Overview

DEEP DIVE

The Company

We had the incredible opportunity to introduce and help implement a large-scale digital transformation for McCain Foods Limited, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products. Their new project, McCain Driving Impact (MDI), is leveraging AI to address pain points plaguing the potato processing supply chain. Currently, their area of focus for digital transformation is Manufacturing. Leveraging AI to Drive Innovation and Sustainability, McCain Foods is a global leader in potato and french fry production, working with major players in the consumption and distribution of french fry-related products. Like other competitors in the food manufacturing industry, McCain saw a huge opportunity for digital and data in their business.

Following a successful digital transformation of its agricultural function, McCain aimed to optimize its manufacturing operations using real-time analytics and AI-driven decision-making. Their strategic direction focused on leveraging technology to increase profitability, improve quality standards, and enhance global production efficiency, maintaining its market competitiveness and commitment to sustainability.

My Role: Associate Creative Director/hands-on product designer

Tools & Methods: Planning & Road Mapping | DesignOps & Leadership | Discovery & Research | Design Strategy & Thinking | Project Management Tools | Figma | User Journeys & Flows | Prototyping | Agile methodology | Cross-Team Collaboration

Current Digital Shift HandOff

The Challenge

McCain had been relying on traditional paper-driven reporting and analysis for their in-plant operations, an industry standard that market leaders have been modernizing. They wanted to shift to a digitized and AI-driven solution to address several pain points affecting their lean manufacturing process, including reducing unplanned downtime, optimizing planned downtime, enhancing product quality, enabling proactive plant efficiency monitoring, streamlining shift handover and reporting documentation, and improving employee engagement and training.

When my colleague Karishma and I were brought on to this project, we knew little about manufacturing and designing solutions, as it is a very personal and private company undertaking. We both came from traditional design backgrounds and had no previous exposure to a project of this nature and scale. But that’s one of the most exciting things about UX Design and a big reason why I enjoy being in this field: UX methods will always remain valuable no matter what the industry is. We must iterate, adapt, and add new dimensions to our work. That being said, it’s no secret that starting a project is often the hardest part.

We were tasked with presenting initial low-fidelity wireframes for the project kickoff meeting, which was to happen in two weeks. We hadn’t even begun our design process yet—and truly did not know where to start. Unfortunately, we had not been involved in the project's initial kickoff, so we had very little understanding and knowledge of the user, the needs, and the desired project! Another company had participated in an 18-month pre-kickoff preparation but shared little with us.

Unlike a typical e-commerce application or a music streaming service, for which there are many online examples to get inspiration, there was no blueprint available for this type of project. We began by thoroughly reading everything available to us; Gartner, for example, was an immense resource throughout this time; the project research documentation outlined the requirements, user pain points, and needs. Luckily, my colleague's husband had been in the manufacturing industry for ten years. Conversing with him helped me gain inner knowledge of manufacturing processes and insights into the tools typically used to improve manufacturing efficiency. With our information, we analyzed the user stories, created user flows, and developed mid-fidelity prototypes to present at the project kickoff meeting.

User Flow Examples

Digital Centreline Management - View all Centrelines

My Approach

01 Understand & Respect

Respecting our native audience was a priority, so we worked with MCCAIN users to uncover the type of content the plant would truly need and how it would most benefit from accessing it. Without user buy-in, the project would have failed from the start.

02 Examine

As designers with limited knowledge of the manufacturing world, we explored every technical document available, absorbing key insights from top competitors, partners, and Gartner Supply Chain Insights.

03 Reframe

The playground and documentation experiences were repositioned as parts of a larger ‘experience' portal, an asset that would grow and expand over time. We designed with scalability and growth in mind from the outset, which should be the preface of every project.

AI Strategy & Vision

• Develop and execute a comprehensive AI strategy aligned with the company’s business goals. 

• Identify emerging AI trends and assess their potential impact on McCain’s operations. 

• Collaborate with executives to reimagine value chain, process, and business capabilities, leveraging Agentic AI and assessing their potential applications within the data product suite and long-term technology roadmaps. 

• Identify opportunities to integrate AI into the existing value chain to enhance functionality, user experience, and market competitiveness.

Shift Huddle Board - Takes all the information from the DDM’s etc and presented on a 70” Screen (before it was written on a whiteboard)

My Process

TribalScale and McCain worked together to interpret needs from preliminary research, establish goals, and refine requirements as the foundation for each product. Agile principles were embraced, allowing for incremental releases and feedback loops from the Florenceville plant. This approach minimized disruption and allowed for quick adaptation to new or changing needs, fostering a more efficient and effective development process.

