Industry
employees
Improve production processes by enhancing worker communication, collaboration, and problem-solving.
Deployed the QAD Redzone Connected Worker Solution on packaging and fill lines at one facility.
For nearly 90 years, Haviland Enterprises, Inc. has offered creative chemistry services to its customers in industries such as retail, medical, agriculture, and marine. Haviland Products Company provides commodity chemistries and is a contract manufacturer and packager of liquid and dry chemical products. The company’s second business, Haviland Pool & Spa, sells pool and spa chemicals to consumers and businesses throughout the country. Haviland operates 10 packaging lines at its facilities in Arizona, Michigan, and Ohio.
As the pace of business accelerates, Haviland is transforming digitally to drive product quality and throughput. Explains Matt Osterhaven, Vice President of Finance, “We want to be able to track more data in real-time so that our teams can react faster and continuously improve our operations. So, as our competitors evolve, we will as well.”
When asked to name their favorite features, the Haviland team said:
“QAD Redzone is a simple system that makes a huge impact,” says Kyle Dutcher.
As a result, when the company’s leaders heard about QAD Redzone, a connected workforce solution that improves communication and collaboration, they wanted to learn more.
President and CEO Meg Post says she heard about QAD Redzone when visiting AqualCal, a customer of a Haviland Pool & Spa distributor, HornerXpress®. The operations manager at AquaCal had deployed QAD Redzone at a predecessor company and championed its deployment at his new firm.
“We saw an opportunity there,” says Kyle Dutcher, Quality Manager. “We saw how QAD Redzone could take us to the next level by providing us with real-time tracking on how we’re performing day-to-day in terms of our OEE, availability, and quality. We also knew that QAD Redzone would provide more structure to our huddles and daily vital sign meetings and involve our workers in solving production issues.”
Ms. Post concurs. “They showed us how employees engaged with QAD Redzone on the floor, using visual boards by equipment and TVs overhead. The insights and reporting they were getting from the software were very interesting to us,” Ms. Post said.
Ms. Post also saw how QAD Redzone inspired friendly competition between workers running on different production lines. She believed implementing QAD Redzone at Haviland would have the same effect, motivating managers and frontline workers to win the day by solving problems and driving throughout.
The company’s leadership team conducted due diligence by investigating other solutions and visiting other customers that had deployed QAD Redzone. They decided to move forward with implementing the solution in Q1 2023.
“The major reason we went with QAD Redzone was that it had so many rich features built in, such as communication, action tracking, forums, and leveraged lean management principles across workflow,” says Von Schopp, Director of Manufacturing.
The Haviland team was highly motivated to deploy QAD Redzone, drive production, and win more business. Ms. Post explains why:
“Haviland is 100% employee-owned, so our staff has a vested interest in the future of our company. We knew that QAD Redzone would enable our team to take ownership of their work, escalate issues, and become engaged in their success and the success of their production line every day,” she says.
QAD Redzone worked with the Haviland team to achieve five measurable Lean journey goals during an intensive 90-day sprint. These goals included:
“I was the lead on the implementation, so I was very nervous going into it because it seemed like a huge task to overcome, but the QAD Redzone team walked us through it step by step,” says Mr. Dutcher. “They offered us a ton of support.”
Kyle Dutcher | Quality Manager, Haviland
The Haviland team partnered with a coach to implement the QAD Redzone Productivity module on a key packaging line, then extend it to other packaging and fill lines.
The combined team implemented 1,500 SKUs, including rates, TMax rates, targets, and problem codes. Mark Albing, Plant Manager, says it took some work to determine which sensors, inputs, and outputs to use.
“We were fortunate that we had a two-tier implementation. We had normal implementation challenges with our first business group because we were adopting new processes requiring behavioral changes,” says Mr. Schopp. “However, by the time we onboarded the second business group, we had better data integrity and defined processes.”
“When we first implemented QAD Redzone, we experienced a lot of unplanned downtime,” says Chandra DeGood, West Packaging Facility Supervisor. “So, we held a Kaizen event, which identified many small issues our operators could address. QAD Redzone provided the data to back up our teams’ observations and theories about different production issues.”
