An Online Platform for Your Hydraulic Service

00:00:00: 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 Koenig.

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

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

00:00:16: 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 2012.

00:00:32: I was working in a couple of areas of Bosch Rexroth, always in the field of software

00:00:38: development or digitalization.

00:00:41: And today I'm department head for digital service and service design here in Bosch

00:00:46: Rexroth Industrial Hydraulic Environment.

00:00:48: And I'm also the project manager for the Hydraulic Hub initiative, what we will talk about in

00:00:52: 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

00:01:00: about hardware, 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.

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

00:01:15: Exactly.

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

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

00:01:24: with it.

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

00:01:31: And I think we are one of the front runners regarding this topic, and we are super happy

00:01:35: that we can offer Bosch a software platform for our customers.

00:01:39: Can 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, the industry is changing, the demands are changing.

00:02:03: With the upcoming technologies, digitalization, electrification, software driven, software

00:02:09: only products coming into the market.

00:02:12: But in the same time, it is not only on the component level, it's also on the system,

00:02:17: on the machine level.

00:02:18: These technologies are pushing into the market, data, connectivity, et cetera, what we have

00:02:24: since the couple of years.

00:02:26: And based on this, the technology landscape becomes more and more complex, though our

00:02:32: service technicians, the colleagues in the field has to deal with all these new technologies,

00:02:36: not only with their suites, what technology hydraulics, though there is more on top in

00:02:40: the future.

00:02:42: And in the same time, we lose so many expertise because of, for example, retirement, this expertise

00:02:49: which was built up since decades.

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

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

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

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

00:03:08: Do you combine the new landscape with your knowledge or the domain knowledge or what

00:03:14: 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.

00:03:26: Today we are talking about more than 500,000 products which you can directly access digitally.

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

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

00:03:33: Yes, we know that we are not by 100%, but we do so much and do so hard work to constantly

00:03:38: 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,

00:03:49: etc., and binding it with the product.

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

00:03:59: connected to 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 because when you talk about a digital twin,

00:04:13: it is...

00:04:14: 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: Yeah.

00:04:21: It could be a simulation.

00:04:22: Exactly.

00:04:23: And now we're talking about knowledge and information which are relevant for these products.

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

00:04:32: So we know in service and maintenance environment how these processes should work.

00:04:38: And we are...

00:04:39: In 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

00:04:48: journeys.

00:04:49: That means that we start always at the beginning of a journey of a end-to-end or of a service

00:04:56: 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

00:05:11: step by step through the relevant task.

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

00:05:18: Let's switch to the real world applications.

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

00:05:22: Yes.

00:05:23: So I can use it when I'm a field technician and I'm standing in front of the machine.

00:05:29: I can use the hydraulic hub and the hydraulic hub will eventually help me to fix the problem.

00:05:36: Is that...

00:05:37: Exactly.

00:05:38: 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

00:05:49: that.

00:05:50: So with every device, the 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?

00:06:02: Yes.

00:06:03: So especially in the hydraulic environment, we have products which are running since decades.

00:06:09: Very well.

00:06:10: No issues.

00:06:11: And after, let's say, 30 years, the product is raising a hand and says, "Oh, now I need

00:06:18: a bit of support," and very often, no documentation is available.

00:06:23: Service technicians are the first time in front of this machine, and nobody knows what

00:06:28: 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.

00:06:41: And by identification, we automatically narrowing down the right data for this product, provided

00:06:48: it to the customer that could be instructions, could be data sheet.

00:06:51: or everything else we are able to provide for the customer in this to support

00:06:57: 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

00:07:13: 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.

00:07:24: And therefore we exactly provide a ChatGPT solution and in our environment we call it

00:07:29: smart assistant and you can directly interact with this specific product because we provide

00:07:35: a very specific data set and you will interact just with this part of the data and not with

00:07:42: a huge bunch of documentations we have in the hydraulic hub available.

