Workforce Connectivity Smart Radio

The Story

The workforce connectivity revolution has begun!

M3 collaborated with PK Companies to create the walt™ smart radio, an innovative personal digital workforce communications device designed for operation in hazardous industrial environments. Small enough to wear on the job site, walt™ provides cost-effective, intuitive communication services for workers in large industrial facilities such as refineries and chemical plants.

The combination of the walt™ smart radio and the weavix™ workforce connectivity platform delivers the most sophisticated functionality of any connected worker device on the market.

Our Solution

Do more with less

weavix™ provides an understanding of worker deployment and utilization to optimize their productivity.
Companies that implement the weavix™ platform find that they reduce operating expenses, save time and money, improve communication, gain actionable insights, and increase productivity and performance.
weavix™ delivers transparency of workforce identity and location and activities being performed to enhance worker safety and performance

Creating a rugged and intuitive workforce connectivity device

M3 applied their full product development capabilities to design the walt™. We collaborated with the PK team to understand their business needs, performed extensive on-site research and documented the critical product success drivers. A concept development effort followed to create potential solutions and choose the one that best achieved those success drivers. Finally, the M3 Engineering and Industrial Design teams worked closely with PK to transform the walt™ concept into a rugged, manufacturable and reliable design.

Discover stakeholder needs and define success

We began with an in depth strategy workshop with the PK team to make sure we understood their business, brand, and customer needs and desires. M3 converted the workshop results into the set of key stakeholders and critical success drivers that would be used to evaluate concepts and designs.
On-site contextual research was performed to understand how the walt™ would be used and the environment in which it would be used to inform the design team of the needs of critical walt™ stakeholders.

Create the solution that delivers success

With the results of the stakeholder research effort in hand, the M3 team developed multiple concepts that satisfied key stakeholder and success driver needs for the walt™ using a series of ideation and sketch sessions. The engineering team fully participated to ensure these concepts would be grounded in reality.
Finally, we evaluated the leading concepts against the success drivers with the PK team and selected the optimal direction for the walt™ smart radio design.

Make it real

With the chosen design direction in hand, the M3 electrical and mechanical engineering teams converted the concept into a complete engineering CAD design. As challenges arose, M3 engineers and designers worked closely together to maintain the design intent when trade-offs were made. Subject matter experts for areas such as design for hazardous environments provided feedback on the design as it progressed. Various types of prototypes were built along the way to validate the design. Supply chain partners were identified and brought on board early, ensuring the design would be optimized for production.

"We thoroughly enjoyed working with the M3 team to help us design and meet our expectations of a cost efficient wearable communication device to connect Weavix to the frontline industrial worker. We highly recommend M3 and look forward to working with them on additional projects in the future" Kevin Turpin CEO - PK Companies

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