Unique customer experience in this market segment through a customer portal
Smart monitoring enables automated diagnostics and predictive maintenance
Through the central control of the IoT platform, administrative and organizational systemsExpenses reduced
LEWA GmbH is one of the world's leading manufacturers of diaphragm dosing pumps, process pumps, and dosing systems and systems. The company was founded in 1952 and is now represented by 14 subsidiaries and over 80 sales partners on all continents. LEWA employs a total of more than 1,200 people.
Source: LEWA GmbH
Diaphragm metering pumps are used in the energy, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, among others, and usually transport highly sensitive substances. No matter how safe the pumps are, if they are not maintained regularly, expensive breakdowns can occur. To prevent this from happening, it is essential to monitor the pumps continuously. Although sensor-based monitoring is already in use, it is extremely difficult to interpret the data without specific pump knowledge.
LEWA has this pump know-how, but what was missing was a solution to share it efficiently with customers. The company saw the possibilities offered by digitalisation as an opportunity to change this. But such an interdisciplinary task required a completely different approach than the engineering company was used to. The fixed specification had to become a dynamic backlog, the linear project management an agile approach. Looking for a sparring partner for this challenge, the company found us through the VDMA.
Another challenge: LEWA pumps are used all over the world. As a result of this decentralised distribution, customer service has to react quickly and efficiently even in the most remote locations. This increases organisational and administrative costs.
LEWA's goal was to create an all-round carefree package for its customers around the world. It was necessary to work out how this vision could be translated into real services in an agile development process. Thanks to our many years of experience in agile and iterative working, we were able to provide LEWA with advice and support as an agile coach. Sprint for sprint, the ideal solution emerged: a centrally controllable IoT platform that delivers interpretable pump parameters directly to the user via a user-friendly customer portal.
Intelligent monitoring is at the heart of the digitalisation strategy for LEWA pumps. As part of an interdisciplinary team, we have translated LEWA's many years of engineering knowledge into mathematical models and algorithms. This makes it possible for the first time to automatically interpret the pump parameters determined and to derive diagnoses from them. The result is early detection of adverse conditions in the pump and the surrounding system, including localisation and possible correction. At the same time, the technology enables predictive maintenance, i.e. predicting when which pump needs to be serviced.
Source: LEWA GmbH
Even the smartest pump is useless if the results obtained via Smart Monitoring are not acted upon in time. And since LEWA pumps are used in the most remote parts of the world, it is extremely important to keep an eye on the database at all times. For this purpose, we have developed an IoT platform based on Microsoft Azure that continuously collects data from the smart pumps. Depending on customer requirements, this data can be sent directly to the cloud. Now that the pumps can communicate, they also have another advantage: For the first time, the masses of real data can be consolidated. This allows LEWA to keep an eye on the field population at all times and to react faster and in a more targeted manner.
Source: LEWA GmbH
The "other end" of the digitisation solution is the customer portal. As a single touchpoint for customer self-service, it allows customers to take care of their pumps anytime, anywhere. Dashboards can be used to continuously monitor and control all pumps in the form of digital twins. Pump documents and spare parts lists are just a few clicks away. The nearest LEWA subsidiary and sales partner is always used to keep service and supply chains as fast and efficient as possible.
Source: LEWA GmbH
Source: LEWA GmbH
Quelle: LEWA GmbH
At the start of the project, LEWA was undergoing a cultural change. The historically strict waterfall project management and working in fixed teams was to give way to an agile way of working. LEWA was therefore looking for an IT partner who not only worked in an agile way, but was also able to teach and pass on an agile way of thinking. Programme Manager Moritz Pastow: "Progressive products require a progressive way of working. And generic.de was the perfect partner for us.
Pastow was also impressed by the Clean Code Development approach. At first, he thought that sustainable code development was just a clever marketing gimmick, but he soon realised that there was more to it than that: "It is extremely refreshing that all the developers at generic.de repeatedly address issues such as code reviews and unit testing on their own initiative. Not because they like it or because I tell them to. But because they think about it. Because what we don't do right now will come back to bite us later.
Source: LEWA GmbH
Last but not least, it is holistic project management that really adds value. Everyone involved knows the current situation at all times. Every developer can draw on the same domain knowledge, making development more efficient with every sprint. Or in the words of Moritz Pastow: "Because everyone is connected and everyone has the same project knowledge, it just works. And I save time and money on explanations, knowledge transfer, management and coordination.