lack of troubleshooting tools and data to solve problems, said Andrew Lansinger, solutions consultant at QAD Redzone.
During the webinar, he shared how connected workforce management solutions can empower teams to adapt in the moment with digital tools, leverage real-time data to enhance productivity and communication, and navigate digital transformation on the plant floor.
View the webinar on demand.
