Dan Murunga 
Industry: Food Manufacturing
Dessert Holdings is the premier dessert manufacturer in North America. They bake and create incredibly delicious goods to distribute across the country. And to do that as effectively and safely as possible, they rely on the Weavix platform and walt Smart Radio. Laken Grimes, Operations Manager for Dessert Holdings, reached out to Weavix to see how he could use the latest in communication tech to transform how his facility runs.
Business Challenge
Dessert Holdings and Laken Grimes had a very specific goal in mind when he reached out to Weavix to help update their communication with the latest technology.
“Our big KPIs are safety. We have to have a safe work safety record. The second is food quality. So a plant that has zero injuries and no food safety complaints or issues. Beyond that, operational efficiencies. Staying on schedule, correct tag counts and run rates for each line.”— Laken Grimes, Operations Manager Atlanta, GA.
He also realized that his current radios and form of communication were lacking, and he needed a modern solution to keep workers connected and safe.
“The radios we had before Weavix, just the standard Motorola, we had a lot of spots within the bakery that if you called on the radio, it would click and beep and make noise when I called out, so I’m assuming it’s working, but the other people wouldn’t hear it. So you’re sitting there assuming somebody’s hearing your call, but they’re not, so there’s a safety concern there. So we needed to find a better solution.”— Laken Grimes
Why They Chose walt Smart Radio System
Mr. Grimes came to Weavix for the capabilities in translation, efficiency, safety, and simplified cost. But what he really discovered is the benefit of working with a team that is responsive and cares about their customers, always striving to improve and make the customer experience better every day.
“I’ve worked in a bunch of different facilities in baking, managed a lot of projects where we’re trying to bring in new technology or a new piece of equipment, and I would say that my experience working with weavix from the beginning of learning about it to getting the equipment to rolling it out from training to the whole nine yards has definitely been the smoothest, most enjoyable experience. The customer support was extremely quick and very responsive. From start to finish, from the customer’s perspective, it has been very positive compared to a lot of other projects that I’ve tried to roll out .”— Laken Grimes
Solution
Mr. Grimes quickly realized how the translation feature on the walt Smart Radio could transform business. He also realized the inefficiency of all the time and money wasted on dumb radios, and how the Weavix platform could help solve every single one of them.
Translation
“If you were primarily a Spanish-speaking employee before, you had to go flag someone down to get work done. Now, it’s very convenient for the team. For example, they can snap a picture, drop in a note, and send it to the maintenance team, and it catches a thread of information. Maintenance can say they’ve got it. Time is money for us on the floor. I don’t want someone to have to flag someone down to get something done.”— Laken Grimes
Legacy Radio Maintenance and Cost
“Another focus was the time it took to replace our old radios. If one goes bad, it might be months before we could get a replacement radio or part, and the price was extremely high. So it was an old system that wasn’t giving us a lot of benefits. We spent a lot of money replacing parts and Motorola radios.”— Laken Grimes
Finding Value in Weavix Pricing
With our managed service plan, weCare, weavix offers coverage assurance to all devices implemented on the frontline. Every walt is protected at no additional cost to the company for their maintenance and replacements.
Future Potential
“With forms, I think there’s a huge potential for us to save time and paper printing report forms. It’s just the ease of use and simplicity of something like forklift inspection going on a radio form as opposed to going to a computer, printing a form, and finding a pen. That will be pretty helpful for us.”— Laken Grimes
