Improving Plant Floor Communication Through Coordinated Operational Response

Automotive Operational Use-Case

An automotive manufacturer was experiencing unnecessary downtime driven by two primary operational challenges:

Lack of accountability for incident response - There was no standardized process for assigning ownership, coordinating response, or determining when incidents should be escalated.

Limited operational visibility- Plant leaders lacked a real-time visibility into active incidents, response status, and where time was being lost between event detection and resolution.

Plant Leaders Often Could Not Answer

1 Is there currently an issue on one of my production lines?

2 How long has that stack light or display been in a red state?

3 How severe is the incident?

4 Who is accountable for this issue?

5 Has the incident been escalated?

6 Which incident should receive immediate attention when multiple issues occur simultaneously?

Without a standardized workflow or digital history, leadership had
no reliable way to determine where time was being lost between
event detection and resolution, making it difficult to improve
response performance or drive continuous improvement.

Discovery

During discovery, IGear found that their current incident response variedby department and individual. While experienced employees knew how toreact, there was no documented or standardized process definingownership, handoffs, dispatching, or escalation.

Rather than simply deploying software, IGear collaborated with the automotive
client's Operations team to document the desired process, identify gaps,
incorporate manufacturing best practices, and tailor a standardized workflow
to their specific operation before configuring SQUEAKS

Solution

SQUEAKS was deployed as the coordinated operational response platform
supporting the newly standardized workflow. CONNECT continuously monitors
Allen-Bradley PLCs for production events and, when a Team Leader or Parts
push button is pressed, automatically triggers the appropriate SQUEAKS
incident based on the production line and request type.

Production Event

Team Leader or Parts push buttons is pressed.

Automatic Trigger

CONNECT initiates the appropriate SQUEAKS incident.

Mobile Notification

The appropriate Team Leader received the incident location and details.

Ownership + Dispatch

The incident is acknowledged, claimed, evaluated, and dispatched.

Escalation

Supervisors or plant leadership are notified if response targets are exceeded.

Production associates initiate requests using dedicated push buttons at each
production line. When a Team Leader call is initiated, SQUEAKS sends a push
notification to the appropriate Team Leader's iOS or Android mobile device,
including the incident location and details. The Team Leader acknowledges and
claims ownership of the incident, evaluates the issue, and, if additional support
is required, dispatches it to Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, IT, or another
appropriate department. Time-based escalation rules automatically notify
supervisors or plant leadership if response targets are exceeded. Parts requests
follow a similar workflow but route directly to the Logistics team through the
same mobile notification process.

Operational Visibility

SQUEAKS provides a single real-time operational view of active
incidents through web, mobile, and plant-floor ANDON dashboards.
Supervisors and Team Leaders can immediately understand what
incidents are active, which are most critical, who owns each incident,
the current workflow status, how long the incident has been active,
and when escalation is required.

While Team Leaders interact with incidents through the SQUEAKS mobile
application on iOS and Android devices, production associates without
mobile devices continue receiving real-time visual feedback through the
existing ANDON displays. As the incident progresses through the workflow
—such as being claimed, dispatched, escalated, or resolved—the ANDON
display updates automatically, providing confidence that the issue has
been acknowledged and help is on the way.

Every action—from incident creation through resolution—is captured in a complete
digital thread, providing historical reporting and KPIs such as Mean Time to Assign,
Mean Time to Respond, Mean Time to Resolve, Incident Summary, and Responder
Performance. These insights help leadership identify where response delays occur
and uncover opportunities for continuous improvement.

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Improving Plant Floor Communication Through Coordinated Operational Response

An automotive manufacturer was experiencing unnecessary downtime driven by two primary operational challenges:

Lack of accountability for incident response - There was no standardized process for assigning ownership, coordinating response, or determining when incidents should be escalated.

Limited operational visibility- Plant leaders lacked a real-time visibility into active incidents, response status, and where time was being lost between event detection and resolution.

Plant Leaders Often Could Not Answer

1

Is there currently an issue on one of my production lines?

2

How long has that stack light or display been in a red state?

3

How severe is the incident?

4

Who is accountable for this issue?

5

Has the incident been escalated?

6

Which incident should receive immediate attention when multiple issues occur simultaneously?

Without a standardized workflow or digital history, leadership had no reliable way to determine where time was being lost between event detection and resolution, making it difficult to improve response performance or drive continuous improvement.

Discovery

During discovery, IGear found that their current incident response variedby department and individual. While experienced employees knew how toreact, there was no documented or standardized process definingownership, handoffs, dispatching, or escalation.

Rather than simply deploying software, IGear collaborated with the automotive client's Operations team to document the desired process, identify gaps, incorporate manufacturing best practices, and tailor a standardized workflow to their specific operation before configuring SQUEAKS

Solution

Production Event

Team Leader or Parts push buttons is pressed.

Automatic Trigger

CONNECT initiates the appropriate SQUEAKS incident.

Mobile Notification

The appropriate Team Leader received the incident location and details.

Ownership + Dispatch

The incident is acknowledged, claimed, evaluated, and dispatched.

Escalation

Supervisors or plant leadership are notified if response targets are exceeded.

Operational Visibility

Business Outcomes

Better Daily Management

Aligned Teams

Current, Trusted Information

Improved Standardized Work

Greater Workforce Effectiveness

Faster Continuous Improvement

Without a standardized workflow or digital history, leadership had
no reliable way to determine where time was being lost between
event detection and resolution, making it difficult to improve
response performance or drive continuous improvement.

Rather than simply deploying software, IGear collaborated with the automotive
client's Operations team to document the desired process, identify gaps,
incorporate manufacturing best practices, and tailor a standardized workflow
to their specific operation before configuring SQUEAKS