Hauzer project

Project description

The main question of our project is: How can Hauzer create added value for their customers using the available machine data? The question is answered by dividing it in different smaller questions. Based on the answers from the researches and with the knowledge everyone gained this semester a proof of concept was made which Hauzer is going to use for their clients.

Context

Hauzer is a company that designs and manufactures vacuum coating equipment. The machines use PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) and PACVD (Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition) technologies to apply technical coatings on various products. These big machines generate a lot of data which isn’t being used at the moment.

Hauzer just started to investigate how Industry 4.0 solutions can create added value for their customers. Industry 4.0 is the name for a trend of automation and data exchange that is used in industrial manufacturing techniques. It consists of autonomous cyber-physical production systems, the Internet of things (IoT or IIoT: Industrial IoT), cloud computing and systems that can partially or completely take over the thinking process (cognitive computing).

Hauzer wants to make their machine data available for their customers so that they can optimize their machines by creating relevant information.

The project objectives where the following:

• Find an IOT platform with focus on data security, integrity and operational cost
• Research in different reporting tools
• Realise different dashboards based on client requirements

Results

Industry 4.0 research
By implementing industry 4.0 Hauzer will be able to improve a certain amount of aspects in their company. The research that is done for industry 4.0 was to give more insights in the possibilities companies have nowadays. During this research it became clear what industry 4.0 is and it gave the students a better understanding of this concept.

IoT platform research
From the research it can be concluded that Thingsboard professional is the platform that fits the needs of Hauzer the best. It has all the features that Hauzer requires, and the pricing is reasonable. Furthermore, Hauzer can start small and eventually add all the devices necessary.

The outcome of the IoT platform research has had a decent amount of influence on Hauzers’ choice of picking an IoT platform. After several meetings and handing over the research document, Hauzer chose to implement Thingsboard professional.

Reporting tool research
Our tool of recommendation is Power bi.

Power bi is chosen because it had all the (extra) requirements and is the most user and beginner friendly for working with dashboards. The pricing structure is ideal for Hauzer to begin with a small proof of concept. Furthermore, when starting with power bi there is big pool of available specialist, support, and a lot of information on the internet.

KPI 3.1 and 3.4 are the dashboards that can be achieved fast and with high quality in Power BI. This is because the purpose of these reports is to find out correlations and conclusions which is what Power BI specializes in. With the 3.3 KPI this is a bit more difficult because it’s a live dashboard. Thingsboard is the better tool for this aspect, but overall Power BI is better when there is a need to choose one central tool.

Added value
The results of the added value research made it clear that by making visualizations in Power BI, Hauzer and their clients benefit both. The clients get provided a service that will optimize their process which is further explained in the ‘influence on process’ in the advice rapport. The client can choose a subscription which suits their wishes and budget. Hauzer on the other hand provides this service and will make sure the customer experience as well as their visualizations are optimized. The product life cycle of the service Hauzer provides will be constant due to coordination with its clients.

A case of supply and demand where the product or service in this case will always be valuable for both parties. Hauzer will benefits from this due to customer retention and the demand of its clients. This infinite demand is the foundation of Hauzers’ business model. The demand of its clients makes it safe for Hauzer to invest in making visualizations for their clients. Because of this, Hauzer can keep their data profitable, and therefore add value to its business operations.

Dashboards
A full research has not been done on the dashboards since Hauzer gave requirements that had to be included. Due to different interests from Hauzer throughout the project, some requirements have been adjusted to what actually is possible and what Hauzer thought to be most important.

The dashboards that have been created are initially the end product for Hauzer and will not exactly match with what was agreed to in the requirements as said before. This has ensured that the dashboards are of most value to the customer which is in line with the main question of ‘How Hauzer can provide dashboards that add the most value to its customers.

Methodology

The library methodology was used because of the current knowledge at that time, online resources were used and different solutions on the market were researched. Furthermore a basic requirement analysis excel sheet was made to rank these requirements based on what was found online.

The field methodology was used because some requirements were not clear enough. That’s why in a meeting with Hauzer and the clients(end users) some extra requirements for the tools were decided to add to the requirement analysis.

The workshop methodology was used because there has been made a requirement analysis document in Excel.

The showroom methodology was used because there have been given multiple presentations to Hauzer where the results of the research have been discussed. The presentation also ensured the group got useful feedback for future researches.

The lab methodology was used because the data Hauzer had at that time needed some change. The data was changed to use this in the different tools, the name of the design that was followed is OLAP. This is something that was also researched as an extra thing that is beneficial for Hauzer in the long term.

About the project group

Bram Houben - ICT & Software
Phuc Pham - ICT & Business
Jens Krooswijk - Bedrijfskunde

Every project member spend equal time on the project. For the research part each project member took on a different tool to research and test. With the data visuals each member realised their own KPI.