All posts tagged: process

There’s more to the Internet of Things than just deciding upon the desired outcome, designing and selecting the appropriate hardware, software and network infrastructure required to enable things to communicate with each other. You may even have systems in place to analyse data from the system as described in our previous article about the industrial Internet.

However you can take the system further – by planning the processes of how various entities can work together to find synergy and more opportunity from the investment. These entities can be classed as individual Internet of Things installations. Some organisations such as Cisco Systems have even coined a new term – the “Internet of Everything” – which takes into account the people, data, things – and the processes of how they can all work together.

This is an interesting development and not one unique to any particular manufacturer. However “uniqueness” in itself a possible hindrance when designing a system – as lack of compatibility with other systems can be a downfall over the longer term. So as part of the design process, you need to decide whether or not you want your system to communicate with others for the benefit of all involved.

In doing so the linked systems can work more efficiently together and make life easier for all. This involves coordinating various events in a way that may have been normally achieved by a person who would normally use two or more disparate systems at once to achieve a single goal. In other words – taking intelligent decision making to the next level.

This level of integration can be found in many areas, such as the consumer device and industrial fields. Let’s consider some broad examples of how processes can match two different systems to meet a common goal for the end user.

Traffic and vehicle systems – The ability to monitor traffic on major roads and arterials is nothing new, however the data generated can of course be used to broadcast traffic data for external services, alter signal timings, variable speed signs and other notices to motorists. Furthermore some vehicles now have GPS receivers which are pre-programmed with static speed limits and other warnings.

As a motorist your ultimate goal is to get to your destination as safe and as fast as legally possible. If the IoT system in the vehicle could interact with the separate traffic system – by submitting location and planned destination – a customised live route plan could be sent to the vehicle directing the driver to the optimum route. The vehicle could also take fuel consumption into account, the distance to travel – and interrogate the traffic system for the location of the nearest service station if required.

Commercial interests could also integrate live fuel pricing into the system to allow the vehicle to select the cheapest fuel as well. Finally the law enforcement aspect can also create some interesting scenarios that may not be popular with all – but useful to administration. Nevertheless all of these functions then remove the tasks away from the driver, allowing them to focus on driving and safety.

Intelligent hotel HVAC and water solutions – Running a large hotel includes a myriad of fixed and variable costs with respect to energy usage. Some buildings may utilised standard fixed-thermostat hot water boilers and air conditioning systems that may have a degree of adjustment, but still run when not entirely required in all areas of the hotel. By creating a system of processes that allow a hotel’s guest booking system to integrate with intelligent HVAC and water systems – real money can be saved on energy bills.

By re-engineering or installing new zone-based air conditioning systems into the building that allow greater control of output to various areas or zones, and individually-controlled hot water systems for each room (or each floor) the ability to shut down complete areas when required can be possible.If the hotel’s booking system could allow bookings to occur in certain areas – for example booking rooms in sequential order, whole zones or floors can be kept full with guests, and empty with vacant rooms. By creating processes for the booking system to communicate with the HVAC/water system – the minimum of energy required for booked rooms could be used and vacant areas could be shut down.

With customers pre-booking check-in times – individual hot water systems could be only activated a few hours before guest arrival and shut down until the next booking – saving more energy. Furthermore by capturing weather data and understanding the seasons, the booking system could ensure guests are booked into the cooler or warmer side of the building – thus reducing the impulse to “turn up the heat” or “crank up the air conditioning” upon arrival.As you can easily imagine, a fair amount of planning needs to be taken into consideration with regards to the processes involved in Internet of Things systems that may need to work together.

Even if you aren’t considering system interoperability – adding the ability for data interchange with other systems should be considered to avoid future obsolescence.Just as in the 1980s a wide variety of computer systems was reduced to a handful – in the 21st century connected technology in our “Internet of Everything” will need to work together in order to find success. Planning is the key, and understanding the requirements is paramount.If you have the needs, the ideas – and want to move forward with intelligent systems – you will set your organisation on the path to increased efficiency and profitability – and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can discuss and understand your requirements and goals – then help you navigate the various hardware and other options available to help solve your problems. We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

People and organisations have backgrounds in many fields, and being an expert in one of those will likely generate the seed of an idea – which can be developed into what may be a commercially-successful product. However being an expert in one particular field does not make them the master of all.

