The Valve That Can Predict The Future
Creating a software for global communication & work history of industrial valves and monitoring new IoT “Smart Valves”.
Question: Can you design a system for global communication among our on-site engineers that includes our bleeding-edge tech to predict when our valves will fail.
Answer: By working closely with the engineers, devs, and data scientists also working on this, I can.
2018-2020Contract Overview
Purpose:
To design a software capable of monitoring and recording the status of tens of thousands of smart micro sensors placed on thousands of pumps in constant use. Enabling warning alerts for site owners worldwide, who can then safely replace worn parts before catastrophic failure. Create an intranet for on-site engineers to communicate with one another.
Client:
An American provider of engineered products and services including mechanical seals, couplings, seal support systems, filtration systems and digital diagnostics technologies. They service customers in the energy services sector including production, transmission and storage, refining, power generation, petrochemical, pulp and paper, and mining industries, as well as process industries including large oil companies, national oil companies, and refineries. Currently under NDA (See Resume)
Industries:
Engineering, Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Pulp & Paper, Mining, Industrial Manufacturing
Team:
Digital R&D Director, CTO, CEO, Main Developer, Assistant Developer, Project manager, Plant Engineer, Valve Engineer Manager, Data Scientist, UX Lead, UX Designer/Researcher (Self)
Scope:
2 years, Remote, B2B Client, Global Intranet and Monitoring, ~10,000 Industrial Plant sites, $250M Market expansion, R&D team of 9
Personal Responsibilities:
Interaction and Layout of the site-specific real-time main monitoring dashboard, individual sensor readout, pump-specific sensor group readout, onboarding flow for new sites, new site sensor hub installation. Primary and Secondary research, performing 1:1 interviews with users for discovery research.
Outcome:
Scrapped before making it out of R&D. Most of the software was complete, sensors and hubs had been installed at test sites and results were positive. The primary stakeholder in charge of the project got promoted and the next stakeholder decided to go in a different direction and scrapped the project.
The Work
The Ask:
Can you design a digital interface for a valve that can warn the user before it fails? And can it let the on-site engineers talk to each other?
The Method:
Take the 50-yr old analog processes of onboarding a new site and convert it to a digital one. Interview the on-site engineers and show them the early designs and readjust based on what they say and how they work in their day to day.
The Answer:
Yes I can, and I did.
Product Attributes
Basic Attributes aka “Table Stakes”:
An interface that lets an engineer see the current performance of all pumps under their jurisdiction and that allows them to find specific engineers and contact them directly.
Elevated Performance Attributes:
The interface warns the user well in advance before the pump is going to fail.
“Delight” Attributes:
The interface also prepares and collates all relevant data for an impromptu or scheduled report to the site owners.