What if a bartender knew exactly when one of their kegs was about to tap out just by looking at a volume meter on an app on their phones? Their bar back could switch out the keg before impatient patrons demand more. What if liquor shelves had weight sensors that measured when someone adds or removes liquor? Or an app on a phone existed that notified management when and what liquor is moved? Or better yet, a storage system that communicates with the front bar, knows which liquor is being moved, and manages inventory according to actual usage? Inventory would be a lot more accurate and there would be less time spent trying to figure out what needs to be in the next order.

When smart connectivity allows for a smoother restaurant or brewery experience, you’re most likely going to have a better time without realizing it had anything to do with the Internet of Things (IoT). For businesses, IoT solutions are creating more opportunities to connect products with the Internet. And for the average consumer, IoT solutions are creating easier access and control of products through smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

Leaders are investing in an IoT strategy as they plan the future success of their products and services. You can add smart connectivity to your products – even if you’re in the beer industry.

Here are a few industry leaders that leverage the Internet of Things to drive their success.

Deschutes Brewery

Headquartered in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes Brewery has been making craft beer since 1988. You may be familiar with their rich porter Black Butte created with hints of chocolate and coffee or their Fresh Squeezed IPA brimming with grapefruit enriched hops.

The Deschutes team partnered up with a consultant group and Microsoft last year in efforts to improve their brewing process. With a total of nine brewing phases, each phase has to be closely watched to maintain the quality of their beer. Machine learning is the application of artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being programmed. Deschutes has implemented machine learning and predictive analysis to automate and improve their fermentation processes. When pairing IoT sensors with the Cortana Intelligence Suite, Microsoft’s predictive learning software, the analytics tool determines the percentage of beer fermented in each batch and predicts when it’s time to switch to the next phase. The Deschutes team can now accurately schedule the nine brewing phases accordingly to ensure the quality of beer is consistent with all of their batches.

Connecting the beer tank sensors with machine learning gave Deschutes an IoT solution and allowed them to improve their brew processes. Deschutes reduced their fermentation process by 24-48 hours. They are now able to focus more time on creating new brands and maintaining the quality of the existing ones. Deschutes is looking at furthering the use of this smart, connected technology by looking into using it for preventive maintenance for their equipment so that brewers would be alerted if parts are due for service or replacement.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings, headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is a popular sports bar that has an average of 24-32 beers on tap. Due to major growth of the company and being one of the top 10 fastest-growing restaurants in the U.S., BWW needed to keep up with the growing demand of their customer’s needs. The company faced two major challenges. Both challenges prompted the need to leverage technology and the Internet of Things for an improved operational efficiency.

The first challenge was that they needed to eliminate the product loss that results from comping drinks, excessive or bad pours, and generous bartenders that give beer away without entering the sale in the system. BWW implemented a system called BeerBoard that monitors beer flow data from IoT sensors in the taps to Mulesoft, an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), where managers can compare beer output to sales information pulled from their Aloha point-of-sale systems. Restaurant managers can accurately determine whether they are running an effective beer operation with the help of the IoT solution found from linking the sensors to BWWs data management systems.

Their second challenge was managing the demand of the assortment of beers for each location all year round. BWW used BeerBoard’s new SmartBar beer management platform to switch and assign new beers corresponding to tap lines. Pour data and sales data would be captured through the platform where all BWW restaurants would have access to the reports to measure performance of each beer. The ability to gain beer preference insight brought a powerful competitive advantage to Buffalo Wild Wing’s brand and reputation.

By working with a few different companies that provided the IoT flow sensors and a software solution to manage their data, BWW started to accurately predict preferences and optimize inventory planning. The company now leverages the Internet of Things to accurately track beer consumption.

