{"id":6349,"date":"2020-09-25T12:45:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T19:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kintone.com\/us\/?post_type=stories&p=6349"},"modified":"2024-12-10T12:09:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T12:09:55","slug":"evans-food-group","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/customer-stories\/evans-food-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Benestar Brands"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"template":"","roles":[5,73],"industries":[43,58],"story_categories":[74,120],"class_list":["post-6349","stories","type-stories","status-publish","hentry","roles-analytics","roles-operations","industries-food-and-beverage","industries-manufacturing","story_categories-operations","story_categories-supply-chain-management"],"yoast_head":"\nKintone Customer Stories - Benestar Brands<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Benestar Brands (formerly Evans Food Group), a Chicago-based manufacturer of pork rind snacks, uses Kintone to track quality of their product and improve processes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/customer-stories\/evans-food-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building Out Lean, Mean Processes With Kintone - 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Kintone Customer Story","author":"0","description":"","caption":"","name":"kintone-customer-story-benestar-brands-1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":6349,"date":"2020-09-25 16:27:58","modified":"2020-09-25 16:27:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1200,"height":675,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-300x169.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-768x432.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-1024x576.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1.png","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":675,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1.png","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":675}},"solutions":[{"ID":1060,"post_author":"33","post_date":"2018-01-24 20:33:43","post_date_gmt":"2018-01-25 04:33:43","post_content":"Manage inventory, orders, shipping, transportation, the warehouse, and just about everything else. For manufacturing and supply chain management, the future lives in the cloud\u2014and Kintone\u2019s powerful, flexible tools can get you there.\r\nDownload <b>Kintone for Manufacturers One Pager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kintone.com\/us\/wp-content\/Content%20Download\/Kintone%20for%20Manufacturers.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a><\/b>.","post_title":"Manufacturing","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"private","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"manufacturing","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-05-09 22:13:11","post_modified_gmt":"2024-05-09 22:13:11","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.kintone.com\/us\/?post_type=solutions&p=1060","menu_order":16,"post_type":"solutions","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":631,"post_author":"33","post_date":"2017-12-16 18:53:30","post_date_gmt":"2017-12-17 02:53:30","post_content":"With Kintone, you can manage every aspect of your business from one centralized and customizable platform. It\u2019s time to streamline and scale!","post_title":"Business Operations","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"private","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"business-operations","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-05-03 01:05:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-05-03 01:05:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.kintone.com\/us\/?post_type=solutions&p=631","menu_order":20,"post_type":"solutions","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"color":"aqua","company_logo":false,"heading":"Building Out Lean, Mean Processes With Kintone","quote":"We\u2019ve tackled so many problems already with Kintone, so now when we face a new one, we immediately think about how to fix it instead of letting it sit there.","customer_name":"Troy Sword","customer_title":"Plant Supervisor","customer_image":{"ID":6352,"id":6352,"title":"Evans Food Group","filename":"Evansfood.png","filesize":128607,"url":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood.png","link":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/customer-stories\/evans-food-group\/evansfood\/","alt":"Evans Food Group - Kintone Customer Story","author":"0","description":"","caption":"","name":"evansfood","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":6349,"date":"2020-09-25 19:36:45","modified":"2020-09-25 19:36:45","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":368,"height":368,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood.png","medium_large-width":368,"medium_large-height":368,"large":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood.png","large-width":368,"large-height":368,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood.png","1536x1536-width":368,"1536x1536-height":368,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Evansfood.png","2048x2048-width":368,"2048x2048-height":368}},"body_enhanced":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.benestarbrands.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Benestar Brands<\/a> (formerly Evans Food Group), headquartered in Chicago, is a manufacturer of branded and private-label pork rind snacks under its own national brand (Mac\u2019s) and regional retail brands. Troy Sword is the company\u2019s Plant Supervisor for Evans Food\u2019s five U.S. locations.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Troy first joined Benestar Brands, he started as a Production Supervisor, managing high-level operations of the plant and ensuring that output is on target and processes are working as designed. He shares his Kintone customer story below.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Benestar Brands\u2019 Challenges:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outdated paper processes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Continuous changes in the manufacturing industry<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of insight into data trends<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":6351,"id":6351,"title":"Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1","filename":"Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1.png","filesize":488062,"url":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1.png","link":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/customer-stories\/evans-food-group\/kintone-customer-story-benestar-brands-1\/","alt":"Benestar Brands - Kintone Customer Story","author":"0","description":"","caption":"","name":"kintone-customer-story-benestar-brands-1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":6349,"date":"2020-09-25 16:27:58","modified":"2020-09-25 16:27:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1200,"height":675,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-300x169.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-768x432.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1-1024x576.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1.png","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":675,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Kintone-customer-story-Benestar-Brands-1.png","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":675}},"expandable":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","content":"<h2><b>Trapping Data in Paper Processes<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I first joined Benestar Brands, I came with a background in automotive production. My primary role in a nutshell was to oversee operations and improve our processes. During my first 60 days on the job, I took time to soak it all in. I observed how things were run and identified potential production bottlenecks and areas where we could streamline. One of the first things I noticed was that we weren\u2019t metric-driven, partially due to a lot of manual, paper-based processes.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We had stacks and stacks of paper. Each month we had to take all of those stacks and put them in boxes for storage. This of course made audits extremely challenging. To make sure we\u2019re following federal guidelines, we are audited three or four times a year by Costco and other customers. So before Kintone, when they asked for paperwork, we had to dig around in boxes to find it. There was clearly a lot of room for improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Great Changes Happen With Small Steps<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.6sigma.us\/lean-six-sigma-training-certification\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Six Sigma Black Belt holder<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I\u2019m a firm believer in lean processes and continuous improvement\u2014this means I\u2019m always thinking about how we can improve the quality of our output by defining, measuring, analyzing, and making incremental changes.