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. This project was done in collaboration with Bosch to showcase both IoT hardware capabilities and human-centric computer vision solutions, while improving processes and work life for the staff of a small, locally owned brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Needs were gathered through stakeholder interviews, ethnographic user research, and cooperative ideation with both internal teams and the folks at Sugar Creek. After identifying key areas to track analytics, I led design of a system that brings insight into Sugar Creek's brewing and bottling process, providing a clear, informative view into the full brewing and bottling cycle for the brewers and owners.
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
We started the project with stakeholder interviews, and in the days we were on site with Sugar Creek, I used ethnographic research methods, viewing the brewers work onsite throughout their day, documenting their brewing and bottling process first-hand, and conducting interviews to identify key data points they tracked throughout brewing, as well as inefficiencies and struggles they faced. One clear example of this was the amount of time spent checking the height each and every bottle is filled at, ensuring it's within the threshold needed for bottling. If a bottle was over or under-filled, it needed to be uncapped, cleaned, de-labeled, and sent back through the entire cycle again.
After gathering stakeholder feedback from these interviews, I facilitated more discussion around what metrics the owners track both throughout different brewing & bottling cycles, as well longitudinally, helping us to identify opportunities previously not discovered with internal SCB's team members, like how waste directly corresponds to lost funds, and form a clear strategy for our solution.
We started the project with stakeholder interviews, and in the days we were on site with Sugar Creek, I used ethnographic research methods, viewing the brewers work onsite throughout their day, documenting their brewing and bottling process first-hand, and conducting interviews to identify key data points they tracked throughout brewing, as well as inefficiencies and struggles they faced. One clear example of this was the amount of time spent checking the height each and every bottle is filled at, ensuring it's within the threshold needed for bottling. If a bottle was over or under-filled, it needed to be uncapped, cleaned, de-labeled, and sent back through the entire cycle again.
After gathering stakeholder feedback from these interviews, I facilitated more discussion around what metrics the owners track both throughout different brewing & bottling cycles, as well longitudinally, helping us to identify opportunities previously not discovered with internal SCB's team members, like how waste directly corresponds to lost funds, and form a clear strategy for our solution.
All of this raw information was then used during internal 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), which we then took to the owners and brewers of Sugar Creek to validate and iterate on.
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
After implementation, data collected and analyzed through the interface identified particular patterns in the bottling line, highlighting issues in the causing excessive foaming. With the data used, they were able to make an improvement in their bottling process that saved Sugar Creek more than $10,000 a month. Through implementing this new analytics tool and speaking to the benefits, they became one of IBM’s biggest client references across multiple media streams in 2019. Our collaborative efforts led allowing them access to insights around their bottling cycle that otherwise would have gone unnoticed otherwise; ultimately improving overall operational efficiency throughout their entire system.