KSB’s ideas engine: The Business Innovation Lab

KSB’s digital monitoring system, KSB Guard, records the operating status of pumps in real time and warns of any faults. The company is currently developing the next generation of the system. Benjamin Weiß is in charge of software development, while Jonas Hilpert is responsible for hardware development. The new KSB Guard is to be completely modernised, from the hardware right through to the software platform for all existing and future digital solutions from KSB. The aim is to enable data to be evaluated from numerous sources using intelligent algorithms. “We want to position the next generation of KSB Guard even more successfully on the market and, of course, scale it up. To further understand our customers’ needs, Jonas and I went to the Business Innovation Lab for a few weeks at the start of the project,” explains Benjamin Weiß, who always found working in the Lab exciting and inspiring: “When you leave your daily work behind, walk out of the factory gate and can talk freely with customers, you come up with completely new ideas. The brainstorming sessions with Julian Bergmann, the Head of the Lab, were also really helpful.” 

The made-to-order production of components is becoming increasingly important for KSB. However, until recently, enquiries about printed or cast parts reached the company via various different channels such as by e-mail, telephone or "by word of mouth". This led to the idea of developing a standardised transaction platform – a task tackled by Anja Hunsinger, Jonas Wüst and Michael Kuhlen. All three of them had no previous connection to 3D printing or foundry technology. “That was good a thing because we approached the topic with an open mind,” explains Michael Kuhlen. Working together, they developed a new enquiry form within six months. Customers can now provide specific technical data, from materials and dimensions to the required test certificates. “This allows us to prepare a quotation much more quickly, without having to constantly ask the customer questions,” says Michael Kuhlen. Being close to users was particularly important to the team. “We worked very closely with customers. We went to their premises with our click dummy and recorded their feedback.” The team found working in the Lab very enriching: “You could think outside the box and learned new approaches – we had a fantastic time,” reports Anja Hunsinger, summing up the experience. 

The EU is aiming to become climate neutral and this has major consequences for district heating networks, which are currently primarily heated by fossil-fuelled power plants. Over the course of a six-month project in collaboration with the University of Bayreuth and the Future Energy Lab Wunsiedel, Lucas Sommer investigated which new business areas would result for KSB. The challenge: Renewable sources such as large heat pumps produce lower temperatures than fossil-fuelled power plants and therefore require higher volume flow rates. “There are limitations in this regard in today’s networks. You can’t just operate them at twice the pressure,” explains Lucas Sommer. This is precisely where he sees great potential for transformation – and opportunities for KSB: “The worst thing would be for a large city to have to replace all its pipes.” Through the targeted use of pumps and systemic analyses, many networks could be upgraded without having to be completely rebuilt. Cooperation with providers of digital twins is also important here. For Sommer himself, the project was a unique experience with plenty of scope for experimentation and openness. “It was always exciting. You never knew what tomorrow would bring,” he reports. 

Benjamin Bohlmann, Head of the Sales Cross-sectional Function unit at KSB, is driving forward a venture clienting project that could fundamentally change the daily work of KSB’s sales staff: the introduction of the AI tool VoiceLine. The tool solves a pressing problem in Sales: visit reports for the customer relationship management system (CRM) cost employees a lot of time. They need to document meetings, assign contact persons and record follow-ups. “If an employee works 35 to 40 hours and documents just one seventh of their time, that’s a lot of lost sales time,” says Benjamin Bohlmann. VoiceLine is designed to radically simplify this process. Via voice input, the AI app asks the employee about customers, appointments and the content of conversations and creates complete visit reports. “I tell all this to the AI and it integrates this information into a visit report with all the fields that I previously had to enter data into myself.” The project is currently undergoing technical and organisational clarification. His clear conclusion: “If we can integrate our CRM, it will complete work in minutes that would have otherwise taken us hours.”