Using Google Drive, Briggs & Stratton streamlines manufacturing and business processes

Has been in the business of making gas-powered engines for more than 100-years, Briggs & Stratton is a well-known big company producing lawn mower, tractor and many more. Today, they also sell portable generators pressure washers and snow blowers and they’re transitioning into a maker of consumer equipment.

A few years ago, our CEO Todd Teske, outlined a strategy to break the company into the consumer market – an expansion of their long history in the manufacturing source material. For the strategy to life, the company adapt to the demands of consumer markets and invest in innovation is needed. He hired the IT director to help make change happen with the help of the best technology available. When he found out that 15% of the company’s traffic unsecured network was consumed by the content storage and sharing, and he realized that the lack of communication was carried inefficiency, pushed for Moving to Google Apps. The IT Director knew the way to the Google platform not only solve their communication problems, but to help their 3,000 employees are much more innovative and efficient.

It’s happening now in a big way. In a production plant in Milwaukee, for example, one of Briggs & Stratton’s industrial engineers saw an opportunity for Google Drive an outdated system on paper for the consideration of information workers to replace in production. For decades, the step by step instructions for assembly parts checklists and control all written and print quality for workers in five production lines engines. It was not just a waste of paper – which often led to errors when malicious processes and changing employees went about their tasks with instructions and manuals waves. The dissemination of information update was ineffective and potentially dangerous. To solve this problem, the engineering team has created a page with Google Sites drive with folders for each device manufacturing, photos, installation instructions, how-to videos for each step and calendar online – all in a variety of file types such as JPG, PDF and Word documents. Workers can read the instructions and know exactly how to configure one shared workstations in the workshop.

Drive does not only helps Briggs & Stratton’s in the shop floor – which is so important to their sales team, who spend much time on the road meeting with distributors and partners. To that repetition is used to spend an hour or two to browse through the various Excel spreadsheets and Access databases to find most of the data on prices and promotions updated before client meetings and take notes or upload information on their laptops. They keep the current database of prices and promotions spreadsheet in the unit, and as their sales teams use their computers hard synchronization is the latest information automatically from the drive on your laptop synchronized. You never have to wonder whether, if they are good prices to a customer. You can also access the Mobile Drive application, the same information on their mobile devices. This means more hours spent with customers and sales team happy – two big wins for Briggs.
Google helps Briggs & Stratton’s streamline processes and businesses at a time when they, the product and the unprecedented growth of the company and Todd about the breakdown of the strategy in the consumer market is in his footsteps. They have implemented 40 new models of lawn, the garden and power plants outside, won a handful of “Best of” prices and to continue to see a growing share of their turnover from these innovations come. Google allows them to change their image inside and outside the company of a democratic and creative way, the assembly line for the office of the CEO.