With the MDI Playbook (which outlines the guidelines and requirements laid out by the Global MDI Team) as our Bible, the project started in full swing. The project was mapped out, data charts were drawn up, cadences were established, tasks were outlined, and the application began to come to life. A project of this magnitude also warranted a solid project plan and proper cadences set up for all the teams involved.

However, too many stakeholders initially participated in these key meetings. While it was great to receive substantial feedback, it slowed down the process of receiving approvals on the designs. The team addressed this challenge by setting up a separate design cadence wherein key people (different for each user story) were identified to participate in the entire design process, ranging from whiteboarding to super design sessions. Figma was deemed the single source of truth for design work, and we used it to build a PowerApps design system, draft user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and record all the feedback. What unfolded was that feedback became more streamlined, design changes were efficiently tracked, and approvals were easily sought.

As the development progressed, our designs became more real. We, along with our development team, went on rapidly prototyping, testing, and iterating interactive versions of what we were working on. We were also very mindful of creating reusable components and accounting for all the different states of designs. Before we knew it, the application was live, and we had another incredible opportunity to visit the McCain facility for usability testing sessions. We sat with the operators and supervisors at the plant (all future application users) and excitedly observed them while they navigated through the application on their tablets. Needless to say, we received more invaluable feedback and the joy of watching our users interact with the application was priceless. Realizing that we designers can make a difference and change people’s lives for the better truly makes our jobs all the more satisfying.

Digital Centreline Management - CRUD FLOW

Our Solution

01 Identify

Starting with a discovery stage, we set up several collaborative workshops designed to uncover the user's needs and determine the most essential features. We reviewed Mccain’s internal research and built a roadmap to facilitate coordination and cadence. We collaborated with McCain to develop a custom digital manufacturing solution, starting with their flagship plant in Florenceville, NB, Canada, and planning to roll it out to their other plants globally. Our approach focused on scalability and transferability, allowing the developed solutions to be implemented across multiple plants. Wave 1 of the project involved building two key applications: Digital Centerline Management (DCL) and Digital Daily Direction Setting (DDS).

• DCL leverages AI and historical data to optimize cooking and preparation processes for McCain's fries. It provides real-time recommendations for adjusting the production line based on raw potato quality and environmental conditions. Wave 2 aimed to enhance DCL further with proactive recommendations to operators and supervisors, leveraging AI and mechanical situational awareness

• DDDS transforms traditional checklists, handoffs, and shift meetings into a modern, customizable tool. It facilitates efficient communication, knowledge sharing, and problem-solving among shift participants, ultimately improving production and packaging line efficiency.

02 Deliver

Soon after, sprints were set out against our roadmap, and we began conceptual work, creating prototypes to explore usability, involving all McCain team members, Tribalscale developers, and Product Managers throughout all stages of our development.

03 Iterate

The transformation element was ingrained in each product and wave, ensuring usability, modification, and future adaptability. TribalScale's iterative development approach involved continuous collaboration with McCain's executives, champions, operators, and supervisors, resulting in a sustainable and impactful digital transformation.

04 Launch

Each part of the process involved close collaboration with developers and McCain team members, often with components and functionality built in real-time during the design process.

Successful Key Results

As a testament to the project's success and ongoing commitment, McCain Foods continues to work closely with TribalScale, pushing the digital transformation forward with an eye on future advancements and innovations.

With the McCain Digital Revitalization project as a shining example, TribalScale reaffirms its position as a leading Agile digital transformation partner. Through their holistic approach, deep expertise, and focus on sustainable, functional releases, TribalScale empowers enterprises to adapt, thrive, and innovate in the digital era.

• 100% application completion rates within two months of deployment

• Lead the end-to-end AI product development lifecycle, from ideation to launch, ensuring timely delivery and positive ROI

• Our approach focused on scalability and transferability, allowing the developed solutions to be implemented across multiple plants

• 10-25 second average improvement in app performance due to redevelopment of back-end connectivity

• Implementation across McCain’s flagship plant, with plans to roll out to all other 50 plants globally

• Developed a comprehensive and scalable Design System for the McCain brand to continue to thrive and grow

Key Learnings

As designers, we all want to create the ideal experience. However, depending on the business and technical constraints, the ideal experience may remain unchanged. I learned to focus on making the product simple while providing a reasonable experience. 

This project also taught me the importance of listening. After constantly hearing about the plant's ongoings and the nuances of operations, the manufacturing domain does not feel so alien anymore. I learned that while it can be daunting to create a full-fledged digital product for a relatively unfamiliar industry, all it entails is questioning what we can do better for people and how to make their lives easier. More often than not, it is as simple as that.

We understood that the more involved and aware we could make the key users of the reasoning behind the changes, the benefits for them and simple descriptive explanations in posters (visual and descriptive) - the higher the percentage of adoption there would be. Therefore, we created a series of descriptive posters that would be placed around the plant.