An Online Platform for Your Hydraulic Service

00:00:05: Hello everybody and welcome to a new episode of Bosch Rexroth Industrial Podcast.

00:00:10: My name is Robert Weber and my guest today is Benjamin König.

00:00:12: Benjamin, welcome to the podcast.

00:00:14: Thank you, Robert, for the invitation.

00:00:15: Today, we want to talk about the Hydraulic Hub, a platform for the hydraulic business.

00:00:21: But before we start, please introduce yourself briefly to the listeners.

00:00:26: Yeah, welcome from my side too.

00:00:28: My name is Benjamin Koenig.

00:00:29: I'm with Bosch Rexroth since two thousand and twelve.

00:00:33: I was working in a couple of areas of Bosch Rexroth, always in the field of software development or digitalization.

00:00:40: And today I'm department head for digital service and service design here in Bosch Rexroth industrial hydraulic environment and I'm also the project manager for the hydraulic hub initiative.

00:00:51: what we will talk about in

00:00:53: now.

00:00:53: Yeah, exactly.

00:00:54: We have already recorded a few episodes when it comes to hydraulics and We mainly talked about hardware

00:01:01: and now we talk about a platform.

00:01:04: How far is the industry when it comes to platforms like this?

00:01:08: Yeah, though platforms in total are not completely new to the hydraulic environment, but but

00:01:13: it was hardware driven platforms, right?

00:01:15: Exactly.

00:01:16: So in the past decades, we focusing on hardware platforms.

00:01:19: So software platforms are not completely new, but the industry is not completely familiar with it.

00:01:25: But the relevance is constantly increasing and the awareness is constantly increasing.

00:01:30: And I think we are one of the front runners regarding this topic.

00:01:34: And we are super happy that we can offer such a software platform for our customers.

00:01:38: Can

00:01:39: you describe a little bit the hydraulic hub?

00:01:42: What should it do?

00:01:43: What pain points should the customer has?

00:01:48: And how do you solve these pain points?

00:01:51: Okay, Robert, then let's start with the why.

00:01:53: Why have we built the hydraulic hub?

00:01:55: Though we have a couple of reasons for that.

00:01:58: So with these industries changing, the demands are changing, with the upcoming technologies digitalization electrification software driven software only products coming into the market but in the same time it is not only on the component level it's also on the on the system on the machine level these technologies are pushing into the market data connectivity etc.

00:02:23: what we have since the couple of years and based on this the technology landscape becomes more and more complex though our service technicians the colleagues in the field has to deal with all these new technologies not only with their suites

00:02:37: what technology hydraulics though there is more on top in the future?

00:02:42: and in the same time we lose so many expertise because of, for example, retirement, this expertise, which was built up since decades.

00:02:53: And there is no possibility, no chance to close this gap in an acceptable time.

00:02:58: So it's

00:02:59: a knowledge management tool or what is it?

00:03:02: Knowledge is one of the key assets we provide for our customers.

00:03:05: Yes.

00:03:06: What does it mean knowledge now?

00:03:08: Do you combine the new landscape with

00:03:12: your knowledge or the domain knowledge or what do you do there?

00:03:15: We built the hydraulic hub on top of three pillars.

00:03:18: So first of all is a product.

00:03:20: We created a digital touch point for the complete industrial hydraulic product portfolio.

00:03:25: Today we are talking about more than five hundred thousand products which you can directly access digitally.

00:03:31: And it's growing.

00:03:32: And

00:03:32: it's definitely growing.

00:03:33: Yes, we know that we are not by one hundred percent, but we do so much and do so hard work to constantly increase the coverage rate.

00:03:40: So second part is data.

00:03:42: So we try to digitize all our hydraulic knowledge, all our data sheets, all our best practices, et cetera, and binding it with the product.

00:03:52: So we exactly know which data, which information, which knowledge is connected or should be connected to

00:04:00: proper product itself.

00:04:02: So it's a digital twin of the product or is it less or is it in between?

00:04:07: It is something in between.

00:04:09: I would say it is less than a digital twin

00:04:11: because when you talk about a digital twin, it is.

00:04:13: It's a simulation, right?

