faces of the frontline: manufacturing’s all stars

Brani Jacobo has practically grown up on the floor at Gorilla Glue in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began his career at the facility as a Packer One temporary employee. Over the last four years, he’s demonstrated such enthusiasm, spirit, and leadership that he’s advanced to assistant supervisor on the second shift (nights).

He’s become a subject matter expert for manufacturing, and everyone on nights knows they can rely on Brani’s expertise and count on him if they need help. When a new manager and new supervisor arrive on the second shift, Brani steps up to help train and integrate them into the shift.

The line leads at Gorilla Glue were an important factor in enabling adoption and use of Redzone, and Brani has led the way.

Brani’s team members and his supervisors speak very highly of him and his passion to help coach and drive improvements on the frontline.

Ever since the company implemented the platform, Brani’s been on the frontline, coaching the night teams and taking the lead on report-outs and action items. Throughout implementation, Brani was there, coming in early, presenting with Kaizen teams, and training his coworkers.

Of course, rolling out a new technology at a bustling process- and standards-driven manufacturing facility is always a challenge. At Gorilla Glue, the second shift was drowning. They had a lot of people to train on nights — three departments with up to 30 people each — but they only had one Brani. Yet he rose to the occasion.

According to production team members, Brani was considered a go-to person on night shift. If the team was having problems in a certain area or challenges, they could go directly to Brani and he would help get everybody on the floor on the same page.

Quickly, Brani was the tech subject matter expert. He was one of the first to use the messaging system and immediately saw that it was an efficient way to let managers know about issues.

Another challenge on the night shift was how to communicate issues to managers during the day. Brani realized that images were the best way to convey what was happening to someone who wasn’t there. He discovered that Redzone had photo and video functionality and started leveraging it to keep everyone in sync. He taught his teammates to snap a picture or record a video and share it with the people who can help solve the problem. Managers understood that there was some anxiety around the plant when Redzone rolled out, particularly on the night shift. Workers know that during the day, problems get solved with a quick email. On nights, however, they don’t always have the same support available when something goes wrong.

Second-shift employees soon realized they could relax, because Brani was on the case. Leaders already trusted him because of his vast knowledge and experience. When they saw him putting in the effort to pick up technology to support the teams on nights, they knew they could rely on him for assistance.

Another feature that Brani champions with this new technology is how it brings visibility to operations. Redzone offers instant feedback on how well you’re doing. His team finds this information incredibly helpful — and motivating, too. If the feedback is red, regroup and make the necessary adjustments. If it’s green, you’re doing good. What could be easier than that?

Though he’s not on the production line anymore, Redzone makes Brani’s job as assistant supervisor easier. Before, he had to manually check every single line every 15 minutes, all day long. Now, Redzone has all the information he needs at his fingertips. All he has to do is look at his iPad.

Managers and coworkers alike can’t say enough good things about Brani. He’s been described as persistent, compassionate, kind, motivated, and goal-oriented. He’s driven to make sure his team has everything they need, and he’s consistently striving to collect data and improve processes.

As for Brani, he says that all this praise makes him more committed to doing his best at Gorilla Glue. He wants to continue building the second shift into its best possible version.

Video

“The line leads are critical in this process for us. Brani was coaching all of them. He was up on the frontline with all of that stuff. You could see the passion and his people speak volumes about him. I know his supervisors on nights couldn’t talk more highly of him.”

Joe Eiser VP of Global Manufacturing, Gorilla Glue