Kraft Heinz's Champaign, Illinois, facility is a 2.2 million-square-foot complex that employs 1,000 people across three shifts to manufacture over a billion pounds of food annually. With a workforce and plant of this size, communicating with onsite workers posed incredible challenges.
The existing infrastructure couldn't support effective communication across such a diverse operation, producing iconic brands like Kraft Mac & Cheese, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Velveeta, Miracle Whip, A1 Steak Sauce, and Primal Kitchen products.
Key Challenges Included:
- Scale Barriers: Walking from one end to the other takes 7-8 minutes, making coordination difficult.
- Safety Risks: Workers unaware of changing conditions face potential hazards.
- Fragmented Systems: Abandoned radios, inconsistent cell service, poor-quality paging systems.
- Language Barriers: Multilingual workforce, including Congolese and Spanish-speaking employees.
Recognizing that plant-wide communication was essential for both operational efficiency and worker safety, Kraft Heinz selected Walt as its partner.
Decision Factors:
- Dual communication modes: Voice and transcription to overcome GMP restrictions.
- Translation capabilities: Potential to address multilingual workforce needs.
- Scalable platform: Could serve 1,000+ employees across three shifts.
- Proven technology: Reliable solution for a critical manufacturing environment.
The timing aligned with ongoing digitization efforts for OEE tracking and product traceability, making Walt a natural addition to their technology stack.
Implementation
Kraft Heinz implemented Walt with 75 initial users, including team leaders, line technicians, maintenance personnel, managers, and supervisors. The structured, phased approach focused on creating well-organized communication channels linked to key departments and support functions.
Key Features:
- Admin-defined channels for maintenance and safety requests.
- Department-specific spaces for specific teams.
- Plant-wide production channel for emergency site-wide communications.
- Flexible access through both Walt devices and mobile app.
- Announcement channel with disabled responses for management updates.
- Geofencing capabilities for location tracking and emergency response.
This structure enabled independent team communication while maintaining cross-departmental coordination capabilities when needed.
Results
The implementation delivered measurable improvements across multiple operational areas, with accountability and operational transparency emerging as the most significant benefits.
Enhanced Accountability and Operational Transparency
Walt's transcription and timestamping capabilities have revolutionized how Kraft Heinz tracks and manages operations.
Every communication is permanently recorded, creating an unprecedented level of operational accountability that has transformed problem-solving and shift management.
Real-World Results
- Complete Problem Tracking: Third-shift workers solved a second-shift palletizer problem by reviewing the complete communication history and identifying an underlying fault masked by subsequent issues.
- Behavioral Accountability: Permanent records encourage more professional communication, with workers naturally moderating their language, knowing conversations are documented.
- Verified Communications: Workers can confirm exactly what was communicated during handoffs versus what people thought was communicated.
- Root Cause Identification: Transcription helps identify when information sharing was "too broad" or when people "missed the true root cause."
- Proper Credit Attribution: Employees receive documented recognition for their contributions and problem-solving efforts.
- Enhanced Safety Response: Cleaner, more efficient emergency protocols with SOS capabilities.
- Better Maintenance Coordination: Organized request channels reduce response delays.
- Simple Deployment: Positive initial rollout with teams quickly adopting the technology without IT complications.
- Mass Alert Capabilities: Plant-wide production and announcement channels enable instant facility-wide communications during emergencies.
Additional Use Cases
Emergency Response and Safety SOS Button
Activations enable immediate response to safety incidents, even when management is off-site. Geofencing capabilities enable precise location tracking in emergency situations across the massive facility, ensuring rapid-response teams can locate workers quickly.
Tour Group Coordination
Plant managers use real-time location tracking to coordinate visitor tours, providing advanced notice to production areas about incoming groups. This ensures safety protocols are followed while minimizing disruption to ongoing operations.
Shift Handoffs
Permanent transcription records enable detailed problem tracking across shifts. Incoming teams can review complete issue histories rather than relying on potentially incomplete verbal handoffs, leading to faster problem resolution and reduced downtime.
Department-Specific Communication
Dedicated channels allow teams to communicate within their areas while still being able to reach support functions without knowing specific personnel schedules. This eliminates the need to track down individuals across the massive facility.
Changeover Optimization
Improved communication between the the kitchen and packaging operations during product changeovers has the potential to reduce transition times. Better coordination of material handling and setup procedures through real-time communication is expected to deliver measurable efficiency gains as the rollout expands.
Weavix
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