00:07:47: 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

00:07:55: rack method, but we keep a high level of quality because when the user is interacting with

00:08:03: the product, we let the large language model interact just with a small bunch of data relevant

00:08:10: for this specific product and that enables us to provide a high answer quality with high

00:08:16: integrity and less hallucination as possible.

00:08:20: Yeah, that's the rack approach, right?

00:08:22: Less hallucination.

00:08:23: Let's talk about the guys in the office because someone has to manage the technicians in the

00:08:29: field.

00:08:30: What kind of solutions do you provide?

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

00:08:36: activities and therefore we provide a special service.

00:08:40: It's so called a maintenance checklist and this maintenance checklist should enable our

00:08:46: customers, our users to set up maintenance checklists for complete systems and machineries.

00:08:54: Normally, this is a task, it's more an organization or orchestration task, so you build up checklists

00:09:01: for a machine and then you assign it to a proper service technician with all the information

00:09:06: they need that they can perform the maintenance activities directly at the machine.

00:09:12: In the ideal world, everything is sold by Bosch Rexroth when it comes to hydraulics.

00:09:18: Yes.

00:09:19: 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 machine components?

00:09:29: Yeah, you mentioned the ideal world.

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

00:09:35: Not yet.

00:09:36: Not yet.

00:09:37: Yeah, we're working on it.

00:09:39: 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 a representation

00:09:54: 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

00:10:02: provide all the maintenance checkpoints for our own products.

00:10:06: We also keep the possibility that you can add non-Rexroth products, Rexroth from let's

00:10:13: call them friends, to incorporate them in such specific checklists and you can extend

00:10:18: it and customize it in that matter you need it.

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

00:10:28: platform?

00:10:29: Yeah, we also made some research regarding this.

00:10:31: So we had a couple of customer interviews and discussions.

00:10:36: And important, we want to offer the hydraulic hub for the newbees, so new hydraulic guys

00:10:42: as well as for the experts.

00:10:45: And depending on the service task you want to perform and the expert level you have,

00:10:51: the hydraulic hub can gain efficiency level from let's say 25 till also 60% depending

00:10:58: on.

00:10:59: Wow.

00:11:00: Yes.

00:11:01: Oh.

00:11:02: It's a good tool.

00:11:03: Yeah, it's a good tool.

00:11:04: So to buy a Bosch Rexroth component first to enter the hub or is it a single product

00:11:11: I can buy in the Bosch Rexroth world?

00:11:14: Yes, Robert.

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

00:11:19: owned or is an individual product exactly.

00:11:23: But there is something new for us and for our customers as well because we provide a

00:11:28: fully digital buyer journey.

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

00:11:36: 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 to be honest.

00:11:51: And the premium version, it's a business model behind where you can access the full

00:11:56: feature that for the hydraulic hub.

00:11:58: Let´s an outlook in the near future, is the platform also capable to be the part where

00:12:04: I have my digital machine, my digital twin where I can handle this or is it a totally

00:12:09: different approach?

00:12:10: No.

00:12:11: So what I mentioned before with the maintenance checklist is for us the first step, the first

00:12:15: approach to go exactly in this direction because in the end we are talking nowadays

00:12:20: about hydraulic applications.

00:12:23: But we also know and we also are aware that a machine is not only containing hydraulic

00:12:28: application and you have to maintain the whole part and have to document the whole part

00:12:34: of machinery.

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

00:12:41: management part.

00:12:43: But the big benefit here is that we are able to combine all our existing services, with

00:12:49: for example, an asset management solution and then we can provide additional value out

00:12:55: of the single parts of the hydraulic hub.

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

00:13:01: hub?

00:13:02: So the asset management, I mentioned before, is definitely one of our key features we are

00:13:07: 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

00:13:18: they can automatically find successor products, successor products for Rexroth to Rexroth

00:13:24: and from friends to 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 a pleasure.

00:13:30: Thank you.

00:13:31: Thank you, Robert, for inviting me.