Who is Rite-Hite and what do you do for them?
Established in 1965, Rite-Hite® is a global leader in industrial safety, security and productivity solutions. The company has built a reputation for designing and manufacturing innovative equipment that enhances workplace efficiency.
From loading dock systems and industrial doors to safety barriers, high-volume low-speed (HVLS) fans and smart connected products, Rite-Hite helps businesses optimize safety and performance in their facilities. Headquartered in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the company operates worldwide, serving industries ranging from warehousing and manufacturing to logistics and distribution.
Jamie McCoy is President of Rite-Hite’s Material Transfer Zone business unit. He joined the organization as its first ever Chief Marketing Officer and was promoted to run the loading dock focused business unit after a year. With a deep background in product management, marketing and innovation, Jamie has been part of a core team across the company passionate about innovation and ensuring the organization is always looking ahead.
Why is innovation important at Rite-Hite?
At Rite-Hite, our mission is to continuously improve safety and efficiency for our customers through high quality, innovative solutions— it’s something that’s truly built into the company’s DNA. Innovation has always been the foundation of the company, and it is how we’ve been able to develop great products that help with the safety, productivity, security and uptime in facilities across the globe.
Driving new ideas, developing the next generation of solutions, and looking ahead to the next decade is core to who we are—and this year’s initiatives are focused on building that momentum.
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Why did Rite-Hite select Ideawake to power your innovation program?
We did a bit of an evaluation. We looked at Ideawake and several other companies based on a list of criteria that were important to us and ultimately picked Ideawake because the platform has been tried and tested by many different companies who had great feedback from their experience with the tool.
We found the user interface was very simple, flexible, and easy to set up, allowing us to take the lead in setting up the tool without needing constant support from the customer success team.
We also chose the tool for its ease of use from an end user perspective, making it simple for all employees to submit ideas, leave comments, and vote. Additionally, the platform’s analytics made it easy to generate quick reports, helping us track who was submitting ideas, from where, and on what topics—ensuring we stayed aligned with our success metrics.
What do you want to achieve using Ideawake?
In the first year working with Ideawake, we had 3 primary objectives:
- Boost employee engagement: To achieve this, we launched a company-wide innovation challenge with a goal of engaging over 500 employees—whether by submitting an idea, commenting, or voting. We not only reached that goal but exceeded it, with 764 employees participating in the challenge. That was our first major milestone.
- Strengthening our innovation pipelines and product roadmaps: We set specific goals for the number of ideas advancing to the roadmap, as well as those not yet market-ready but suitable for engineering concept development and technical evaluation—helping to reduce risk and prepare them for future product integration.
- Generate New IP: Our third objective was identifying ideas with the potential to generate new intellectual property, including filing patents based on submissions from the challenge.
Why is engaging and giving employees a voice important to Rite-Hite?
Rite-Hite is a family-owned company that’s been built on a culture of engaging and involving every employee across the company. Transparency across the organization is essential, especially in showing how every individual contributes to the company’s growth and future. It’s a core part of everything we do.
Engaging employees is a natural fit with the company, its culture, and the way it has grown over the past several decades. That’s why this was the perfect time to boost innovation efforts and begin building the next generation of roadmaps, bringing innovative, quality solutions to delight customers for decades to come.
FAQs
1) Why did Rite-Hite choose Ideawake over other platforms?
Ideawake had strong references, a simple and flexible admin experience, and built-in analytics. Their team could self-configure challenges without heavy customer success support, and end users found it easy to submit ideas, comment, and vote.
2) What measurable results did Rite-Hite see in year one?
They exceeded their engagement goal—targeting 500 participants and achieving 764 employees active through ideas, comments, or votes. They also advanced ideas into product roadmaps, moved others into engineering concept evaluation, and identified submissions with patent potential.
3) How does Ideawake help track innovation program health at Rite-Hite?
The platform’s analytics surface who’s participating, from which locations, and on which topics. This makes it easy to generate quick reports, monitor challenge performance against success metrics, and keep leadership aligned on outcomes.
4) What goals did Rite-Hite set for their Ideawake launch—and why?
Three priorities: (a) boost employee engagement across the company, (b) strengthen innovation pipelines and future product roadmaps by de-risking early concepts, and (c) generate new IP by identifying patent-worthy ideas.
5) How does Ideawake support employee voice and transparency at Rite-Hite?
By giving everyone a simple way to contribute—anonymous posting (if enabled), voting, and comments—plus clear visibility into how ideas progress. This aligns with Rite-Hite’s culture of involvement and helps connect individual contributions to company growth.