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With that in mind, the first change I made actually didn\u2019t have anything to do with software at all. I had noticed that some of the workstation setups were not ergonomically sound and our production floor layout could be improved. This was an easy win. So the first thing I did was change the layout of the production floor. I added machines, re-positioned the conveyor lines and the people along them, and re-scoped the responsibilities and tasks of those roles along the line. Surprisingly, I encountered no resistance, and it was a great first step in building trust with our team.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next step was more challenging\u2014I wanted to start tackling our paper-based processes and set up some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to start collecting more data and benchmarking our progress. I had used Kintone at my previous company, and I knew it was the perfect tool for us to support our switch to digital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Getting Started in Kintone<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first Kintone app I ever built at my previous company was an employee database, which made a lot of things easier to track. We were able to easily track write-ups, absences, any type of disciplinary action, if the employee had worked for the company before, if they left on good terms, if they hadn\u2019t, etc. Because of my previous experience with Kintone, I knew what a game changer it could be for Evans Food.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To get the Benestar Brands team up and running, the Kintone team helped us get started with a three-day onsite training session. During this training session, they set us up on the Kintone platform, showed us how to use it, and even started building apps with us the very first day. Kintone makes it easy to start building out exactly what you need. Learning how to build apps had been simple for me, mainly because I have a background in IT, but I’ve also been able to teach other people on our team the basics of the Kintone platform in a day at the most. <\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Now we can set up our own graphs with just a few clicks and see trends in our processes. For any manufacturing company, that is huge.”<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","content":"<h2><b>Results with Kintone: Fewer Errors, More Accountability & Insight<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part of our digital transformation with Kintone included setting key metrics and goals for everyone at each of our plants. As a food manufacturer, for us the most important metrics to start measuring were related to quality.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After our first round of app building, we had about 30 to 40 Kintone apps. We use Kintone for so many different processes, but inventory is an especially important one. As a manufacturer of pork rind snacks, we have very specific inventory to track, which includes seasoning, film use (bags), and pellets (pork). Thanks to Kintone, we’re able to track inventory a lot more clearly and easily. Our apps also help us with accountability and usage monitoring; now we can easily view trends in product usage and waste. Before, everything was done on paper, so we didn’t have any insight into these types of data points.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now we can set up our own graphs with just a few clicks and see trends in our processes. For any manufacturing company, that is huge. You can build a forecast based on trends. Insight into data trends can also help you recognize and identify problems and bottlenecks more quickly. And the sooner you recognize the problem, the faster you can fix it.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prior to Kintone, we used to consistently find data errors\u2014this is obviously a risk when you\u2019re running a lot of your processes via paper filing systems and manual data entry. Kintone helps eliminate a lot of this risk by automating a lot of our data collection and process management.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Audits are a breeze with Kintone. We can now click into our apps and pull our data into easy automated reports instead of digging through old paper files, which saves us a couple hours each time.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>With Kintone, Implementation Becomes Easy<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In total, we now have around 80 to 100 Kintone apps running for each of our locations, which means around 600 total. App building is an ongoing process, as is reviewing the ones we have and figuring out which ones we can improve and which ones we no longer need.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we roll any of our apps out at our other facilities, we test it at the Ohio facility. We\u2019ve expanded our use of Kintone to nearly every department. At our facility, HR, supervisors, managers, maintenance, logistics, production\u2014everyone uses Kintone. I’ve built apps for nearly every process in those departments. We’ve now replaced 80% of our paper processes with Kintone apps. It sounds like a lot, but it was actually very easy. If you put in the effort upfront, it will pay you back tenfold. Now all of our important information is only a click away.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>We were able to transform our plant\u2019s processes within three months, and I attribute that to two things: how easy Kintone is to use and the valuable feedback I collected from our end users.<\/strong> Building initial versions of the apps is easy, but getting them perfect is a much bigger challenge.\u00a0 We try to build with the end users in mind as much as we can, and then we keep improving the apps based on the feedback we receive.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Incremental Change Means Things Just Keep Getting Better<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most surprising change we\u2019ve seen after switching to Kintone is a cultural one. The feelings of aggravation are gone. We\u2019ve tackled so many problems already, so now when we face a new one, we immediately think about how to fix it instead of letting it sit there.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve worked with our plant managers and supervisors at the other locations and turned them into Kintone trainers\u2014all of whom are open-minded, tech-savvy, and willing to teach.<strong> These supervisors are the best app builders because they understand their departments\u2019 processes and problems intimately.<\/strong> Because of this domain-specific knowledge, they\u2019re able to train others not only on the mechanics of turning paper processes into apps, but also on ways to continue to improve the way things are run.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These supervisors then go on the floor to get real-time feedback from their teams. They make changes on the fly. And then they use the graphs and charts to track their important metrics. Finally, when they\u2019re confident the new system is working, they delete their macro-ridden Excel spreadsheets from 2013.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, the response from the staff on the production floor is very positive, and our people are thankful that their work is now easier. And our supervisors in their new role as trainers are now working together to assist those who need a bit more help getting used to the new processes. It’s a partnership, and it\u2019s working.<\/span><\/p>\n"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/6349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"roles","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/roles?post=6349"},{"taxonomy":"industries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industries?post=6349"},{"taxonomy":"story_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d2mzbk2zjjwglz.cloudfront.net\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_categories?post=6349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}