Barbosa Cabinets
Background
Barbosa Cabinets is a leading cabinetry manufacturer in North America, producing up to 25,000 units a day in their Tracy, CA, location. Being the frontrunner of innovation in their space, they pride themselves on providing superior quality of goods and services for their customers.
As the Systems Administrator, Ted Johnson handles day-to-day IT operations at the facility, including the upkeep and configuration of the organization's network.
“Our systems need to support a seamless production process. Whether it’s robotics or security cameras, it’s important that we have the best technology in place to ensure the quality of our craftsmanship and the efficiency of operations.”
With the previous video security system, however, the team was unable to scale coverage across the main warehouse facility to remotely monitor production lines. The limited capabilities of the inherited legacy system prompted them to evaluate solutions to streamline operations, improve site visibility, and handle incidents in real time.
Top 3 Challenges:
Production Monitoring & Quality Control
Visibility into System Health & Activity
Objective Incident Resolution
Verkada’s Solution:
Remote Access to HD Video Feeds
Floor Plan & System Health Alerts
Unlimited Cloud Archiving for Digital Evidence Management
Challenge #1: Surveillance For Production Monitoring & Quality Control
“We have a 300,000 square foot production facility, so we needed a versatile solution that’d allow us to cover critical parts of the floor and provide us with a clear view of everything going on.”
At Barbosa, integral parts of the production line are handled by the only machines in North America that can sort and stack plywood and pressboard, and direct other materials through CNC routers. To ensure that this highly mechanized process is running smoothly, Johnson required a solution that could provide a high quality view of all operations, even if mounted from high ceilings or further parts of the facility.
Solution #1: Remote Access to HD Video Feeds
“With Verkada, not only do we see what’s going on at a high level, we’re able to zoom into parts of the production line to inspect the builds. Our team can do this from virtually anywhere on their smartphones or desktop—it’s really allowed us to maintain our high bar for quality.”
Through Command, Verkada’s video management software, Johnson can access all feeds on a centralized platform from any browser. “Remote access was a given with Verkada—I just needed to plug in the cameras via Ethernet, and they were online instantly.” With the newfound ability to remotely audit machinery during larger-scale projects and check in on daily operations, Johnson and the team have streamlined efficiency for quality assurance in production line operations.
Challenge #2: Limited Visibility into System Health & Activity
“Our previous solution had all cameras connected to a legacy DVR system. However, our company is focused on moving into the future of cabinetry so we can stay ahead of the curve, outgrow our industry, and become our own—the cameras need to help us do that.”
The DVR system provided limited visibility of gaps in coverage. The system had no built-in alerts to notify team members in the event of an outage, so there was no way to know that cameras were offline until a manual check was performed. Additionally, if any part of the system experienced downtime, then footage for that particular area would be lost.
Solution #2: Spatial Awareness & System Health Alerts
“Verkada provides us with spatial awareness to ensure full visibility and prevent gaps in coverage. Combined with system health alerts, we know immediately if a camera goes offline.”
Johnson utilizes Verkada to visualize situational coverage and identify potential gaps. From Command, he is able to upload a map of the production facility so he can easily manage cameras across the site and pin them to precise locations. The floor plan view also provides an easy way to monitor system health with colored indicators that display camera status. For additional security, he has system health alerts set up to be notified instantly via SMS if a camera is tampered with, obstructed, or stops recording. “Verkada makes it easy to visualize camera health and placement to prevent blind spots in key areas.”
Outside of system health, Johnson and his team can use Motion Plotting to see a live heatmap of motion detection across the Floor Plan. With Motion Plotting, team members are able to visualize real-time activity across the production floor. If unexpected movement occurs, Johnson and his team immediately see it on the map and quickly respond to any incident as it unfolds.
Challenge #3: Objective Incident Resolution
“We had an event in the past where we needed to show a hardware provider the circumstances and factual context of how, where, when, and why it occurred.”
On occasion, objective video evidence is needed to provide stakeholders with a transparent look into how an event unfolded. However, video retention for the DVR system was limited due to on-premise storage capacity. If incident footage needed to be archived for later, there was no simple way to save it without technical configurations.
Solution #3: Unlimited Cloud Archiving for Digital Evidence Management
“With Verkada, we can save clips of meaningful events to an archive folder for easy access. If at any point in time we need it, it will be there.”
Every Command software license includes unlimited cloud storage for archived video clips, which can be kept private or shared with all users who have access to the footage. When a user archives or downloads a clip, those actions are automatically recorded and stored redundantly in the cloud, providing a full view of participants involved in gathering and exporting data. Additionally, all historical footage is watermarked with a time and date to ensure its usability in court.
Looking Ahead
In Verkada, Johnson has a modern solution that supports Barbosa Cabinet’s commitment to craftsmanship and detail at all levels—beginning at the production line down to the customers’ homes. For the next steps, he has just received a new shipment of cameras that he plans to deploy to plant floors and server rooms.
“The ones and zeroes are just as important as the sawdust. We are moving into the future of cabinetry, so we can stay ahead of the curve and outgrow our industry. The benefits of hybrid cloud technology have moved us forward from both a safety and operational standpoint.”
If you’d like to learn more about how Verkada’s hybrid surveillance solution can enhance safety and operations at your organization, request a free trial camera today.