The Internet of Things (IoT) and especially the Industrial version (IIoT), has been one of the BIG
buzzwords for years now. The questions are what business value it can bring and why it needs
to transform your business.
Let’s use a scenario that you can apply to almost any industry. Companies within an industry
typically are in different categories (manufacturer, resellers, third-party service providers), and
this scenario applies to most of them.
Let’s start with a picture of the scenario:
This scenario is a simplification focusing main flow and supporting systems, while automatically
using the device information as driver.
The main contrast to look for between this scenario and the process before using IIoT is the
preventative approach, which reduces the down-time of the product, asset, machine.
Break/Fix and Scheduled Maintenance are still the most common service models. This scenario
shows how Preventative Fix and Usage-based Maintenance are the new paradigms for service
management.
Note that this allows for scheduled service instead of unplanned downtime.
The Steps:
- The product is in operation and continuously generates information via its sensors.
- These informational messages are received and processed by NuvIoT and determine if
immediate action is necessary.
a. It is also possible for NuvIoT to make automatic adjustments to the settings of the
product and change its performance immediately. - NuvIoT also looks for patterns in the time-series of data to indicate potential future
performance issues or failures.
. NuvIoT also can predict maintenance needs based on actual usage of the product and its
consumables.
a. Maintenance includes now the replacement of components and products with predictions
to fail. - The service parts (FRUs) identified are provisioned since NuvIoT knows which
components are the potential cause of a future break and what maintenance to schedule. - Who is going to pay for it? Typically warranty and service contract management systems
are used to determine this. NuvIoT can update and use information from these systems. - We notify the customer (user of the product) before they are aware of a problem,
increasing customer satisfaction significantly and mutually agree on the date/time of the
service.
. NuvIoT automatically generates a service ticket (work order) for this incident and is
managed through a Service Board. - The field engineer likely needs access to all the supporting information about the device,
product, maintenance to perform, and technical information that is available in NuvIoT. - Preventative maintenance is performed.
Note: I realize, of course, that things are still going to break without getting a warning ahead of
time. The above still works since the messages either stop or contain information about the
break. In that case, it starts the same process for a break/fix scenario. You might know about the
break before the client calls you, so you have the opportunity to warn the client.
Live Demo option:
We looked at an utterly generic scenario, and in this section, we are going to get into more
details of a specific scene that is running in a NuvIoT demonstration organization.
You can set up a demo with Software Logistics to see the NuvIoT in action with the below
scenario. The main thing that you will notice in the demo is that NuvIoT about configuring and
not about coding programming. You don’t need to be an IT expert to get your IoT solutions to
work.
Description:
The scene contains a fictitious company BPSA (Better Products and Services for All) who is a
manufacturer that sells and services its commercial level products directly to its clients and uses
resellers and value-added resellers for its consumer-level products.
• The products used in the demo are washing machines. The consumer product used is
premium washer model WSH001. And the commercial level product is the laundry
washer model LMWSH001.
• We are using multiple types of informational messages coming from these washing
machines. Each of these message types carries different content.
• Start Washer
• Temperature
• Size
• Weight
• Cycle Type
• Error Codes
• Vibration Detected
• Frequency
• Amplitude
• Being Wash Cycle
• Full load
• End Wash Cycle
• Power Consumed
• Error Codes
As you already imagine, the combination of these messages with their content leads to exciting
analysis capabilities, especially when using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence
models to interpret them.
The information is also immediately usable, even with those models, by using the properties
defined in the device configurations, which are different for the commercial and consumer
washers. We set up device-properties like:
• Nominal Frequency
• Nominal Amplitude
• Max Dry Weight
• Max Load Weight
• You can have unlimited properties set up
We can use those device-properties in the device-workflow where we configured the business
rules for processing.
Some of the business set up in the demo are:
• An alert to the client that they overloaded the washer
• A record to warranty that overload happened
• A signal to (Field) Service to contact the client that Frequency & Amplitude indicate a
problem
And since we also have the number of starts and types of wash-cycles we can:
• Email consumer to do certain kinds of maintenances
Let’s now take a look at NuvIoT’s Field Service portion. We can set any number of business
rules to initiate FS tickets and assign them automatically to the appropriate Service Board. There
is also a manual ticket creation option, of course.
Service Boards are the mechanism to manage the life cycle of a service ticket (work order) from
creation to close. You can set up boards by the client, or by the product lines, or by type of
service, or combinations and lots more.
A ticket contains the standard information like
• Ticket number
• Status
• Device (Product) instance
• Dates
• Assignee
And lots more pieces of information elements automatically are available based on the device,
messages received, and other information.
• Service Equipment
• Part Kits
• Service (Spare) Parts
• Diagnostics Instructions
• Repair Instructions
• Audit Instructions
• Media Libraries
• Manuals
• How-to Videos
• Knowledgebase articles
• …
You can see all this in action during the demo and ask your questions.
Only your imagination is the limit. Also, ask about our IoT accelerators.
Connected Service Management
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