How Unifize's real time collaboration empowers faster and efficient decision making

[00:00 - 00:32]
One huge advantage of Unifize and the collaborative environment that it has is that you can collaborate about a specific item and you can collaborate about many items simultaneously, and that cuts down time, obviously, but it also increases visibility, communication and effectiveness because I can be I can knock through three or four things that normally would have taken days, weeks, months sitting at my computer all at once, and I can actually respond to people about that event in the in the environment right then and there and move on to the next one and move on to the next one.

[00:32 - 00:37]
And if somebody has a question for me, they're asking me that question and it's simply I move my mouse and I'm on to the next one.

[00:37 - 00:50]
I'll use case recently they they found out in blending that they had added ten kilos too much of one ingredient to one of the batches and they @ me and my team and Unifize.

[00:50 - 01:09]
We generated the Non-Conformance because it was a Non-Conformance, but we were able to do the risk assessment, collaborate real time and give an answer to the blending tech out there on the floor as it was happening. And so, and sometimes the Non-Conformance escalates to the point where I need to involve the customer or the brand owner and I'm doing that as I'm finding it with, with them.

[01:09 - 01:24]
Just like I would collaborate on specs. If I find an issue, I can actually involve them in the decision. We do the risk assessment and rather than holding a product, segregating it and taking the time, we're making a decision at the shop floor.

[01:24 - 01:44]
Being able to real time collaborate about a Non-Conformance and again, an Out of Spec or even just we use what we've termed Observations. They may not be a problem, but they could be a leading indicator of a problem and collaborating with decisions right then and there. What used to take. All right, let's segregate it, let's set it aside.

[01:44 - 01:53]
Let's set up a meeting, let's set up a call. Let's talk. I'm talking to them as it's happening. What used to take days, weeks, sometimes months is seconds and minutes

[01:53 - 02:25]
Specs are one thing and having establish specifications is it's a piece, right? But being able to then collaborate directly within Unifize about that. Let's say again, going back to B12 saying at my customer, Hey, I'm seeing a slew of failures from this supplier, how about we source a new material? And I'm directly talking about that specific ingredient at that specific time with my customer within the chat window.

[02:25 - 02:59]
It's not emails back and forth, it's not phone calls. It's this is what's happening about this specific event, about this specific ingredient. Let's collaborate and make a decision as opposed to, I think, other systems. Again, as I said, you can they can hold the data for you, but I would have to go in with the intent of pulling it, compiling it usually through Excel and then sending it through email to my customer at a different time saying, Hey, we're seeing this, and then emails back and forth and the time delays as opposed to at the moment just chatting about it at that moment.

[02:59 - 03:27]
I mean, speaking to specs, it's one of those things where no news is good news to most people and that's why I Out of Specs has always kind of been a focus or at least a good starting point because people don't complain when things go well. And so being able to extrapolate quickly to make good decisions based on an Out of Spec allows me to be agile and allows me to get product out the door a lot faster.

[03:28 - 03:46]
And honestly, at the time I'm doing it, I'm talking about it as I'm uploading my data, as I'm I'm collaborating as I'm doing it, and directly again, directly to my customer, directly to my team, directly to whomever needs to be involved, being able to almost real time make good decisions because the data is right there in front of you.

[03:46 - 03:55]
And the conversation is also right there in front of you and in front of the people I'm talking to. So we're all kind of drinking from the same well at the same time.

[03:55 - 04:00]
As I'm entering the data, as I'm entering the Out of Spec, I'm collaborating just by doing my job.

[04:00 - 04:34]
At that moment, I'm collaborating whether I need to or not, which is actually proved incredibly valuable because the collaboration is happening at the time. I'm doing it with the people who need to see it by virtue of Unifize is sort of philosophy of connectivity and collaboration, which then results in my ability to rapidly, effectively real time release product release ingredients and avoid pitfalls and hang ups that normally would take phone calls and meetings and emails and days, if not weeks.

[04:34 - 04:40]
Sometimes I'm I've reduced that down to that minute.

[04:39 - 04:48]
In my experience at various companies, when I've started, you have they've obviously thrown people at what was a problem.

[04:48 - 05:08]
So let's say there was a bad Lot code that made it all the way through and then they had to rework it. Typically there's this reactionary thought process that happens where they say, okay, now we need more checks every 5 minutes. And that means if you're doing that well, you need more people doing it every 5 minutes because it's probably not possible for one person to do it on multiple lines every 5 minutes.

[05:08 - 05:35]
Right. So all of a sudden, because of a reactionary measure and by the way, that reactionary thought process happens because the problem has already happened. And so by virtue of that, you have to react and you want to prevent it from ever happening again. Again, Unifize given that ability to collaborate on it right then and there, right now, and create a good decision based on what you have in front of you right then, then being able to later actually step back.

[05:35 - 05:55]
You solve the problem right then and there. But stepping back and looking at as a as a whole of how often is this a problem, then you can decide, do we need this many people? Do I need more people? Do I need less people? Is this necessary? Rather than reacting, you're taking what happened and being proactive and again, that's that culture of continuous improvement that just kind of ends up getting ingrained little by little.

[05:55 - 06:14]
At previous companies with about as many lines, I had roughly double the headcount, whereas with Unifize, I have two techs running my entire quality processes on the lines around the lines at every stage of production.

[06:14 - 06:37]
And then I have my two heads in my receiving team. I believe that one of my companies, the receiving team, was six people. So just by virtue of that communication and everybody, by the way, with receiving, it's been transformational because instead of getting is this release date, is this release date, is this released yet? Soon as my tech approves it and signs it, everybody already knows they can see for themselves.

[06:37 - 06:47]
So I don't have to get these necessary calls. So even my time has been saved dramatically, let alone the number of heads that I don't need because it's that collaborative nature is already there.

[06:47 - 06:51]
At my level, in my position, I'm the most effective I've ever been because of Unifize.