Solution Highlights
- Developed an IoT platform to reduce water waste by Xeros’ washing machines
- Facilitated managing fleets of washing machines for Xeros and its customers
- Built powerful data analytics capabilities to estimate water consumption and use of detergent
- Helped to monitor cost savings and effects of the Xeros washing machines on the environment
- Created a sophisticated user management system with diverse roles and permissions
About the Project
Customer:
Xeros Technology is an R&D innovation company that has united scientists and engineers to come up with an alternative, eco-friendly laundry technology. Unlike traditional methods, their innovation ensures saving liters of water and prevents 99% of microplastics from ending up in the world ocean.
So far, our partner offers three state-of-the-art solutions:
- Filtration technology (XF1/XF2) designed to be integrated into the washing machine to capture microfibres released from clothes
- Laundry technology (XC) that employs reusable polymer spheres (XOrbs) to wash and care for textile items and extend the lifespan of washing machines
- Technology for wet processing (XFN) to use for garment manufacturing that halves water consumption in the garment finishing phase
Challenges & Project Goals:
As part of their textile technology project, the company reached out to Intelliarts for developing an IoT platform to monitor and communicate water usage and other important variables to the cloud. The solution should also offer powerful data analytics capabilities for the customer to make informed business decisions and estimate cost savings and positive effects of the Xeros washing machines on the environment.
Solution:
At the end of the project, our team delivered the Xeros Portal — a cutting-edge IoT-enabled software solution that helped to manage fleets of Xeros washing machines and create actionable dashboards and reports. We also helped the company develop a sophisticated user management system, as well as create and implement an effective and intuitive UI/UX for the IoT platform.
Cloud Services, IoT Solutions
Technology Solution
Our team of software engineers provided the company with custom IoT software development services. In the beginning, the Intelliarts team inherited the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) from the prior contractor, so we started with a thorough analysis of Xeros’ requirements and code refactoring. We advised our partner on the most appropriate software technologies and rewrote approximately 80% of the legacy code.
The Xeros Portal was built to monitor the status of Xeros’ washing machines to manage and maintain them properly, as well as to help Xeros’ customers estimate ROI. Each of our partner’s washing machines was equipped with an IoT device, which collected and sent data further, including information about washing machine cycles, amounts of water and detergent used, types of garment washing techniques, maintenance, downtime, turning on/off, and system errors.
The Intelliarts team then processed this information and visualized data in dashboards. Based on the IoT data, as well as the information of how many and where the washing machines were installed, we provided our partner and its customers with smart data analytics like statistics about average water consumption, the use of chemicals, the projected effect of cost saving, etc. Our software engineers also optimized data visualization for clear display on standard browsers and mobile devices.
As part of the solution, our specialists developed a user management system, with defined roles, user rights, and permissions for various access levels. This feature helped Xeros manage and organize users based on their needs and roles while also enhancing the security of the portal.
Having two engineers with UI/UX backgrounds in our team, we implemented a large part of the UI/UX design on our own. On the part of the design:
- We prioritized clean and minimalistic UI designs over others.
- The interface enabled users to access all necessary features and data easily.
- The team also performed UI optimization so the portal provided users with outstanding user experience both on desktop and mobile.
Our experts also regularly advised the customer on the solution design, drew UI mockups, and offered alternatives if we believed it was an efficient solution for end users. This was the case when we worked on the user management feature, which helped to make it more intuitive at the end of the day.
Moreover, the customer used to appreciate the performance and transparency of our dedicated team. Lifting the curtain of the Intelliarts’ approach, we can mention a few factors that contributed to our team’s efficiency:
- Agile methodology to break the project into several dynamic phases
- Sprint commitments to provide the customer with regular updates on our work
- Demo calls to demonstrate parts of the project — we also used to record those calls for those who couldn’t be present on the customer’s part
- Status reports that were sent to Xeros after each sprint, outlining the completed and planned
- Call summaries to make sure we stay on the same page with the customer
- 360-degree performance reviews for a well-rounded view of the team’s performance
- Professional growth roadmaps and personalized to-do lists to motivate teammates to master new technology stacks and bring more value to the project
- Quick UI mockups for a better understanding
- A project Wiki to have a single source of truth and the ability to share links
- Scheduled one-to-one meetings with the key stakeholders to get relevant feedback about our work
- Team internal demos, pair programming, and team code reviews to deepen our expertise
Business Outcomes
Xeros textile technologies were a revolutionary invention, which made a difference for the environment and society in general. The study about IoT in water consumption by the Bombay Textile Research Association proved that Xeros-enabled machines used up to 70% less water, 50% less energy, and 50% less detergent as compared to conventional washing machines.
The positive impact on the environment was evident: IoT for water conservation and reduced power consumption, as well as fewer chemicals released into the ocean. Saving water was especially valuable for Arab countries with the highest water prices and a flourishing hospitality industry. For businesses, this naturally meant significant cost savings on water, power, and detergent.
No wonder, at one time, Xeros’ innovative laundry technologies won the Best of CES award, known as the most powerful technology event in the world.
The Intelliarts team was truly glad to be a part of this project and help the company reach this great accomplishment. By creating the IoT platform, we helped our partner and its customers to:
- Efficiently track equipment usage by getting meaningful insights into water and electricity consumption
- Graphically illustrate water savings
- Monitor ongoing operations to minimize labor costs and downtime
- Estimate cost savings to ensure that Xeros customers had achieved the expected ROI
- Facilitate early detection of potential issues before they actually occur and send notifications
In the long run, the data visualization dashboards allowed the company and its customers to detect energy and water consumption patterns and, thus, enhance decision-making. Data analytics also helped to anticipate maintenance needs for Xeros technologies, reducing downtime and increasing efficiency and the lifespan of the washing machines.
