sugar creek

Sugar Creek Brewery IoT

Sugar Creek Brewery was unable to track the amount of beer flowing through their bottling cycle and were losing money due to high levels of spillage. In building a system to track this spillage, in addition to other brewery metrics, I was brought on as lead UX/UI designer with primary responsibility for analyzing user requirements, gathering solution implementation requirements, designing data visualizations and primary UI design system, and leading development hand off.

Summary

I led design efforts with the folks at Sugar Creek Brewery to automate their brewing process through state of the art AI instrumentation, Watson IoT, and Analytics. Needs were gathered through ethnographic user research and interviews, and the result was a system designed to track their brewing and bottling process in the following weeks and analyze the data in a clear, informative view for the brewers. This solution helped Sugar Creek identify inefficiencies that, when addressed, saved the brewery over $10,000 a month. 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.

Process & Solution

During this process we identified key data points that needed tracking as well as solutions like automation or IoT devices that could be implemented. We also documented their brewing/bottling process first-hand so we had all necessary information about how it worked before beginning work on our designs.

After gathering stakeholder feedback from these interviews I facilitated more discussion around what metrics should be tracked in order for us to identify opportunities previously not thought of or understood by SCB's own internal team members - such as tracking height each bottle is filled at in order to avoid wasted product - and form a clear plan of attack for our solution.

A screenshot of notes taken during a meeting with the head brewmaster.

All this raw information was then used during whiteboarding sessions with the lead developer in order to create multiple methods of data visualization for our dashboard analyzing these points (as well as fermentation tracking, remote temperature control).

After validating these requirements with SCB’s owners everyone got to work developing our interfaces within budget constraints and limited time frames available - ensuring functionality while still keeping UI design needs in mind throughout this entire process.

Results & Impact

In addition to saving Sugar Creek $10k a month through implementing analytics tools like ours, they became one of IBM’s biggest client references across multiple media streams after launching with us! Our collaborative efforts led allowing them access incredible insights around their bottling cycle that otherwise would have gone unnoticed without utilizing technology like ours; ultimately improving overall operational efficiency throughout their entire system.