00:04:15: Ah, it's a digital representation of a physical product.

00:04:18: Yes.

00:04:19: Maybe it could be a simulation.

00:04:20: It

00:04:20: could be a simulation.

00:04:22: Exactly.

00:04:22: And now we're talking about knowledge and information

00:04:26: which are relevant for these products.

00:04:29: And the third part is processes.

00:04:31: So we know in service and maintenance environment how these processes should work.

00:04:38: In

00:04:38: an ideal world.

00:04:40: In an ideal world.

00:04:41: And we provide such an ideal world scenario to our customers while we provide end-to-end journeys.

00:04:49: That means that we start always at the beginning of a journey of a service journey and guide the customer, the user, step by step, providing at a specific time

00:05:05: the right information, provide a clear guidance that the customer or the user is able to go step by step through the relevant task.

00:05:15: And finally, he will be successful.

00:05:17: Let's switch to the real world applications.

00:05:20: So is it a web based application?

00:05:23: Yes,

00:05:23: the hydraulic hub so I can use it

00:05:25: when I'm a field technician, and I'm standing in front of the machine, I can use the hydraulic hub and the hydraulic hub

00:05:33: will eventually help me to fix the problem.

00:05:37: Exactly.

00:05:37: So first of all, from the technology perspective, it's a cloud platform.

00:05:40: It's a multi-cloud platform we provide here for our customers.

00:05:44: And it's a pure web application, so you don't need to install any apps or something like that.

00:05:50: So with every device, Internet browser is available.

00:05:54: You can directly access the hydraulic hub.

00:05:57: Let's talk about a use case.

00:05:58: So I'm a field technician standing in front of the machine.

00:06:01: What should I do now?

00:06:03: Yes, so especially in the hydraulic environment, we have products which are running since decades, very well, no issues.

00:06:11: And after, let's say, thirty years, the product is raising a hand and says, oh, now I need a bit of support.

00:06:19: And very often no documentation is available.

00:06:22: Service technicians are in the first time in front of this machine and nobody knows what exact product is in front of me.

00:06:31: And here we support with the first step with the product identification.

00:06:34: Therefore, we provide, for example, a scan function.

00:06:37: You can scan the type plate or a QR code if available.

00:06:40: And by identification, we automatically narrowing down the right data for this product, provided it to the customer,

00:06:49: that could be instructions, could be datasheet or everything else we are able to provide for the customer in this

00:06:56: to support him through the next tasks.

00:07:00: Okay, now I identified my machine, my component, and now I have further questions.

00:07:06: Is it possible to chat to the documentation to ask questions like a hydraulic GPT or something like that?

00:07:14: Yeah, the hydraulic hub is a tool which enables the service technician to a self-service approach.

00:07:19: So the support guys in the back office should not be needed anymore.

00:07:23: And therefore, we exactly provided ChatGPT solution.

00:07:27: In our environment, we call it smart assistant.

00:07:30: And you can directly interact with this specific product because we provide a very specific data set

00:07:38: and you will interact just with this part of the data and not with a huge bunch of documentations we have in the hydraulic hub available.

00:07:46: And the large language model is trained on your data, right?

00:07:49: It's a rack approach.

00:07:51: Though the large language model is not trained with our data, but you're right, it's the rack method, but we keep... a high level of quality because when the user is interacting with the product, we let the large language model interact just with a small bunch of data relevant for this specific product and that enables us to provide a high answer quality with high integrity and as less hallucinations as possible.

00:08:21: Yeah, that's a rack approach, right?

00:08:22: Less hallucination.

00:08:24: Let's talk about the guys in the office because someone has to manage the technicians in the field.

00:08:29: What kind of solutions do you

00:08:31: provide?

00:08:31: Yes, so the hydraulic hub should enable the complete field of service and maintenance activities.

00:08:38: And therefore we provide a special service.

00:08:40: It's so called a maintenance checklist.

00:08:42: And this maintenance checklist should enable our customers, our users to set up maintenance

00:08:51: checklist for complete systems and machineries and normally this is a task

00:08:56: it's more organizational orchestration task.

00:08:59: so you build up checklists for machine and then you assign it to a proper service technician with all the information they need that they can perform the maintenance activities directly at the machine.