How to Bring Your Products to Life with the IoT

Race up the learning curve and find a partner that’s driven to find and implement the right IoT solution for your unique business. Make sure they have the engineering expertise necessary to bring your products to life. EAC Product Development Solutions is a company that transforms the way companies design, manufacture, connect to, and service their products. EAC is on a mission to help companies innovate, optimize, and win in the marketplace by selecting the right IoT solution — like PTC ThingWorx. With ThingWorx allows organizations to connect their products to the Internet and give customers the tools they need for easy access and control.

Ready to dive in? Our team of specialists, engineers, and developers would love to help you bring a working proof of concept to life. The demo application image below is an example of how our engineers can use ThingWorx to pull together data from many sources and deliver data to your fingertips. The demo shows how a local brewery can use the app to access plant conditions, truck tracking, order tracking, weather forecasting, collaboration, and beer tasting — all in real-time simulation.

Watch our Connect Services video to see how our engineers can connect your products with the Internet of Things!

Knowledge is power. Keep track of your data if you’re not doing it already. You’re bound to learn something from it. Better yet – apply smart connectivity to your process. Contact our Design and Engineering Services at EAC Product Development Solutions to realize your product potential and to find your IoT solution.

Download our free Connect Services Brochure to see how you connect your products to the internet for a smarter technology solution.

Take the quiz to find out what kind of engineer you were born to be. This is a fun interactive quiz that will give you the answer to which engineer personality traits and characteristics you most relate with!

EAC Product Development Solutions provides companies with a Design and Engineering Services Team, a team of engineering experts that can provide anything from 3D printing prototypes to applying your products to an Internet of Things (IoT) platform. We refer to our team as the Extensioneering Team because we are quite literally an extension of your own team. We are here to help you with critical project deadlines and the prevention of engineering backlog.

First things first, lets address the elephant in the room. Any engineer or designer reading this article, at some level, is having the same thought.. “Why would I hire an engineering design firm to assist with an engineering project? I don’t want to replace myself.”

To that I say – no one is trying to replace you. Or your job. Let’s look at it from another angle.

Engineering and design firms want to help the client in whatever capacity they need. They’re here to assist existing engineering teams, not replace them.

If you’ve been overwhelmed with the tasks on your to-do list, then it’s probably crossed your mind that you could use the help but are afraid to ask. You are already getting s#*t done but don’t want to fall behind just because you’re in your busy season and there’s a billion things to do. By convincing your boss to get assistance with an engineering project, you can free up your time to focus on major projects that you and your team have already began while giving the projects that you have put on the back burner to another team that can help you get it done in time.

Many engineering service providers want to help you. Convincing upper management to take on the task of hiring outside engineering services may be easier than you think. You just have to find the right strategy to go about it. Here are some tips to help you get what you want.

Do Your Homework

Prioritizing which projects you plan on executing in-house and which ones you want to outsource is a good place to start. You should be researching what your options are for outsourcing – most likely your company has already partnered with an engineering services team in the past that will work with you to get your projects done. If not, then you should be prepared to do a little research on who you plan on outsourcing to.

Your team is already doing an awesome job by hitting your goals and overall getting things done day to day – an engineering services provider is just an additional team to help out while your team is in a bind for time. You should always be able to have some convincing material to help you answer this question: “How is my proposal going to help my boss achieve his or her goals?”

Just remember that you’re trying to make less work for your team with your proposal – so make sure that you’re pointing out exactly how outsourcing will work for your engineering project and for your team. Your boss will be more likely to listen to you if you’ve done your homework and are willing to give him or her a few solid options.

Highlight the Benefits

Most likely your team already knows the benefits of outsourcing, especially if you’ve worked with an outsourced engineering team before. Highlighting the benefits of outsourcing is even more essential if you’ve had an outsourced project go sour in the past. Make sure you have 2-3 major advantages in mind when bringing up the proposal to management. Examples of advantages should include the cost savings that would incur (the number one factor why companies choose to outsource even when they already have an engineering team) and always make sure to focus on how outsourcing the engineering project would benefit the consumer.

