distributed Plant Monitor

Making a factory on-premise solution scalable to 136 factories.

Role
Product Designer

Client
Volkswagen Group

Team
1 Product Designer
1 Product Manager
2 Developers

Timeline
10 weeks -
Discovery
and Framing

01

Context

DPM - Distributed Plant Monitor - is an existing tool for asset management of OT devices in the Volkswagen Group factories.

It automatically detects OT devices in the factories, and creates reports and data visualization.

Business Problems

01

The infrastructure is built and implemented locally
in the factory;

02

Lack of central support and lifecycle management;

03

Lack of adoption;

02

Business Research

  • In the Kick-Off workshop with the product owners and product team we discussed what the scope of the D&F should be and the business goals:

    1. Increase the adoption of DPM to all factories in the Group

    2. Find more business opportunities to improve DPM

  • Since DPM was already a very complex product we decided to start with knowledge sharing sessions with the PO, who was the developer of the product since the beginning.

    This way we could get as much information as possible before starting user research. We did more than 8 sessions on different topics.

  • Since the goal was to make DPM Group-wide, we interviewed future stakeholders of different departments to understand how DPM relates to their responsibilities.

03

User Research

We started by interviewing current users with different roles - admins, power-users, and viewers - and potential users.

We interviewed people from plants in Emden, Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, Bratislava and Palmela.

Moderated Interviews

We also sent a survey to all the DPM community to have a higher sample size. We added questions not covered in the moderated user interviews, such as technology use and frequency, and also related to the usability and satisfaction of the current solution.

Surveys

We did 2 factory visits in Germany and Portugal to have workshops with stakeholders and get an in-person understanding of the user journey and how it connects with the car manufacturing process.

Factory Visits

Although users are happy to have a tool
for OT devices management, they have
a lot of problems using it.

We found that

Setting Up DPM takes a long time

Problem 1

    • Lack of manpower to set up infrastructure on-prem;

    • It takes a long time to create device types and configurations;

    • Complex and confusing flows;

    • Security Risks;

    • Low Score in Security Assessment;

    • Low User Satisfaction;

Users don't completely understand the flows and miss features

Problem 2

    • Complex and confusing flows;

    • Lack of training documentation;

    • Not all features are used;

    • Features are misconfigured;

    • Users take a long time to complete actions;

    • Users make requests for features that already exist;

With all the business, user, and technical information, we mapped the DPM ecosystem.

By mapping the customer journey we identified exactly where the problems were and found new opportunities for improvement.

We kicked off the ideation phase by facilitating a collaborative workshop to brainstorm solutions for the 2 main problems we prioritized.

Ideation

O4

Problem: Setting Up DPM takes too long

How might we make roll-out and set up faster?

Problem: Users don't completely understand the flows and miss features

How might we make it clear which functionalities DPM
has and how to use them?

Opportunities

For each problem, we found several opportunities and solutions.

We summarize them in an opportunity solution tree, to better explain to stakeholders how user problems can be seen as growth opportunities.

Where should we start?

To prioritize which solutions to test first, we looked at the impact of each one. We decided to focus on:

Go to Cloud - Developers would do a POC of a possible solution;

Have default device types &
improve user experience and interface -Designer to make prototype and test with users;

All estimations are based on real data - only the estimated SUS & NPS scores of the new solution are assumptions.

Prototype

05

Have Default Device Types

Prioritized solution

We did another ideation workshop with the whole team for the prioritized solution.

  • Users spend 150h creating device types per department/per factory

  • All department in all factories have the same device types, so configuring them from scratch is duplicated work

    • Have the device types already created for the user. He can still edit, delete or create new ones;

    • Simplify the user journey of creating device types, since it was too complex;

    • Improve overall user interface according to best UI practices;

06

Usability Tests

After design reviews and iterations, I had the prototype ready to be tested.

The data already confirmed that having Default Device Types would reduce the time setting up DPM.

However, we wanted to test with users the new flow with the improvements in the user experience and interface.

Results coming soon

What about migrating DPM to the Cloud?

The developers did a POC that confirmed that not only going to the cloud is possible, but is also cheaper, faster to roll out, and doesn't require many changes.

So the way forward!

Next Steps

01

Define Product Vision, OKRs, and prepare the Inception workshop to align next steps

02

Define product and UX metrics & implement metrics tool.

03

Perform usability tests
& iterate according to feedback.

07

Key Learnings

  • By actively participating in strategy meetings, including creating the product vision and OKRs - stakeholders were able to see in person the impact product designers have, and understand that, alongside focusing on users experience and satisfaction, they are a key member to find new business opportunities through research.

  • Asking for metrics early in the process by different methods: asking POs, user interviews, surveys, etc is key to be able to understand the impact of each solution, prioritize and communicate decisions to stakeholders.

  • A good working environment between the product team and with the stakeholders is vital. Product designers are key to facilitate workshops and meetings in a productive way, and make sure that communication and storytelling to higher management is well executed.