Reaching the Shop Floor: How Kapco Inc. Uses Digital Signage to Engage Workers

Kapco Inc. is a leading metal stamping and manufacturing company headquartered in Grafton, Wisconsin. With five plants, over 400 employees, and three shifts with weekend rotations, internal communication has always been a top priority — and a major challenge.

To keep teams informed and engaged, Kapco turned to Rise Vision digital signage — transforming how information is delivered across their facilities, and helping Kapco achieve their goal of producing the best quality products on time and on spec.

The Challenge: Ignored Digital Signage in Manufacturing

Kapco’s original signage setup was underutilized. Content was rarely updated, poorly designed, and largely ignored by staff. As a result, important messages went unseen, and communication efforts fell flat — especially for a workforce spread across multiple shifts and locations.

The Solution: Dynamic Digital Signage from Rise Vision

This all changed when their new marketing team took over and stepped up to revamp Kapco’s internal communication strategy. The team updates Kapco's manufacturing digital signage pushing out dynamic, engaging content to digital displays throughout the plants — all managed centrally and updated frequently.

Kapco runs two 50" screens powered by Linux media players — and affordable and reliable setup for manufacturing environments.

“Being part of the team for our Rise Vision digital signage is one of my favourite tasks. It’s gratifying to see results— from concept to design to someone responding to what they’ve seen.” - Danny Clayton

Highlights from Kapco's Digital Signage Strategy:

Digital signage allows Kapco to share everything from company news, to pictures, to Green Bay Packers updates. Everyone pays attention to the signage now.

• Creative, Relevant Content: Content is curated daily by two former broadcast media professionals who now work on the marketing team. They blend company news, training updates, and local sports highlights (Go Packers!). Lead designer Andy Roeske takes great pains to make sure their digital signage looks great.
• Timely Employee Messaging: Displays promote programs like Kapco University (a program Kapco runs to educate its employees on a range of topics) and feature job-specific content like updates on major customer projects — booster relevance and pride.
• Entertainment and Employee Engagement: Strategic content rotation (e.g. showing a clip  of Aaron Rodgers throwing a touchdown pass before HR reminders) keeps eyes on the display. 

Keep Content Interesting

The Kapco marketing team has the secret sauce for workplace communication: digital signage works best when you have fun with it. They know their audience and that the best time to show the less interesting stuff is right after a video of a touchdown pass. 

People pay attention when you show them something they care about.

Kapco does a fantastic job of mixing up important with fun to keep people engaged. They don’t hesitate to put some internet memes on the digital board if it means the shop team notices. And they always have a Packers gallery within a few hours of the conclusion of a game.

“We’re on our way to our goal of increased engagement with the boards. If we stick to our plan of offering fresh and interesting content---we’ll get there.” - Danny Clayton

To keep the messages engaging, the team is always thinking about what might be of interest. For example: the Oshkosh Truck JLTV project. Kapco makes parts for Oshkosh Truck. So as soon as the JLTV from Oshkosh Truck was announced as the replacement for the Humvee, the marketing team got the article and put it up on the signage.

The content rallied the manufacturing team, and they were excited that they had a role to play in outfitting the troops.

Results for Kapco's Manufacturing Digital Signage

As a result of their digital signage strategy, Kapco has seen success:

• Increased Engagement: Employees now look forward to what's on screen — a dramatic shift from the ignored signage of the past.
• Cross-Shift Visibility: Around-the-clock messaging ensures all three shifts stay informed and connected. 
• Marketing-Led Success: With the marketing team managing updates, the content is both polished and purpose-drive, without adding strain to IT. 
• Real-time Recognition: Displays are updated within hours of major events (like a Packers game), creating a sense of timeliness and team spirit.

Kapco's use case is a great example of how digital signage should be used in manufacturing environments. They know to mix fun, well designed content with the important (but maybe less interesting stuff). 

Interested in how your organization can use Rise Vision? Book a free demo today.