As one of the world’s largest producers of dried apple products and the primary supplier of those products to the United States market, food manufacturer Tree Top makes a big impact on the nation’s food supply, providing food ingredients to 20 of the nation’s top 25 food companies. And they aren’t just managing employees and contractors in one location, they are doing it across 11 different facilities across the country.
Managing hundreds of employees and contractors coming into food processing facilities that need to maintain strict food safety standards as directed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Agriculture was a labor intensive and manual process. This left management spending valuable time sifting through paperwork when they needed to pull sign-in information or a contractor’s credentials. It was a process that was out of date, and needed to change.
Upon entry into any of the Tree Top facilities, employees and contractors were required to sign-in through a log book. For contractors, they might also need to provide documentation, such as insurance papers, certifications and qualification documents. To ensure contractor paperwork was correct, someone would have to go through the binders to make sure the correct documentation was already given. Or they would have to rely on the contractor themselves to confirm that the paperwork was submitted—which would still require manual verification.
This was all cumbersome work for a large food manufacturing company and change was needed to automate their existing process.
Automating contractor management
Tree Top’s solution was to invest in a scalable visitor management system that could be deployed across their entire organization. They piloted their platform first at their headquarters and one facility, but realized the value almost immediately. With plenty of support, it was an easy decision for Tree Top to roll out Sign In Enterprise across their entire organization, giving them a standardized visitor management experience, regardless of what facility was being visited.
iPad kiosks are installed at entry points for employees and contractors to easily sign in and out, removing the tedious manual process. Every time a member of the workforce enters or leaves the building and moves to another location, they sign out and then back in. With Sign In Enterprise’s visitor management system now deployed, Tree Top removed the need for paper logbooks entirely.
Tree Top also uses Sign In Enterprise as a way to automate document collection from their contractors. Through various automations, contractors are reminded in a timely manner, and depending on the type of document required, to submit it to Tree Top, which they can do directly through the Sign In Enterprise platform.
Today, contractors can take a photo of their identification, qualifications and insurance papers and load them into Sign In Enterprise. There they remain on file under the contractors name for easy reference should any compliance issues arise. If a contractor is missing documents and paperwork, a trigger will alert them through the iPad kiosk that they need to provide it in order to enter.
Company wide visibility, compliance, and emergency communication
This food manufacturing team now has company-wide information at their fingertips. At any time they can go through the Sign In Enterprise portal, look up an employee or contractor’s name and see their sign-in and out information, and what documents they have uploaded. Information from all 11 locations are uploaded to the single cloud-based Sign In Enterprise system, offering a single source for all information.
With a real-time active roll call at each facility, it has also improved their emergency response. Should an emergency situation arise and employees and contractors need to be moved out of the facility, a roll call can be sent directly from Sign In Enterprise to management with the exact names of the people who are in the facility. In their old system, someone would need to carry the log book to confirm each employee is safe. Now that list is just emailed directly to them.
Food manufacturer Tree Top continues to grow with Sign In Enterprise
Tree Top continues to expand their use of Sign In Enterprise in their facilities, including deploying it at a subsidiary company, Northwest Naturals, which feeds into their main company cloud system. It offers them the company wide view they need to remain compliant, with an automated system that captures the information they need at every entry point.
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