This is very true when the decision to develop a product is made. With the advent of crowdfunding, accessible design tools, one-off machine shops and laser-cutting houses, inexpensive PCB production and the wealth of “experience” published on the Internet – almost anyone can be easily convinced that they too can bring an idea from concept to delivered product.

However this form of readily-accessible tools and knowledge doesn’t immediately allow an individual or organisation become competent overnight, just like reading a book on eye surgery doesn’t turn you into an optometrist. Thus when considering turning your ideas into a product – are you equipped for the challenges of product development?

Let’s examine the major stages of the design process and consider just a few points with regards to what is necessary.

Conceptual Development
This involves many tasks including product and market research, developing final product specifications, prototype creation and more. If designing your first product, do you have the discipline to finalise the specifications and avoid feature creep? Is your design cost-effective? Without a wide knowledge of parts and suppliers you could miss out on finding a single component or module that could replace a whole sub-section of your design.

The Design Process
This involves multiple iterations of your product, both hardware (and software if it uses embedded technology). This could involve large initial capital outlay to bring in the required development tools for hardware and software, test equipment and more. Choosing the appropriate tools alone can be a nightmare, and leave you at the mercy of vendors or fast-talking sales people. Finally the time required to design, test, incorporate feedback and redesign can be more than you expect, as each iteration is a learning process in itself. The more time you spend, the more time you’re giving your competition to succeed.

Testing, Verification and Certification
Your new product must meet a variety of compliance standards for mains power use, RF emissions, accuracy, perhaps environmental factors such as withstanding levels of vibration and temperatures, and more. This will require incredibly specialised testing equipment and the services of an external laboratory. Furthermore you may need multiple examples of the product at this stage for external user testing and feedback, again requiring short-run manufacturing expertise that doesn’t stretch the budget.

Pre-production Manufacture
If you’re working on your first product, this stage will seem like a complete nightmare. After finding a manufacturer you can trust, and setting up your component supply chain, developing tooling and test jigs for the assembly line (with most of this likely to be in the Far East) you may be running out of time, budget or nerves as you deal with suppliers, manufacturers and designers in more than one language and time-zone.

Manufacturing
Although an extreme amount of work and effort brings your organisation to this stage – manufacturing is not a hands-free effort. It requires quality control, supply-chain and product delivery management; and after some product examples have been released the opportunity to make small changes to the product based on customer feedback. This may require revisiting the previous stage of the design process and the efforts within. For higher-volume production you may need to keep staff on-site with the contracted factory to oversee manufacturing and ensure the design has not been altered to find relevant cost-savings for the manufacturer that could affect the outcome of your design.

Ongoing Support
After experiencing the processes to this point, you’ve reached a somewhat simpler part of your product’s development cycle. By now you’re an expert in your product, how it works, operates and can be used to it’s maximum. However you can’t rest on your laurels, as constant customer feedback and market forces will require you to update the product when necessary.

So why do all that yourself? You could invest in the physical and human resources required to bring your first idea to life – at a great initial expense, and hope for the best. Or you could instead take your design to a team of experts in the product design and manufacturing business – who can understand your product idea and turn it into a finished product on time and on budget.

Here at the LX Group we can take your design ideas and produce the required customised solution for your team, or even follow through to final completion, including documentation, standards compliance and revisions.

To move forward with your design requirements on time and on budget, simply contact us for a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

No matter the size of your next project, from the creation of a simple tool to the most complex embedded hardware designs – documentation is a key requirement at all stages of development. It allows for a constant reference to the project details during development, offers an articulate form of progress during project development to the stakeholders, helps with project hand-overs, and once completed provides a useful reference for all stages of the project and of course the end user or client.

