About Pries Enterprises
Pries Enterprises, Inc. is a full-service manufacturer of custom aluminum extrusions, fabrication, and anodizing dedicated to high quality and superior customer service and is ISO 9001. They have been serving Iowa and the Midwest since 1976. Pries Enterprises provides standard and custom aluminum extrusions to a variety of markets, including Industrial, Commercial, Housing, Transportation, Electrical, Agriculture, and a number of specialty products. Products range from windows, doors, office furniture, trailers, lighting, lift gates, heat sinks, and displays, just to name a few.
The Scope
In 2020 Pries Enterprises decided they needed a digital signage network to share performance metrics and other important information with employees. They wanted to be more transparent with employees and enable them to understand their work's impact on the company's success and its goals. Matt McMahon, the owner of Pries Enterprises, visited facilities like theirs with digital signage to get a sense of how they were sharing information. From there, Travis McBride, IT Technician at Pries Enterprises, took over the digital signage network's planning, sourcing, and installation.
The Solution
Pries Enterprises has 16 screens, mostly 55-60", throughout their facilities, leveraging Omnivex Moxie digital signage software to share real-time information with employees. The screens are in various areas, including the lobby, breakrooms, and manufacturing facilities.
Approximately two-thirds of the screens are used to share real-time data and KPIs. In departments like shipping, the screen has replaced a dry-erase board. While in the maintenance department, the screen shows downtime on machines and leverages colors such as green and red to quickly identify how things are going. Content is displayed using a mixture of text, tables, and charts. The lobby screen features educational videos, job postings, news and weather alerts, and road conditions.
The other third of their screens are used for HR content, including employee recognition, anniversaries, birthdays, significant announcements, and news. Within the manufacturing facilities, not all employees have regular access to email, so digital signage ensures employees are kept up to date - visually. Additionally, digital screens provide a way to communicate with Hispanic employees in their native language.
Pries Enterprises pulls data from various sources into a SQL database and spreadsheets and then into Omnivex Moxie. This approach is very efficient and enables department managers to manage their own content without help from IT.
The Results
Before digital signage, departments like shipping worked in an analog format. With digital signage, departments are now able to see more detailed information on how they are tracking against current KPIs and future targets. This provides greater transparency and planning abilities for the departments. For example, the maintenance department can easily compare how quickly they get a machine back online after a breakdown with their target. Travis noted, "We know employees pay attention to the screens because as soon as one display stops working or content isn't updating, I get notified." Additionally, employees are often heard talking about the content on the screens in the breakroom.
Pries Enterprises plans to incorporate more safety stats and content onto the screens in the future, along with more department content and a calendar KPI.
