IRIS

IRIS is a remote error diagnosis platform that gives you real-time insights into industrial production errors, allowing you to identify and resolve incidents quickly and precisely.

In the context of Industry 4.0 and a more connected working model with IoT, BMW Group challenged the student team from the Hasso Plattner Institute and the University of St.Gallen with the following problem: enhance BMW Group to make machine errors more visible and bring planning processes to a data-driven working model. Particularly within remote machine monitoring, the planning and error-solving processes remain largely manual and lead to inefficiencies and high costs. In order to grasp the underlying errors of machine downtimes, a physical inspection is often necessary which requires the machine staff to frequently travel to the plants.

IRIS is a flexible solution that bridges the gap between error-occurrence and error-analysis. A modular monitoring kit, consisting of cameras and environmental sensors, can be installed on a production machine within minutes, temporarily or permanently. In combination with a web-based application on a tablet, the error locations can be quickly identified. Error incidents are automatically sequenced and visualized in an intuitive dashboard, displaying all important metrics on a specific occurrence for evidence-based decision making. The Dashboard is accessible through the cloud.

IRIS enables the planners and machine operators to have an always accessible and up-to-date picture of the machine performance across the global BMW network. This can save BMW approximately 50% of the time needed for troubleshooting their machines. The use of IRIS in more distant plants results in a significant reduction of travel costs for planning competencies, as they have the tools for remote error analysis.
For BMW Group the implementation is very attractive with an ROI above 100% and a break-even in less than a year.