February 2022 – Brive, France
Blédina automates IT and employee workflow with a shared iPad device program and FUYL Tower Smart Lockers.
Background
As the largest B Corp-certified company in France, Blédina is a leader – not only in the infant food market, but also in its commitment to making a positive impact on society and the planet. In 2020, Blédina embarked on a new and ongoing industrial performance and digital transformation program, utilising iPad devices to go 100% paperless.
Named after the platform their manufacturing team has adopted, “Project Poka” has allowed for digitised industrial training, industrial process training and industrial troubleshooting materials. Poka is a web and mobile app designed for manufacturers to support on-the-floor training, knowledge building and communication. With everything stored digitally, content is easier to track and archive, and staff safety and security have improved.
Challenge
Rolling out new technology is a big undertaking, especially in a company with three production sites and 1,500 employees. Blédina needed a way to secure the new iPad devices and encourage users to take care of the devices during use. Reducing the risk of lost and stolen devices is critical – to avoid the expense of replacing physical assets, and also for protecting valuable company data. The success of Project Poka relied heavily on ensuring iPad devices are charged, connected and accessible at all times.
Solution
Blédina decided that a check-in/check-out iPad workflow, with the ability to assign and restrict access to specific users based on RFID badges and User Groups, was what they needed. They found these capabilities and more in the FUYL Tower™ Smart Locker by PC Locs.
As a complete hardware and software package with PC Locs Cloud, Blédina was confident in knowing the FUYL Towers were a solution that would grow with them. They weren’t interested in investing in an entry-level locker system by another brand with a far less future-proof result.
The New Check-In / Check-Out Workflow
Results
To date, 37 iPad devices have been rolled out in their Brive factory. They are utilising six FUYL Tower 5 Smart Lockers and one FUYL Tower 15 Smart Locker, spread out across the factory floor. The contactless device sharing program has freed up valuable time for the Blédina management team, and everyone has been pleased with the results.
Cloud Admins can remotely control locker access, which has helps in a variety of ways. For instance, when a user is returning a device they didn’t originally check out, the admin can remotely open a locker door on any of the seven FUYL Tower Smart Lockers for them. No walking across the factory floor to meet them, and no significant interruption to their day.
Project Poka’s success has already begun a ripple effect throughout the company. One production line has been upgraded from a 5 to a 15-bay FUYL Tower due to demand for more devices. Devices are being used by engineers to report issues on a production line to a remote manager. The manager can receive a solution and troubleshoot immediately.
The Blédina back-office team saw an additional opportunity to improve upon their own processes with the FUYL Tower Smart Locker, and now has an automated workflow with on-demand shared iPad devices. Quick and easy access to these securely stored iPad devices has made their production team meetings a lot more efficient.
The FUYL Towers, along with PC Locs customer support, have been exceeding expectations at Blédina. PC Locs released new Cloud features to smooth out some on boarding, troubleshooting and RFID card features for the team, enabling Blédina to scale their device roll out.
What’s Next?
Blédina continues to further scale the roll out of more iPad devices and digitised content. They hope that production orders will be digitalised so staff can receive them in real time on the iPad device. They are also exploring API integration with their factory Active Directory as well as with the ServiceNow platform currently in use.
They have no doubt they’ll be utilising new PC Locs Cloud features in the future. They expect to find new use cases for the FUYL Tower – automating new workflows and finding new efficiencies to drive manufacturing excellence and lead by example for all Danone France brands.
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