Various organisations may use different project management styles – however the requirement for documentation encompasses all stages of the project. And the definition of documentation can vary at different stages of the project, for example some may consider documentation to just be end-used instructions; whereas it can encompass many forms. Using the “waterfall” method of project management as an example, we will consider documentation requirements for each stage of the project.

Before moving forward with the project, the forms of documentation required should also be considered. During the processes there will be a constant stream of internal notes, designs and other forms of record that need to be indexed and filed for later reference and modification. This is the ideal time to formalise the record-keeping structure of documentation and decide on the medium of record.

In the requirements specification stage, it is important to invest time into not only determining the requirements and goals of the project, but to ensure that every point of interest, detailed specification and requirement is recorded and made available to the project team. The customer must be made aware that this is the key stage in setting the project goals and requirements, as any changes further on will alter the final cost and completion timeline.

The design stage of the project will involve conversion of the requirements into a formalised foundation that gives engineers a starting point with which to develop the product or service. All team members working on the project must not only refer to the customers’ requirements and keep them at the forefront, but also make detailed notes and document their work at all times. This not only includes the usual tasks such as documenting software, or creating circuit schematics – but also notes written after designing, explaining how things work in their own language.

Although some may find this tedious and a distraction from “real work”, by not doing so they will automatically create time-consuming problems for themselves when required to revisit existing work in the future. Furthermore (if required) when the time comes to write end-user documentation, the author can refer to the engineers’ notes on how the product or service works which helps minimise the time taken at that stage.

During the implementation stage of the project, the need to refer to documentation created in earlier stages will be crucial for the implementation team. They may have been introduced to the project after the starting point, and need to familiarise themselves quickly. Furthermore during implementation the documentation will need to be updated to allow for the addition of end-user instructions, possible variances to the original specifications, and unexpected possibilities made available by project features. Through the implementation process, existing documentation can also be updated with the goal of creating the start of external documentation for the end user and client.

Once the project verification stage has commenced, the quality and detail of internal documentation will be one of the major factors in the success of the process. As staff move in and out of the project – knowledge can be lost or opposing viewpoints and experience introduced due to the personality of different people. Only by having everything documented will you have concrete information with regards to “how things should be”.

Furthermore at this point the need for end-user documentation will need to be finalised. By referring to the design documentation and notes, an accurate representation can be viewed by the author allowing them to create overviews, instructions, tutorials, sales material and other output for the public face of the project. At this stage the output for external use should also be reviewed by an independent editor – someone not involved in the day-to-day workings of the project, but whose speciality is documentation itself.

Although it may be simpler to print and index everything as it is created, the use of a secure internal “wiki” – or online website that allows users to add and update content may also be considered. As well as providing revision tracking and recording of all versions of information created, they can provide a fast method of information retrieval and speed up the final documentation process. However the success or failure of using internal online methods will rely on the strength of the organisations IT security policies and the proficiency of the team creating it.

It is the task of an editor to not only check the documentation for spelling, grammar, and form it into the required layout – they must also ensure the documentation “makes sense” and is approachable for the target user. As part of this process the editor can also liaise with the client and include them in this process in order to mould and create documentation in all forms that satisfied their requirements.

Although this is only a small precis of the full requirements of documentation in any project, we hope this highlights the importance of quality documentation in your projects.

And in saying that, LX recognises the importance of accurate and thorough documentation. The depth and form of documentation can vary depending on the requirements of the client and project. LX can develop documentation including:

Software and firmware documentation including commented source code and flow charts to professional and industry standards
Design documentation including using abstraction tools to produce traceable design decisions
User, installation and maintenance documentation
IP documentation to develop and secure intellectual property
Due diligence and functional safety documentation
Certification and testing reports

The team at LX has developed a number of systems in this area and has extensive experience with the core technology requirements of such systems. We understand the importance of high availability, accuracy and integrity of the systems, combined with the need for future proofing infrastructure rollouts.

For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.