Griffith Foods, a $1.9B manufacturer with four plants

Helping factory technicians find the right fix in seconds, not minutes.

An AI assistant that cut time-to-answer from 4 minutes to under 12 seconds.

The Griffith Foods Maintenance Assistant on a dark laptop, answering a technician with an answer summary and the first maintenance steps
PrototypeReal screens, built on Griffith’s own documentationTry it live
Problem
Fixes lived in PDFs and in senior technicians' heads.
Decision
Answer from Griffith's own documents and show the sources.
Role
UX research, design and prototype development
Platform
Desktop and tablet web app
Timeline
16 weeks
Tools
Figma, Python, OpenAI API, HTML/CSS/JS
Status
Dev handoff

Try the working prototype

Connected to real Griffith documentation. Best on desktop.

  1. Type the problem Say what is wrong, in your own words.
  2. Click Ask Griffith The answer is built from Griffith’s own documents.
  3. Click 3 sources Every answer shows where it came from.
  4. Click × Back to the answer.

Live prototypeFollow the tips, or use it freely.Open full prototype (opens in a new tab)

Icons in the prototype: Uicons by Flaticon (opens in a new tab)

Time to answer dropped from minutes to seconds

Searching the PDF manuals4 to 6 minutes
Asking the assistantUnder 12 seconds

Interviews at four plants found three gaps

Wrong format

2,000-page PDFs with no search.

Knowledge not transferring

Veterans' fixes were never documented.

Escalation lost context

Every shift change restarted the same problem.

One archetype fit every plant

The Efficiency Enthusiast

Goals

  • Less equipment downtime
  • Faster troubleshooting on the floor
  • Less reliance on senior techs

Frustrations

  • No reference when on the go
  • Answers buried in 2,000-page PDFs
  • Fixes lost between shift handoffs

“I know this machine better than the manual does. The manual was written by someone who never stood in front of it.”

Senior Maintenance Technician, Griffith Foods

The low point was where answers mattered most. That gap became the brief.

Design and engineering ran in parallel

We tested the model on real Griffith docs before finalizing any screen.

Two lanes that run side by side. Design runs through all four phases. Engineering joins at the third phase, and the model was tested on real Griffith documents before any screen was finalized.
  1. 01

    Understand

    Outcomes defined before research.

  2. 02

    Research

    16 interviews, 4 plants, journey map first.

  3. 03

    Ideate and design

    Lo-fi to hi-fi, feasibility tested alongside.

  4. 04

    Build and validate

    Live prototype, 3 rounds of on-floor testing.

Three constraints shaped every decision

  1. Speed over completeness.
  2. Voice-first input for gloved hands.
  3. A dark, low-glare UI for industrial lighting.

The hardest part was trust

  • $500Kof equipment a wrong procedure can damage, or someone gets hurt

Trust was the product. So every answer shows its sources.

The five screens

Homescreen: one search bar, no menus

  1. Type the problem Say what is wrong, in your own words.
  2. Click the mic Or say it instead of typing. Built for gloved hands.
  3. Click Cancel Back to the search bar.

LiveFollow the tips, or use it freely.

Search results: the right format for the answer

  1. Click 3 sources Every answer shows where it came from.
  2. Click × Back to the answer.
  3. Click Videos More sits below the answer: videos, articles, safety protocols and FAQs.

LiveFollow the tips, or use it freely.

Knowledge upload: anyone can add what they know

  1. Click the bin Remove a file that is already uploaded.
  2. Click the × Dismiss a failed upload. The reason is shown on the row.
  3. Click Manuals Tag the upload so it can be found later.
  4. Click Confirm and Upload Upload new data to improve the interface, as the page puts it.

LiveFollow the tips, or use it freely.

Ticket escalation: context survives the shift change

  1. Type a title One short line saying what is wrong.
  2. Click High Priority sets the response time: high within 2 hours.
  3. Click Submit Ticket Required fields that are still empty are marked.

LiveFollow the tips, or use it freely.

Manuals library: browse when you know what you need

  1. Click Safety Narrow the manuals to the safety documents.
  2. Type mixer Search by what you know: equipment, a manual or a part number.

LiveFollow the tips, or use it freely.

One tokens file drives all 13 screens

Figma to tokens.css to every screen No hardcoded hex. Click anything to inspect it.

Buttons
Status
ResolvedIn ProgressPendingEscalated
Filters
Search
Radius

  1. Click --brand Every colour is a token. Its value and where it is used appear below.
  2. Click Copy It copies the token, ready to paste into code.
  3. Click 16 One radius token changes every rounded corner at once.

LiveFollow the tips, or use it freely.