Food Manufacturer Removes Language Barriers, Radio Frustrations

Founded in 1976, Poppies Bakeries began as an artisan bakery in Belgium, selling traditional Flemish pastries and biscuits to market vendors, small shops, and other businesses in the local community. They’re now an international company, selling mostly private label products in over 64 countries, with 13 bakeries and more than 1,300 employees across Europe and the USA. We visited their only U.S. location in Battleboro, NC to chat with the Preventative Maintenance and Safety Coordinator, Jordan Childers, and Production Manager, José Luis Vàsquez, about Relay’s impact on their bakery operations.

Traditional Radios Were Causing Dead Spots and Safety Concerns

Before Relay, Poppies Bakeries’ U.S. location was using traditional two-way radios. Not only were these creating obstacles in their communications, the radios were big and heavy for staff to carry around. A main concern was the radio’s connectivity issues. “Especially if it’s an emergency, you’re trying to communicate with someone and you don’t know if they heard you or not,” shared Jordan. 

The old-school radios were also interfering with the food manufacturer’s industrial equipment. “If you were to use the two way radios too close to the metal detector, it would actually cause it to go off which was causing headaches for our production team and our QA team,” said Jordan. He continued, “They have to go in there and justify why this went off and then run product back.” 

Removing Language Barriers with TeamTranslate™

One of the big reasons Jordan began looking into Relay was its real-time language translation capabilities because language barriers have been a safety concern for him. “Before Relay’s translation feature, in order to overcome the language barrier, we would have to have a bilingual person translate that meeting or conversation, no matter how big or small it was,” shared Jordan. 

José Luis Vàsquez, Production Manager at Poppies Bakeries and one of the team’s primary bilingual translators gave us insights into how this affected his day to day. “It was frustrating,” he said. “Sometimes I was in the middle of doing something important and then all of the sudden I’d have some translation to do.” He continued, “Now with Relay, I don’t have to call maintenance or other departments for help when needed. All the employees have to do is speak in Spanish and Relay will translate.” 

“Our Spanish-speaking employees now feel that they are listened to, they’re more part of the team. With Relay, there’s been a lot of change.”

– José Luis Vàsquez, Production Manager

José Luis also shared that the Relays can be used for private 1:1 training sessions that the plant does for new employees every 30, 60, and 90 days. “We have Spanish-speaking new employees that don’t speak a word of English, and that has made a big difference.”

“Just prior to us getting on board with Relay, we actually did have a significant safety incident that occurred with a non-English speaking person and I was unable to communicate with them as a safety coordinator. Had we had the Relays in place already, I would have been able to communicate with that person on my own and not need an interpreter.”

– Jordan Childers, Preventative Maintenance and Safety Coordinator

Relay’s translation feature has been really positive for Poppies Bakeries’ U.S. location because most of their workforce is Spanish-speaking. By having the translation feature, Relay has been able to eliminate their language barriers.

Better Connectivity, Audio Quality, Battery Life, and Durability

By switching to Relay, the bakery has eliminated the frustrations of missing messages and machine interference due to its superior connectivity. José Luis shared, “the connectivity is much, much better.” He continued, “now I feel comfortable knowing that my partners know when I’m calling them.”

In terms of durability, Relay has blown Poppies’ past solutions out of the water. “I’ve dropped them, I don’t know how many times, from different heights and they’re intact,” shared José Luis. José Luis has also noticed Relay’s improved battery life over the traditional radios they were using before. In addition to lasting through two 8 hour shifts, “It’s a fast-charging device, it won’t take more than 30-minutes to an hour to fully charge.”

Jordan shared that Relay’s audio quality is superior to the two way radios they were using before. The noise cancellation feature has proved to be really impressive, with communications coming out crystal clear, even in their 100dB+ ammonia room.

When it comes to Relay’s App and Dashboard, Jordan uses these to see where devices are, make sure they’re up to date, and to assign or reassign devices when necessary. “It’s also nice from a safety perspective or even a HR perspective,” he shared. “We’ve had instances where HR has requested the recording logs and that’s obviously something that’s not available with our two way radios.”

With two way radios, they are just what they are. They’re push-to-talk. At the end of the day, that’s it, that’s all that they offer. Relay offers the chance for there to be growth, new features, new technology, new accessories. That was another big plus that we were looking for.

– Jordan Childers, Preventative Maintenance and Safety Coordinator