Yesterday the way to access information and support for machining tools often depended on a good personal relation with your sales representatives and relied on getting a response from them around the clock, 365 days a year. Turning to paper catalogues or the digital versions was for expert users only. Accessing generic advice on how to improve your operations, perhaps with a combination of equipment from different suppliers was very challenging. Tool Data Management systems were only accessible for big production sites due to license and implementation costs.

Today Idem offers a system of RFID tags, tag readers, access to databases with 1 miljon tools from various suppliers and desktop and mobile interfaces. Reading a tag in the workshop environment gives you instant information and support, relevant for that specific item. The tags can be put on tool components or assemblies, fixtures, raw material or any other item you need to share information about or track the use of. It is not the massive amount of information that is relevant. It is that you, depending on who you are and in what context you are, get instant and accurate information. An industry 4.0 service helping you to optimise your operations and manage your tools in sync with good personal experience.

‍Working with an external development team
By partnering up with the Open Innovation company Serious Fun, the SECO vision of an easy access system could be realised. Serious Fun brings hands-on innovation assistance from ideation and inspirational tours to actual implementation, resulting in ready-to-scale IoT enabled solutions.

Zenit was handpicked by Serious Fun with intention to find a strategic partner to run the design process and to feed the project with true user insights. In 2016 we kicked off a first part of the project with a Design Thinking workshop in Bouxwiller, France, which came to be the starting point for tour ordeal.

Serious Fun, Zenit and Sigma Connectivity has together formed the external development team needed. With Zenit driving the user insights incorporated into all from business modell to apps via ID and branding, the focus for Sigma Connectivity was software, electronics and tag development.

With a range of collaboratives, team members and departments, it is crucial not to lose the original vision. We ran validation sessions with various user categories throughout the project to assure the system was creating real value for end users. And of course to feed in new input for the refinement of the entire design, UX for both physical and digital parts of the system.

..and iterating the ’’What’’ until satisfied, it is time to start the ‘’How’’. How do we physically design a tool that will fit into a hard environment, but have the softness of smart cloud connection and insight?

Devoted designers from Zenit created a fusion between the concrete and the abstract. When held, the rugged intelligence product IDEM is perceived both as a basic tool and a smart mobile device. The dark colours and robust housing together with the grooved handle surface makes Idem blend perfectly into industrial surroundings, both in looks and usage. The interactions between the Reader and the app are straight forward and a light indicates when a tag has been correctly identified, minimizing confusion and mistakes.