To be more persuasive, make sure you bring up anticipated disadvantages as well. You wouldn’t want to leave your boss with any surprises, would you? If there ends up being any focus or major concerns about these disadvantages, then bring up preemptive solutions. A back up for your back up plan, if you will. For example, if you expose the possible risk of leaked confidential data while outsourcing, then you should also have a plan to mitigate the risk. This should help you to be more convincing in the fact that you thought this through with realistic expectations.

Propose an Un-committed Commitment

You don’t have to make it seem like it’s a die-hard commitment if you know there will be hesitance in the proposal. If you know your boss is precarious to situations that involve a little risk, then you can explain that outsourcing this project can act as an experiment going forward. You can reassure management that your team will analyze the results of outsourcing to a third party so that you can weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of working with that specific engineering team in the future. Ensuring your boss that he or she is still in control of the outcome will put their mind at ease.

The other important take-away of hiring an engineering services provider is that it can be on an as-needed project basis. If you present your proposal to your boss and emphasize the fact that it is not a permanent arrangement, then you will have more elbow room for your other points. Your boss cares about getting things done and keeping costs down – remind him or her that hiring an engineering services provider would add capabilities to your team during a busy season without adding permanent overhead. Remember you are adding the services as an extension of your team, not having the provider take over completely.

Present Proof of Success

How has success been measured with the outsourced engineering team in the past? Which types of projects does the company have the most experience in? Don’t think that your boss won’t ask these questions. Simply, point out who outsourced what and how it worked out for that company. Consider finding an outsourcing example with the company that is similar to your own project that you’d like to outsource.

If you’re looking for ideas you could show to upper management, you could show them a case study on faster time to market or a case study on keeping up with client demand.

It may even be a good idea to get a free project scope if the company offers one before you bring the proposal to your boss. If you’re confident with your proposal, then you’re ready to talk to your boss.

Of course, there are times where you think your team can take on the world no problem because well, you’re that good. But most of the time it is about much more than handling multiple projects at once. It’s about making sure the job gets done without compromising quality and the reputation of your brand.

Have you ever over-committed and realized at a certain point that it was too much for your team to take on? Without finding a solution would mean under-achieving on tasks just so that you and your team could get everything done. Let’s face it – the working memory of human brain has a limited capacity. In fact, only 2% of the population is actually proficient at multi-tasking.

So why waste your time trying to beat the odds? Here are 3 reasons why you need to stop taking on too many projects.

1. It’s a Sign that You’re Not Delegating your Tasks Appropriately

Stop doing everything yourself and let others help you. Delegating your tasks to those that have the time and expertise to do so will help you eliminate the risks of under-performing on projects.

It’s important for us to realize that we can seek help when it is needed. We can’t always do everything ourselves. It is better for you to let someone take over some of your tasks so you can focus on your most important tasks. Instead of wasting your time trying to figure something out yourself, let the experts help you.

Manufacturing and Product Development departments are turning to Engineering Services offered through small to medium sized companies and handing off projects to engineers outside of their own business to meet time-sensitive deadlines.

2. It’s Intensifying Your Time Management Problem

If you’re already past the point of planning ahead, then you can still manage the time you have left by dividing your remaining tasks into manageable goals. The plan is to increase productivity in the long run by finding ways to save and manage the time you currently have. Finding a long term solution for time management will result in working smarter, not harder.

Time management is not something that everyone is great at all the time. The important thing is to recognize when you are having a hard time and seek out the appropriate solution.

3. It Means that You’re Not Prioritizing your Projects

Determine what the optimal number of projects is that you should be managing to ensure appropriate planning and strong execution and control. You should be spending 75% of your time and effort on the projects within your team that are top priority. The other 25% of projects should be assigned to those that can take on the project with minimal interjection on your part.

Eliminate a chaotic work environment by handing off the lowest priority tasks to others and gaining back control of your highest priorities.

