LEVEL-UP: WHY DEEP DIGITIZATION OF RETAIL EQUIPMENT PAYS OFF FOR KÄRCHER IN MANY WAYS

A product that had already been selling millions of units was supposed to be improved even further. By collecting data and providing useful statistics to the user via an app, a more efficient use of the device was supposed to be enabled making it more sustainable.

By using AWS for creating an Internet of Things (IoT) platform in order to integrate devices from the Retail portfolio, the foundation was laid for the connection of the Kärcher Smart Control Range (SCR).

In this regard, the challenge had been to produce a product in a cost-effective way that is able to grant a reliable display of collected data by the device in the Kärcher Home & Garden App. Furthermore, the device was supposed to transmit the data to the IoT platform for analytics processing. 



In the end, all the declared goals had been achieved. The way how those innovative steps came true is depicted in the following chapters.

BRING IT HOME: THE BENEFITS OF UNITING ALL SMART DEVICES UNDER ONE IOT PLATFORM

Starting in April 2020, Zoi managed to integrate Smart Control into the existing IoT infrastructure without compromising the scalability and reliability of the platform in total. By means of leveraging the flexible and scalable platform that Zoi had created on AWS, the device was ready within less than half a year to fulfill the high-quality standards set by Kärcher. Facing the market launch in 2021, Zoi will take care of the maintenance and development of new features.

The main goal was to fulfill the customer’s needs and requirements to integrate the Smart Control Range of the High-Pressure Washers into the existing IoT platform. As a result of this, the end users are supposed to enable the improvement of quality as well as the handling of the device via data analyses. Additionally, Kärcher should have been given the opportunity to apply cross-selling as well as to offer customers useful extensions of its products. All these innovations herald the start of tremendous growth regarding the usage and flexibility of digital products.

MAKE IT WHOLE: UNIFY ALL DIGITAL INFORMATION AND SIMPLIFY DATA FLOW FOR MAXIMUM OUTPUT

Based on the requirements, Zoi designed a scalable solution to integrate the devices into the IoT cloud platform. Furthermore, the solution is described by the most important elements of the platform: Connectivity, Processing and Transformation, Data Storage, and Automation.

CONNECTIVITY

The SCR is equipped with a Bluetooth module. The idea here is to use the smartphone as a gateway (named »light bridge«) in order to enable the connection between the device and the IoT cloud platform and to allow interaction.

The main protocols used on the device as well as the communication between the platform are Bluetooth (Device <-> APP), MQTT, and REST APIs.

For the MQTT connection, the IoT Core Service is used. Status data, registration, and firmware updates are sent via this connection. The IoT Core Service and its configurable rules offer a concept that enables the integration of many devices into the IoT platform. 

In addition, there are a number of REST APIs that allow communication between the app and the IoT cloud as well as external services. These APIs are provided via the API Gateway.

To enable users to connect to the devices, we integrated the Kärcher Single Sign On (SSO) Login Service. It is an identity service based on Amazon Cognito which allows users to login into various other Kärcher systems as well. The user authentication process uses the OpenID Connect standard, Json Web Tokens (JWT), and Amazon Cognito.

DATA PROCESSING & TRANSFORMATION

The architecture is structured into Microservices, each of which represents a subset of business processes. The business processes are clustered into corresponding components to create the data processing and transformation pipelines.

Each component is event-driven (API Gateway, IoT Rule, CloudWatch, etc.) and uses serverless computing services. As no permanent servers are required but only a reaction to events, a chain of Lambda functions, step functions, and Kinesis Data Streams are used to transform and process the incoming and outgoing data. This nearly allows real-time processing of the data.

DATA STORAGE

A service mix of DynamoDB, Aurora, and S3 is used for data storage. In particular, DynamoDB is used as the main database on the platform to pursue the serverless approach and to achieve fast performance and scalability. A large number of devices is expected. Thus, there will be a high number of read and write accesses. This not only guarantees fast storage and queries, but also the evaluation and analysis of data sets.

AUTOMATION



All services are created and managed with IaC. An automated CI/CD pipeline is used for this in combination with Terraform and the Serverless Framework for AWS.

This increases the quality and speed of providing updates, extensions, or new developments in production and development environments. In addition, the entire platform can be made available in other regions with little effort. The architecture in the figure below shows a simplified overview of the modules and services of the cloud platform.

Because of the modular composition of the architecture, it is even possible to use additional services within the event-based flow. This creates the capability to extend the core functions of the platform with some external applications or existing services. This provides versatility which is necessary to fulfill the complete requirements of the use cases.

BENEFITS & RESULTS



The connection of the SCR to the Kärcher IoT Platform and App offers the customer far-reaching advantages when using the device. Helpful tips on how to use and clean different objects are offered as well as additional information and products based on the usage. The connection to the platform is a unified process that makes it easy to integrate and is available for a scalable number of users and devices.

By strictly applying microservice patterns as well as a serverless architecture in combination with scalable AWS Services, the platform is ready-made for further products to be integrated prospectively.

ABOUT KÄRCHER

Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG is headquartered in Winnenden, Germany, and has 130 subsidiaries in 73 countries. They are the world's leading supplier of cleaning technology and are probably best known for their high-pressure cleaners and range of products and services for professional cleaning of offices, hotels, and supermarkets. The family-owned company employs around 13,500 people and can look back on a company history spanning more than 85 years.

The main goal was to integrate the Smart Control Range of the High-Pressure Washers into the existing IoT platform.

A simplified overview of the modules and services of the IoT platform.