Challenges & Requirements

AssetIQ was developed to serve as a platform for any industry that wanted to view industrial processes and its associated data in real-time. The primary client that the application is used by is Unilever, with the aim of rolling out AssetIQ to its 300+ factories around the globe. Each deployment came with a unique and large engineering problem that affected the factory and its supply chain. For instance, a Dove shampoo factory in South America could be dealing with high levels of wasted product with no clear way to visualize it while production is live, or a perfume factory in Europe needs to monitor recipe changes overtime to ensure the integrity of the product between shift changes. These problems often required rapid deployment, so new features had to be drafted and implemented within 4-8 weeks per factory. In addition, AssetIQ has been used to demonstrate similar value propositions to PepsiCo, British Petroleum, & Anheuser Busch.

While I was at The Marsden Group, I was responsible for the full development cycle for each Unilever factory and Anheuser Busch, from project scopes, design drafting, 3D modeling, backend development, and UI/UX development. There were three major challenges when rapidly growing this product:

• Scalable Growth - How can we maintain a stable backend while deploying to several factories per month, each potentially streaming large amounts of telemetric data?
• User-Friendly Design - How can we design an application that maintains the same depth as a Human-Machine Interface located on the factory/rig floor, while being responsive and maintaining modern design principles?
• Multi-platform - How can we get this application in the hands of all employees of an organization, from managers to line workers? 

Actions & Outcomes

By Christmas 2019, I personally deployed 40+ factories to AssetIQ, each ranging in scope and data. To ensure scalability, I created region-based WebJobs with filters that could be more easily throttled depending on the data throughput. I created dozens of 3D models and with the help of other modelers, expanded the 3D asset catalog ten-fold. 

During my time on this project, I helped design several prototypes to expand AssetIQ's capabilities in other industries. Each prototype was typically a rapid two-week sprint, leaving us with concepts we would then cycle back into the core product to expand its features and design.  

Lastly, we branched out beyond building for desktop PCs and began publishing builds for the Android, iOS, and Windows stores with the goal of getting this application in the hands of everyone at a site rather than the managers. I assisted in the implementation of Azure Active Directory to ensure safe login and integrity of sensitive site data.

Technologies Used

Conclusions

Before departing The Marsden Group, I was able to assist over 50 Unilever factories in providing rapid insights into problems they may be facing. Furthermore, these capabilities were expanded to other companies and industries, which was used to create a product that could eventually be "plug & play" for any Fortune 500 company aiming to tackle complex logistical and engineering problems. 

Directly before leaving, I assisted in scoping and drafting the next version of AssetIQ, with a list of features that will surely make it a leader in digital twin technology in the near future.