Why you should turn to EAC’s Engineering Services Team

Our Engineering Services Team at EAC Product Development Solutions – coined the Extensioneering Services — work with manufacturers, academic institutions, and engineering and design organizations throughout North America. Our engineering experts are located in Burnsville, Minnesota and are working around the clock to ensure they deliver engineering solutions that exceed our customer’s expectations.

Delivering quality work is a critical part of maintaining the trust of your customers. Our engineers leverage years of experience and deep knowledge of engineering disciplines to provide you with fast, high quality, and innovative design services. EAC has completed more than 400 projects over the last 20 years. We take pride in our ability to adapt to the ever-changing technology landscape to provide innovative solutions to our customer’s problems.

If you’re leading a team that could use some help, fill out this form to receive a free project scope.

For some engineers, specifying a screw thread is no more than determining diameter and length and then searching through a parts catalog. For others, a custom thread is the difference between a successful surgical outcome with enhanced quality of life or a disappointing result that may require a revision surgery. A bone screw, whether used in a reconstructive, spinal, or other application, can be such an example.

A bone screw typically begins with a conical tip. The major diameter of the screw quickly increases to provide purchase in order to draw the screw into the bone. However, the minor diameter increases more gradually to reduce insertion force until the final portion is engaged into the bone. At this point the increasingly large tapered minor diameter provides a press fit into the outer (cortical) layer of the bone. This thread geometry is illustrated in Figure 1. The overall thread geometry is critical to providing stability to the affected area to allow bone growth and ultimately healing.

EAC’s Engineering and Design Services team recently worked on a project that clearly showed the advantage of using Creo versus SolidWorks to create this critical thread geometry. Several years ago the Engineering and Design Services team worked with an orthopedic company to create a series of bone screws varying in diameter and length for reconstructive surgeries. They used PTC Creo to create CAD models and drawings. The company was recently acquired by a global orthopedic corporation that used Solidworks 2016. The larger company insisted that the CAD models and drawings be recreated in SolidWorks 2016 for compatibility with internal corporate standards.

While working on the task, the Engineering and Design Services team found difficulty in reproducing the identical thread geometry using SolidWorks. Creo uses a single thread feature containing two individual sketches; one for thread profile and another for thread trajectory. This feature easily creates the varying thread tapers for the screw. Figure 2 shows the completed part and associated features in the model tree on the left hand side of the picture.

Recreating the same geometry in Solidworks requires 11 separate features and 8 sketches as shown in the model tree in Figure 3. Separate threaded features were required for the straight thread and the tapered thread at the tip of the screw. In addition, two helical curves were needed for each of the threaded features. One curve was required to provide the thread trajectory while the second helical curve was needed to fix the thread profile normal to the longitudinal axis of the screw.

The additional time to generate the needed features in Solidworks was significant for each part when compared to Creo and combined to substantial time savings for the entire project. This example illustrates why Creo is a superior application to SolidWorks.

The pressure to develop more and better products in less time is increasing. Your 3D CAD solution should enable you to provide your best work to produce your innovative ideas quickly and add advanced capabilities when you need them. The best tool for this is PTC Creo. PTC delivers the most scalable range or 3D CAD product development packages on the market today. Read more about why you should design using PTC Creo here.

As I was sipping on my coffee and brainstorming how to begin writing this blog, I had an epiphany. I could sit here and tell you about 6 ways to build an effective IoT strategy, I could. Or I could tell you to go to this page, and download a brochure that discusses everything I would have mentioned in this blog.

I was going to provide 6 ways you can develop an effective IoT strategy, with exclusive information detailing how EAC Connect Services can do such a thing. However, we have a brochure that does that. So, in an effort to minimize redundancy, how about you read through the brochure, dig through our IoT blogs here, and after you do that, we’ll give you a call.

The IoT is expected to drive exponential growth over the next 10 years. So much so that ‘things’ will outnumber human life. You don’t want to miss the opportunity sitting right in front of you. Join the movement. Call us –  EAC Connect Services is here to help you develop your IoT strategy. Let us be your partner in the ever-changing world of the IoT.