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Customer Success Spotlight: C&S Products

As the supply chain crisis persists around the globe, industry leaders have seen that investment in their frontline workers’ productivity may be key to getting things back on track. Because of the far-reaching impact that frontline productivity can have on the supply chain, Redzone was created to bring dignity back to the frontline worker through our connected workforce platform solution. We continue to be a driving force for many success stories on the frontline, despite the current state of the manufacturing industry. One such instance of customer success lies with C&S Products, based out of Fort Dodge, IA, and recipient of Redzone’s 2022 Community Awards Enterprise Plant of the Year.

C&S Products is a leader in the wild bird suet market with its eight unique C&S suet, squirrel, and wild bird feeding products and accessories. Since its founding in 1989, C&S sustained incredible success, achieving unprecedented customer satisfaction and leading the industry in wildlife acceptance. Seeing notable success from a strong customer base, C&S needed to invest in a solution to increase their frontline worker productivity as they continued hiring more and more staff to maintain their position as an industry leader.

In 2016, C&S Products adopted Redzone’s software to aid in the company’s frontline productivity, onboarding, and training, adding the maintenance module in 2020 and the learning module in 2022. Prior to adding Redzone to its software mix, C&S was experiencing a 51% turnover rate, with the lowest retention time being as little as two days. Their onboarding and hiring process was cumbersome and intensive, and there was no system in place to manage skill development. Their usual process was to “send them to the line and let them learn on the fly.” These methods continued to show a loss in productivity, leading management to wonder if there was a more effective approach. C&S determined they needed a new system for document storage of SOPs, work instructions, and training documents to ease the hiring and training process and make C&S overall more productive. Investing in their own employees, especially during the training process, was a priority for C&S – and it made a positive impact almost immediately! Since adopting the maintenance and learning modules, productivity at C&S increased by 17%, and turnover decreased by 71%.

Employees at C&S rave about the benefits of Redzone software because it aids in an assortment of issues they experience on the front line. Brenda McNealy, C&S’s HR manager, was hesitant to get behind Redzone’s software, but after using the modules for the first time while onboarding a new employee, she realized the software greatly decreased her amount of paperwork throughout the process, making her job more streamlined and productive. In addition, Ryan Rustvold, a production supervisor at C&S, was able to take the lead in play creation, creating multiple training videos for positions across the shop floor that eliminated several main concerns for team leads – ultimately leading to greater team collaboration and increased ownership among individual frontline workers.

To learn more about C&S’s success with Redzone and learn how to increase productivity in your own business, click here.