Tyler DeGood, Packager on the North Liquids Line, says he has used QAD Redzone and Kaizen events to work with managers on process improvements, such as separating 36 types of fill heads into multiple buckets.
“Little things like that have already shown how we can speed up our changeover process,” Mr. DeGood says.
As a result of making process improvements, Haviland has now reduced changeover times that used to take up to 90 minutes down to 45. The company has also increased bottle output from 45 to 50 per minute.
“The Kaizen event was a huge turning point for improving the morale of our team because they saw exactly what good standards work can accomplish. They also saw the importance of teamwork and how their ideas were heard and used to drive process improvements,” says Ms. DeGood.
With QAD Redzone, when I go out on the floor, I already have the information I need about the challenges our teams are experiencing. I can communicate with them anywhere and anytime, at my desk, on the floor, and at home, using the mobile app,”
Meg Post | CEO, Haviland
With QAD Redzone, teams communicate in new ways. “QAD Redzone gives manufacturing employees a digital identity and a voice. They can use the system to document issues and how they’re solving them,” says Cindy Van Linden, Vice President of Human Resources.
QAD Redzone has improved communication across teams and between managers and employees. QAD Redzone translates work instructions and other communications into employees’ native language, enabling Haviland’s Spanish-speaking employees to contribute as much as its English-speaking staff.
Isaac Vega, Industrial Repack Supervisor, says QAD Redzone has improved communication and collaboration by giving him the tools to troubleshoot issues. “QAD Redzone is a problem-solver,” he says.
In addition, the production team is using QAD Redzone to create video tickets to facilitate issue diagnosis and resolution. “Previously, when the operators put in a work order for maintenance to fix a problem, many times it wouldn’t occur when the maintenance technician showed up. So, now operators can capture exactly what they’re seeing so that the technicians know where to focus their efforts,” says Ms. DeGood.
QAD Redzone encourages a culture of celebration when teams succeed. Managers and leaders are encouraged to recognize individual and team accomplishments at face-to-face meetings, such as town halls and daily huddles, and provide digital high-fives and good catches using the QAD Redzone app. “Our teams enjoy it when they get high-fives from their supervisors and upper management. It’s a morale booster,” says Ms. DeGood.
Creating a culture of celebration means that our employees are engaged. If they feel appreciated and valued, they will do more for the company. That’s a huge win!”
Chandra DeGood | West Packaging Facility Supervisor, Haviland
So, how has production changed now that the packaging and fill teams are both using QAD Redzone?
“Within the first three weeks, we began to achieve some traction,” says Mr. Schopp. “Within four months, our industrial repack group had improved OEE by 100%.” Across the two business units, the company achieved an average OEE uplift of 20 points.
In addition, the company has freed up 10-15% capacity to handle more production, enabling it to grow the business. “We’ve already communicated our availability to the salesforce and know that we have opportunities to target on several different production lines,” says Mr. Dutcher.
With so much momentum, the Haviland team plans to launch the QAD Redzone Compliance module at the end of the year to improve quality processes. They’re also considering implementing QAD Redzone into their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to optimize other supply chain processes.
“Right now, we’re completing our ISO 9001: 2015 audit. So, that’s one of Haviland’s big opportunities, which is to improve our document control and hourly inspections. I’m excited to launch Compliance to improve quality processes,” says Mr. Dutcher. He says he expects to reduce bottle overfill incidents and product giveaways as a result.
Says Ms. DeGood, “Using QAD Redzone has proven that we can create new efficiencies without having to do capital expenditures. As an employee-owned company, we can drive profitability by fixing things ourselves.”
When asked what advice she’d give to peers, Ms. Post says, “When you’re considering QAD Redzone, don’t just look at the productivity gains you can achieve with the solution. Look at how your employees are now communicating with each other, across business functions and about business challenges. Employees thrive when they’re given the tools to be successful every day.”
“By improving our business with QAD Redzone, we’re impacting the lives and retirement of our workforce every day,” Ms. Post concludes.
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