00:09:12: In the ideal world.

00:09:14: Everything is sold by Bosch Rexroth when it comes to hydraulics.

00:09:18: Yes,

00:09:18: but the real world approach is a bit different.

00:09:21: So I have a lot of competitors in the market.

00:09:24: What about non Bosch Rexroth components or?

00:09:28: Yeah, machine components.

00:09:30: Yeah, you mentioned the ideal world.

00:09:32: Unfortunately, we know this ideal world is not existing.

00:09:35: Not

00:09:35: yet.

00:09:35: Not yet.

00:09:36: Yeah, we're working on it.

00:09:38: But yes, you're right.

00:09:40: So we are aware of that machines or system will containing also non-Rexroth products.

00:09:47: And we know that the value for our customers is that they can build the complete or

00:09:53: a representation of the complete machinery within such a tool.

00:09:57: And that's the reason why we also add to the Rexroth environment where we automatically provide all the maintenance checkpoints for our own products.

00:10:06: But we also keep the possibility that you can add non-Rexroth products, Rexroth from let's call them friends, to incorporate them in such specific checklist and you can extend it and customize it in that matter

00:10:22: you need it.

00:10:23: Can you share some facts and figures when it comes to efficiency gains through your platform?

00:10:28: Yeah,

00:10:29: we also made some research regarding this, so we had a couple of customer interviews and discussions.

00:10:35: And important, we want to offer the hydraulic hub for the newbies, so new hydraulic guys, as well as for the experts.

00:10:44: And depending on the service task you want to perform and the expert level you have, the hydraulic hub can Gain efficiency level from let's say twenty five till also sixty percent depending on well.

00:11:00: Yes.

00:11:00: Oh, it's a good tool.

00:11:01: Yeah, it's a good tool.

00:11:03: So do I need to buy a Bosch Rexroth component first to enter the hub or is it a single product I can buy in the Bosch Rexroth world?

00:11:14: Yes,

00:11:14: Robert.

00:11:15: There is no binding between a component and the hydraulic hub.

00:11:18: So the hydraulic hub is owned or is a individual

00:11:21: individual products.

00:11:22: Exactly.

00:11:23: But there is something new for us and for our customers as well, because we provide a fully digital buyer journey.

00:11:30: That means that we have an own marketplace now available here at Bosch Rexroth.

00:11:36: And you have to register on this marketplace first to get access for the hydraulic hub.

00:11:42: Therefore, we provide two subscription models.

00:11:45: One is a freemium access, though you can exit with limited functionality.

00:11:50: to be honest.

00:11:51: And the premium version, it's a business model behind where you can access the full feature that for the hydraulic hub.

00:11:58: Let's have an outlook in the near future.

00:12:00: Is the platform also capable to be the part where I have my digital machine, my digital twin, where I can handle this?

00:12:08: Or is it a totally different approach?

00:12:10: No, so what I mentioned before with the maintenance checklist, this is for us the first step, the first approach to go exactly in this direction.

00:12:17: Because in the end, we are talking nowadays about hydraulic applications.

00:12:23: But we also know and we also are aware that a machine is not only containing hydraulic application and you have to maintain the whole part and have to document the whole part of machinery.

00:12:36: And that's the reason why we also actually working on a solution for a so-called asset management part.

00:12:42: But the big benefit here is that we are able to combine all our existing services with, for example, an asset management solution and then we can provide additional value out of the single part of the hydraulic hub.

00:12:57: So what is on your agenda for the next six months when it comes to the hydraulic hub?

00:13:02: Though the asset management I mentioned before is definitely one of our key features we are currently working on.

00:13:08: And a second element is that we want to provide a conversion tool.

00:13:12: A conversion tool means that we want to be able to provide service to our customers where they can automatically find successor products.

00:13:21: Successor products for... Rexroth to Rexroth and from friends to

00:13:25: Rexroth.

00:13:26: I wish you all the best.

00:13:27: Keeps fingers crossed for your platform.

00:13:29: Benjamin, it was pleasure.

00:13:30: Thank you.

00:13:30: Thank you, Robert, for inviting me.