How KRONE is building a communication and process platform for 6,000 frontline employees

At KRONE, value isn't created primarily at a desk. It's created on the assembly lines in the production plants, in the paint shops and parts centers, with the service technicians working on a trailer or an agricultural machine somewhere in Europe, and across the group's many international subsidiaries. Most of the people who work there have no company email address and no PC workstation. For the group's frontline areas, employee access without email for internal communication was simply unsolved for a long time. Important information traveled via bulletin boards, through managers, or in private WhatsApp groups.

That changed with the rollout of the Flip employee app, known internally as KRONE INSIDE. What began as a channel for communication has step by step become the platform KRONE now runs its first processes on: automated onboarding, process reports from the production floor, company idea management, and access to digital payslips. The engine behind it is called Flip Flows.

Industry

Machinery and vehicle manufacturing / Production
Company size

Approx. 10,000 employees
Use Cases

Automated onboarding and offboarding | Continuous improvement (CIP) and maintenance reports | Digital payslips | Knowledge access via Ask AI | Connection to training content
About KRONE Group

KRONE Group is one of the best-known family businesses in German machinery and vehicle manufacturing. A large part of the workforce is in production, assembly, the warehouse, or service.

A worker with earmuffs smiling in a factory setting.

Benefits of the Flip employee app at KRONE Group

Challenge

A workforce spread across many plants, brands, and countries, with no shared digital channel. Most frontline employees had neither a company email nor a company device. Shift plans, safety notices, and news arrived by bulletin board or not at all. Onboarding worked differently at every site. Improvement ideas from the production floor often fizzled out because there was no structured way to move them up. And routine tasks, like mailing payslips or handling vacation requests, tied up time in administration.

Solution

Flip gives KRONE a channel that reaches every employee directly on their own smartphone. Flip Flows builds on that: automated, chat-based processes that guide onboarding, reporting, and HR self-service step by step across the workforce. The Ask AI digital assistant answers questions from the company's own knowledge base, without anyone having to interrupt a manager. Digital payslips are now available in the app instead of the mailbox.

Result

KRONE now reaches its frontline employees in one app instead of on bulletin boards. By the company's own estimate, digital payslips save more than €10,000 a month and are live for several thousand employees. More than 120 knowledge pages serve as the foundation for the AI assistant.

Learn more about the manufacturing industry

Before Flip

Bulletin boards, word of mouth, and private chat groups

The KRONE Group brings together two worlds: agricultural machinery, including forage harvesters, mowers, rotary rakes, loader wagons, and balers for forage harvesting, and commercial vehicles, above all trailers and semi-trailers for road freight transport. Both share the same promise: technology that runs in the field and on the road, not in the office.

Before Flip, KRONE had the same problem as almost any industrial company with a large frontline share: the people who build the product were the hardest to reach. Four gaps stood out.

No reliable reach into production. Someone on the line doesn't read an intranet or open a company email, because for these roles neither often exists. Information counted as distributed the moment it was pinned to the bulletin board. Whether it reliably arrived, no one knew.
Onboarding that depended on the day. In some areas, a new colleague's first days depended on who happened to have time to train them. Across plants and brands, the start looked completely different.
Ideas with no way up. The best improvement suggestions come from the production floor. Without a structured suggestion process, many of them stayed in the head of the person who had them. KRONE wanted to change that.
No digital home for frontline employees. Most frontline employees had no digital identity in the company. That's exactly the gap identity management for employees without a PC has to close: a login for operational employees that works without a company email and without a desktop.

'The difference is that important information is much easier and faster to reach today. With the employee app and an AI-powered assistant for their pocket, colleagues have one central point of access to many parts of the working day, from the shift plan to payroll and forms to concrete help within processes. If a tool is missing at the workstation, for example, the assistant can not only provide the right information but also guide you directly through the next steps. That turns searching for information into fast, straightforward support right on site.'

Ingo Lübs

Head of Corporate Communications

Man in a sweater standing outside a modern building.

The Flip experience

From an app that informs to an app that runs processes

Everyone at KRONE should have a digital home that runs on the device they already carry in their pocket. That makes a digital identity for operational employees the norm rather than the exception. The real leap, though, came not with the news feed but with Flip Flows, the automated processes that run right inside Flip chat. Four of them have now arrived in everyday work at KRONE.

Onboarding that starts on day one. Instead of a folder and a lot of chance, a Flow guides new employees step by step through formalities, safety training, and the first weeks. The process is the same at every site, no matter who is on shift.
Reporting straight from the shop floor. One Flow for the company suggestion scheme (CIP), one for maintenance, one for hazard reports: anyone who spots a problem on the line reports it in the app, with a photo, instead of jotting it on a note that may never arrive.
HR self-service without a detour through administration. Digital payslips sit securely in the app. KRONE connected them to its own systems, so everyone can retrieve their documents without anything being mailed. Vacation requests will soon follow the same principle.
Answers in real time, without asking a manager. Ask AI taps the knowledge base and answers questions from the shop floor in natural language. An assembly assistant will soon deliver work instructions right to the workstation. That turns the employee login into a knowledge login at the same time.

The combination of Ask AI and Flip Flows changes everyday work in particular: employees ask a question, and when needed the AI kicks off the right process.

Conclusion

A platform that grows with the company

Truck with Krone Carrier System Dry Box on a road.

KRONE is turning the employee app into an operational platform. What began with communication now carries its first processes, ones that used to run on paper, by mail, or not at all.

Around 6,000 frontline employees get the same information at the same time, regardless of plant, brand, or company device.
Flip Flows automates onboarding, reporting, and HR self-service, while Ask AI answers questions from the company's own knowledge base.

Outlook: a passwordless login for the entire frontline

The next possible step picks up exactly where the story began: with access. KRONE is currently evaluating, with Frontline Identity, introducing a passwordless employee login for its frontline employees, including the newly acquired Schwarzmüller Group. The idea is simple and, for industrial companies, far-reaching: anyone without a company email and without a company device still gets a secure digital identity and signs in within a few steps, via passkey or QR code, instead of struggling with passwords and SMS codes. That could turn the app that informs and runs processes into the central, secure login for operational employees.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about KRONE and Flip

What problem did KRONE solve with the Flip employee app?

KRONE had no reliable digital channel for its frontline employees in production, assembly, the warehouse, and service. Most of them have no company email address, and information traveled by bulletin board and word of mouth. Today Flip reaches every person directly on their smartphone, solving employee access without email for the entire frontline.

What are Flip Flows, and what does KRONE use them for?

Flip Flows are automated, chat-based processes that guide you step by step through a process right inside Flip chat. KRONE uses them for automated onboarding, for the company suggestion scheme (CIP), for maintenance and hazard reports, and for HR self-service.

How much does KRONE save with digital payslips?

By its own estimate, KRONE saves more than €10,000 a month in printing and mailing costs through digital payslips in the Flip app. Payslips are live for several thousand employees.

How does KRONE answer questions from the shop floor?

KRONE uses Ask AI from Flip Intelligence together with its own knowledge base. Employees ask their question in natural language in the app and get the answer from vetted company content, without having to interrupt a manager. An assembly assistant will soon deliver work instructions right to the workstation.

How does KRONE plan to solve login for operational employees going forward?

As a possible next step, KRONE is evaluating whether to introduce a passwordless login for operational employees with Frontline Identity. Employees without a company email get a secure digital identity and sign in via passkey or QR code. That addresses identity management for employees without a PC at the root.