Redzone, the #1 Connected Workforce Solutions for manufacturers, announced that Sauder Woodworking, the largest North American supplier to IKEA and last ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture manufacturer still operating, has become one of the earliest power users of ChampionAI, the agentic AI layer built into Redzone’s Connected Workforce Solution. Sauder cut average changeover time by 93%. In its first year on the platform, it raised productivity by 40%.
Sauder deployed all four Redzone Connected Workforce modules within a year and piloted first in the building that produces its IKEA lines. A value-stream map at the outset clocked changeovers at a 19-minute average. On a recent plant tour, Marion Kessler, VP of Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement at Sauder, watched a full changeover finish in one minute and 24 seconds — a 93% drop.
Sauder’s team uses ChampionAI throughout the day. Instead of waiting on yesterday’s reports, leaders query an AI agent directly and get answers in the moment. “In real time, I can ask the AI agent what’s going on, or what my biggest issues are,” said Dan Sauder, EVP and Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Sauder, in a recent customer video. “If I can’t see it myself, I can ask the agent to report it back to me.”
ChampionAI, a native-AI solution from QAD | Redzone, learns from real frontline activity and proven operational best practices, then surfaces what needs attention. It turns shop-floor visibility into action.
Prior to deploying Redzone, Sauder supervisors reviewed what happened yesterday or the week before. Now frontline teams see how they’re performing throughout the shift. “There’s a certain level of improvement that you just will see when you tell people how they’re doing in real time,” said Kessler. That real-time feedback drove close to a 40% productivity gain within their first year, and the plant now generates three times as many improvement ideas as it did on paper.
“When you give our team a measurement, and you put the employees in charge — which is what Redzone is doing — we’re going to exceed expectations,” added Kessler.
An ROI study by Nucleus Research put hard numbers to the deployment. Analyst Charles Brennan calculated a 665% return on investment with a seven-month payback, and credited Redzone with roughly $3 million less in inventory carrying costs, about $400,000 in annual maintenance savings, and a 76% drop in e-commerce out-of-stock units. In the pilot area, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) climbed from about 50% to above 70%.
“Sauder didn’t need us to teach them how to run a plant — they’ve been doing that for three generations,” said Ken Fisher, President of Redzone. “What ChampionAI gave them was a faster way to see what’s happening and act on it while it still counts. When a leader can ask an agent what’s slowing the line and get the answer on the spot, that’s the difference between reviewing yesterday and fixing today. Ninety days in, Sauder is showing the rest of the industry what that looks like.”
Watch the Sauder Woodworking customer video to learn more.
About Sauder Woodworking
Sauder Woodworking is a privately held, family-owned manufacturer and the largest North American supplier to IKEA. A third- and fourth-generation business and the last ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture company still operating, Sauder employs roughly 2,000 people and ships approximately 30 truckloads of furniture per day.
About Redzone
Redzone, a QAD company, makes the Connected Workforce Solution used by frontline manufacturing teams to reduce downtime, improve quality, speed onboarding, and drive measurable productivity gains across the plant. Its agentic AI layer, ChampionAI, learns from real frontline activity and proven best practices to surface insights and answer operators’ questions in real time. Redzone is trusted by more than 2,000 factories worldwide and delivers an average 26% productivity increase in as little as 90 days. Learn more at rzsoftware.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260818791618/en/
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