Problem
Sugar Creek Brewery was losing more than $30,000 a month in beer spillage through the manufacturing process. They noted that about 13% of their beer is wasted due the level of foam or broken bottles. Along those lines, there was inconsistent fill level on the packaging line, excessive foam, and less than optimal amount of beer.
Discover
We met with the Sugar Creek brewery team at the site of their brewery to gather requirements for the project. While there, I spoke with multiple SC employees, including management/owners, brewers, and other staff, as well as the IBM project lead. During these discussions we gained insight into their brewing process, what inefficiencies they’ve noticed, and what tools IBM can provide to help. I also observed and documented their brewing/bottling process first-hand, taking note of opportunities to implement analytics, automation, and other possible solution areas.
Define
Taking this raw information, I facilitated further discussions with the owners and project lead to define the most important measures to track, find opportunity areas previously not thought of, and form a rough idea of what the final product needs to accomplish. Sugar Creek had no established method utilizing these data points, so through analyzing the brewing environment, the data collected by the IoT devices, and the information readily available through normal means of production, we were able to build out a clear plan of attack and information architecture for the dashboard.
Design
I then worked alongside the lead developer in white-boarding multiple methods of data visualization for a dashboard analyzing the amount of beer flowing through a bottling cycle, the height each bottle is filled at to avoid wasted product, and other metrics around the brewing process like fermentation tracking, remote temperature control, etc. After validating the requirements of the visualizations and information architecture with the stakeholders and brewery owners, we then got to work to design, develop, and deliver the functional interface within the confines of our budget and limited timeline.
Deliver
After multiple UI iterations and working alongside the lead developer to ensure functionality, we delivered the finalized product. After implementing our analytics and IoT solutions in their brewery, Sugar Creek reported saving $10,000 a month, and talked about the breweries experience with IBM across multiple media streams, becoming a client reference for our organization.
As a result, the project was showcased at the 2018 IoT Exchange conference as part of a major IBM Marketing pitch showcasing efforts in IoT & Analytics.
Dashboard
iPad UI
