Aaron Cohen 
Manufacturing | Food Manufacturing
Company Intro
Novus Foods’ Delphos, Ohio facility produces gelatin and refrigerated food products. The site is a multi-building complex with 31 shipping doors, and its operations span production, maintenance, sanitation, and outdoor yard logistics. Noise on the production floor runs above 89 decibels, and the workforce is split between English and Spanish speakers.
“I totally recommend these devices. They’re very useful. No complaints.”
~ Raul Guevara, Safety Coordinator, Novus Foods
Business Challenge
With loud machinery on the production floor, teams spread across several buildings, and two languages on every shift, keeping people connected at Novus Foods was a constant challenge.
- Language barriers — A large Spanish-speaking workforce and an English-speaking maintenance team had no reliable way to talk in real time. When a translation was needed, someone had to find a bilingual colleague, pull them off their task, and walk them to where the conversation needed to happen. That burned time on both ends.
- Limited two-way radios — The facility relied on Kenwood radios and fixed wall-mounted intercoms near loud machinery. There was no message history, no way to send photos or video, and no translation of any kind.
- Maintenance dispatching delays — Production workers had no reliable way to describe a specific machine failure when they called for maintenance. Without visual context, technicians often arrived without a clear picture of what they were walking into.
- Siloed teams — Maintenance, production, sanitation, and forklift drivers each worked in relative isolation. Coordinating across teams meant tracking people down across a large, noisy facility.
Why They Chose Walt
Raul Guevara partnered with the weavix team to assess the facility’s communication needs and build a structured rollout plan. The case for Walt was clear.
- Real-time translation — Voice messages are translated automatically between English and Spanish, so no one needs a human interpreter on the floor.
- Photo and video sharing — Maintenance teams see the machine issue before they ever leave their station.
- Rugged and compliant — Walt performs in wet, cold environments and meets the GMP requirements of a food manufacturing facility.
- Mobile app access — Supervisors and workers without a dedicated device can join from the Walt mobile app, so no team is left out.
- Unlimited channels — No FCC licensing requirements and no manual channel programming across devices.
- Mass alerts — Instant facility-wide notifications reach leaders, who cascade them to their teams.
Solution
Raul drove adoption team by team, starting with the biggest communication bottleneck: forklift drivers and production. Maintenance came on board next, then sanitation, and most recently second shift.
The rollout was hands-on by design. Raul personally trained each team, reinforced correct usage on the floor, and used the weavix analytics dashboard to track engagement and spot gaps. When second shift wasn’t communicating consistently, he came in, aligned the teams, and had them on board within a week.
- Translated messaging — English- and Spanish-speaking teams message each other in their own language.
- Photo and video for maintenance — Workers document machine issues for maintenance work orders.
- Department channels — Production, maintenance, sanitation, and forklift operations each have their own channel.
- Mass alert broadcasts — Weather events and facility-wide notifications go out at once.
- Mobile app access — Supervisors and workers without dedicated devices stay in the loop from their phones.
- Favorites — Workers reach their most-used channels faster.
Results
Weekly message volume climbed to nearly 300, triple the original adoption goal, after Raul extended Walt to second shift. The weavix dashboard made that progress visible in real time, giving the team a clear picture of engagement across the facility.
- 3x message volume — The facility passed its weekly communication goal after second shift came on board.
- Fewer translation delays — An estimated 20% improvement in lost time, attributed to faster cross-language communication.
- Faster maintenance response — Photos of machine failures go straight to technicians before dispatch.
- Mass alerts in use — Weather and emergency notifications reach every leader instantly.
- Remote monitoring — Supervisors follow facility activity from off-site through the mobile app.
More than a radio
Something unexpected happened at Novus Foods. A Spanish-speaking worker began setting his Walt to English to build his language skills. Meanwhile, a maintenance technician learning Spanish started practicing with bilingual coworkers. Nobody designed it. It just happened, showing what’s possible when language barriers disappear.
Key Use Cases
Cross-language team coordination
Forklift drivers and production teams coordinate order closures, material requests, and personnel movement in real time, in whichever language they speak.
Maintenance dispatching
Production workers send photos of the exact machine part or failure point directly to maintenance. That removes the guesswork that used to slow response times.
Mass alerts
Facility-wide notifications for weather, safety events, and operational updates reach the entire leadership layer instantly and cascade from there.
Shift coverage
Workers without dedicated Walt devices use the platform from a smartphone, so no team is left out of the communication loop.
Remote supervisory access
Raul monitors facility communication from off-site through the Walt mobile app, keeping visibility into operations even when he’s not on the floor.
Looking Ahead
Novus Foods plans to expand Walt to yard operations, trailer communication, and a second building. An ROI analysis comparing Walt with its previous radio infrastructure will help build the case for full-facility deployment.
