Zurich, Oct. 9, 2019: Swiss-based end-to-end provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions qiio will partner with Thermoplan, manufacturer of the “Black&White” brand of professional coffee machines to add the “smart” quotient to the machines. Which means smart coffee machines.
Since 1999, Thermoplan has been the exclusive provider of fully automatic coffee machines to one of the world’s largest coffee house chains.
Professional coffee machines are normally sold with a maintenance contract. Manufacturers usually do not know how coffee shops use their machines, e.g. whether a machine serves 2 or 60 cups of coffee per hour. Without real-time data to monitor machine usage, technicians are sent to shops on a monthly basis which may be too frequent for some machines, or too little for machines that serve a lot of coffee.
Based on embedded sensors and qiio’s IoT connectivity hardware and Cloud platform, Thermoplan will now be to remotely monitor machine usage and other critical parameters in real-time. As a result, it will be saving on average one service visit per machine per year. With thousands of machines installed, this results in an annual cost savings in the millions of dollars, claimed qiio.
“Our client expects smoothly running machines with minimum down-time”, said Sylvia Schoeberl, Head of Marketing in a written statement. “For Thermoplan, maintenance is a significant part of overall costs. With qiio’s IoT solution, we have achieved the optimum balance between the two, resulting in a reliable, uninterrupted supply of great-tasting coffee which is the foundation of our client’s business.”
“Thermoplan’s huge installed base of professional coffee machines is precisely the type of application where qiio’s IoT solutions excel,” said Felix Adamczyk, CEO at qiio, “We handle the complexity of remote asset management, allowing Thermoplan to focus on their core business – enabling their clients to deliver the best coffee experience to consumers quickly, reliably and cost-effectively.”
Image Credit: Thermoplan