Fourth-Generation Confectioner Cuts Lead Times From 10 Weeks to 3

Taffy Town has been making saltwater taffy in West Jordan, Utah, for four generations. The food and beverage manufacturer turns out more than 80 standard and seasonal flavors with a 75-person team, 60 of them on the shop floor across two shifts and three departments.

When demand climbed during the pandemic, the orders outran the plant. Lead times doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled. Taffy Town deployed the Redzone Connected Workforce Solution in October 2021. Within nine months, its teams decreased production lead times from 10 weeks to three, lifted output 33%, and took overtime to zero.

The Challenge

Before Redzone, Taffy Town’s production reports ran two to three weeks behind. By the time a number reached a manager, the shift it described was long gone, as was any chance of doing something about it.

That lag had never been comfortable, but growth made it untenable. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) told the same story as the lead times. “We had hung out at 40% to 45% OEE forever at our company,” says Jason Glade, Taffy Town’s President and CEO.

The obvious answer was a bigger building, and Glade had started working out what it would cost. Before breaking ground, he wanted to be sure the company had exhausted what it could do with the plant it already had. “What do we do best? Where are our gaps? What do we need to address to grow as a company?” he asked.

Consultants pointed him toward Lean manufacturing, and specifically toward software that put improvement in the hands of the people running the lines. “We can’t keep doing the business the way we’ve always done and expect growth to happen,” Glade says.

Why Taffy Town Chose Redzone

Glade did not take that recommendation on faith. He called four other candy companies running the platform, including Atkinson Candy, Eileen’s Candy, Guittard Chocolate, and Palmer Candy, and asked about their first year using the platform.

“I’ve told Redzone that their customers are the best sales people,” he says.

They told him that the Redzone Connected Workforce Solution changes who gets to solve a problem. Operators see the numbers as the shift runs, raise issues, and work through fixes to run the plant better. That was what Glade was after. 

The Rollout

Taffy Town deployed Redzone in October 2021 and had all four modules live by the following year.

Starting With the Cut-Wrap Department

The first deployment went to cut-wrap, the department running eight lines across both shifts and setting the pace for everything downstream. Overhead screens went up, iPads went next to the equipment, and the app went onto people’s phones. 

Operators saw live production data, work instructions, and dashboards, and could message each other without leaving the line. Adoption took about 48 hours.

Working With a Redzone Coach

Taylor Windatt, Redzone Operational Excellence Lead Coach, ran the first three modules and worked with leaders and teams through a 90-day sprint built on five goals: building a visual factory with OEE visible in real time, coaching operators in Lean practices, gaining at least eight OEE points, achieving finance-verified cost savings, and holding those gains past day 90.

“Taylor was instrumental in helping us understand that Redzone isn’t just a software solution,” Glade says. “It’s a tool to drive culture change with transparency, communication, and tools that empower each worker.” ~ Jason Glade | President and CEO, Taffy Town

Not everyone was sold at the start. Taffy Town’s maintenance manager expected the iPads to become a complaint box. “When we put those iPads by the equipment, operators are going to provide their complaints in real time,” he said. Instead, that maintenance manager got earlier warnings, with operators flagging a problem while it was still small enough to fix between runs.

Scaling to All Four Modules

Taffy Town added three more Redzone modules — Compliance, Reliability, and Learning — between 2021 and 2022, reaching the two cooking departments, maintenance, quality assurance, and HR.

The Results

Throughput and Lead Times

Cut-wrap OEE increased 40% from its 45% baseline within 90 days.The gains came from showing operators where their time was going, in cleaning, changeovers, and downtime, and the score kept building week after week. By nine months, production output rose 33%, and lead times simultaneously fell from 10 weeks to three.

“When we first moved into this building, our production manager said there’s no way we can do more than 130 batches a day,” says Glade. “Now we’re pushing 190 batches a day.” ~ Jason Glade | President and CEO, Taffy Town

Reliability and Maintenance

The maintenance team completed 775 activities and cut closeout time from 16 days to two. Operators work through a standard set of checks before escalating, which keeps the small problems off the maintenance queue entirely.

“Before, we had equipment that we’d take offline long term because we couldn’t diagnose the underlying problem,” says Glade. “We were having two to three breakdowns a month.” With Reliability running, he says, they went three months without any equipment downtime.

Better Audits, Happier Customers

Third-party food safety inspectors pull what they need on demand, decreasing audits from three days down to a day and a half. Customer complaints dropped about 75%, from three or four a week to three or four a month.

People and Culture

The gains went back to the floor. Taffy Town added 20% more staff to support growth, moved to a four-day workweek, and watched turnover fall 13%. Eliminating overtime saved $360,000. Learning data helps the company redesign training and spot the people worth moving toward leadership. Monthly town halls keep the whole plant current on where production stands.

“Our employees are our most valuable asset,” Glade says. The plant was named Plant of the Year at the 2023 Redzone Community Awards. ~ Jason Glade | President and CEO, Taffy Town

Conclusion

The clearest measure of what changed is the planned expansion Taffy Town didn't need to build because of the capacity Redzone helped find in the existing plant. “We can take our current assets and use them better,” Glade says.

Taffy Town found its next factory inside the one it already had. Book a demo to see where that capacity is hiding in your plant.