100+ year-old syrup manufacturer gets machines rolling faster with Weever

Andy Pritchard | July 29, 2022 | 5 min read

The MONIN Americas original Headquarters and Flavor Innovation Center in Clearwater is where the companyÕs team of more than 200 employees works to perfect and produces new flavor offerings, create recipes and beverage innovations, and oversees all the companyÕs sales and operations throughout North America, South America and the Caribbean.

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Monin was drowning in paper and looking for a system that would ensure compliant workflows and automate KPI reporting insights to inform continuous process improvement, all without overwhelming operators.

Weever started with Production Readiness Reports at one location and within 5 months was used across departments and all facilities in North America.

The main benefit Monin realized was time savings, which resulted in a cascading positive impact, including faster production lines and enabling managers to focus less on report administration and more on product quality, abnormality reporting, and overall facility improvement.

Customer Profile

Monin is a 100+-year-old flavored syrup manufacturer that brings incredible flavors to kitchens, coffeehouses, restaurants, and bars worldwide. The Monin Americas original Headquarters and Flavor Innovation Center are based out of Clearwater, Florida. Monin has two manufacturing locations across North America and employs more than 200 people.

The information for this case study was provided by Johanna Velez, VP of Quality Assurance.

The Challenge

In 2021, Johanna and her team at Monin were growing tired of the manual work and inefficiency related to their Production Readiness Reporting.

Before production, operators were required to complete equipment inspections and cleaning and report that these activities were completed. There were delays in filling out the forms and transporting them to the quality team for review, which cost the facility time. Also, each report needed to be manually added to production readiness reports.

“Our team would spend about 3-4 hrs of their day managing data and creating reports.”

Johanna Velez, VP Quality Assurance, Monin

Monin wanted to create a simpler and more efficient way to complete the reports in the morning so that the machines could get rolling. They were specifically looking for software that was easy to use and practical for operators so that seamless adoption and implementation processes were guaranteed.

They wanted to automate workflows so they could ensure processes were compliant. Another requirement was to automate reporting so they could instantly understand insights that could inform meaningful process improvements.

The Implementation

Monin started working with Weever in September 2021. The first step was to tackle the Production Readiness Reports by digitizing the paper forms and automating the KPI reports.

Weever’s Customer Success team helped Monin administrators use the Form Builder tool to create simple digital forms. Monin realized quickly that the forms were so easy and seamless to complete that they could request more information and still save bundles of time.

When each report was submitted by operators, it was added in real-time to the Production Readiness In Progress section so a supervisor could review and approve. The workflow automation saved time and allowed operators to get the machines rolling quicker.

Weever used MS Power BI to create an automated KPI dashboard for the Product Readiness report, which highlighted key issues for Johanna and her team to address.

“Using Weever ensured that we did not lose documentation for compliance reporting. We could also see where issues were happening and make adjustments quickly.”

Johanna Velez, VP Quality Assurance, Monin

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The rollout process was very efficient. The operators liked inputting the data in tablets on the lines instead of finding a paper form and walking it over to the quality department.

Monin decided quickly that Weever could be used to increase efficiency and ensure compliance in other areas. Over the next few months, Monin adopted Weever for OSHA-compliant Safety Incident Reporting. Teams submitted incident reports which notified safety managers who used the system to manage investigation and resolution workflows.

“The safety team loved how photos could be added to reports, which helped save time and ensure accuracy for incident reports.”

Johanna Velez, VP Quality Assurance, Monin

Monin also began using Weever for Root Cause Analysis Reporting (RCA) and Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPAs). Operators are trained to document any process abnormality and nonconformance issue they witness. They can upload photos and use dropdown menus to more efficiently add details. Automated workflows ensure supervisors can review and evaluate issues and create action plans to correct the problem, if necessary, and prevent it from recurring.

“Having cloud-based forms on devices around the facility makes them so much more accessible, which makes it painless for operators to quickly provide a report.”

Johanna Velez, VP Quality Assurance, Monin

Weever has since been rolled out across all facilities. They have added change control audits, kaizens, and suggestions to Weever. Monin is also planning to increase the use cases Weever is used for, including risk assessments, employee training, and maintenance inspections.

The Results

The biggest benefit of Weever to Monin is time savings.

Before Weever, supervisors were required to send countless emails to ensure required workflows were being completed. Weever automates this with notifications, ensuring stakeholders are notified of projects that require their attention.

Automated Reports also save time for supervisors and the leadership team. Before Weever, the teams could spend a significant amount of their day creating reports, manually adding data to spreadsheets, and manually creating tables and graphs. With Weever, that time is spent more productively on the floor, strategically managing issues and enabling continuous process improvement.

“Weever makes it easy to see where the issues are and make action plans to address them. Everyone can see how the facility is improving, so we all get excited and want to get more involved.”

Johanna Velez, VP Quality Assurance, Monin

The time savings has impacted productivity, product quality, and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). Monin is also very committed to its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program that is rooted in Naturality & Nutrition, Responsible Sourcing, Environment, and Communities. Weever has helped reduce paper consumption and the organization’s overall carbon footprint and foster a stronger team environment focused on operational excellence.

Monin’s case is an excellent example of what can be accomplished with Weever. We have helped organizations of all shapes and sizes worldwide achieve operational excellence and we can also help you.