BCX19: IoT hackathon for the factory of the future
The co-authors of this article
- Frieder Seibold - X UP
- Stefan Jedlitschka - X UP
- Wilma Weps - manufacturing challenge hack MC
About Bosch ConnectedExperience
In 2019, 700 developers competed in a broad variety of challenges at BCX19: ranging from Mobility and Manufacturing to Buildings and Utility Cross Domain and Social Impact. Bosch ConnectedExperience is an IoT hackathon that provides a forum for backend and frontend developers, product owners, product managers, UX experts, and innovators from Bosch customers, partners, and start-ups.
Team Manufacturing shares their impressions in this blog post 🙂.
How does the IoT hackathon work?
1. The wall of pain
This is where all the problems are collected that have to be solved by hack teams.
2. The wall of gain
Each team is assigned a task and has to find a solution for it. The hack coaches will check it so that they can continue working on it.
3. The wall of fame
In order to reach the wall of fame and the semifinals of BCX19, all teams presented their solutions in front of the hack coaches and hack enablers. The teams are allowed only 100 seconds to present their solutions. Their presentation must include a clear explanation of:
- The problems the product can solve (Why?)
- The technology the team implemented (How?)
- The product they present (What?)
To reach the semi-finals, the team has to pass the X-UP team (us) first
We as the hack enablers and hack coaches offered the following services for the participants:
Persona as a Service:
Here, so called “Personas” tested the idea of the teams for their advantages. A “Persona” could be a machine operator, engineer or manager. Questions were for example:
- Why do I need this solution as an engineer?
- What is particularly important to me as a machine operator?
Pitch Training:
We offered a pitch training to all teams, which included:
- What is important in a pitch?
- Where to save time?
- How to keep messages to the point?
- How to create a business model?
- Body language, interactions with the audience, design, etc.
Semifinals

In the semi-final, 35 selected solutions out of the entire BCX19 were presented and there was an online casting of votes to determine who (max. 5) would reach the final that was held at Bosch ConnectedWorld.
Final of the Bosch ConnectedWorld
The finalists presented their solutions for the last time to the entire Bosch ConnectedWorld audience and a selected jury.
Jury:
- Bernd Heinrichs, Executive Vice President & Chief Digital Officer Mobility Solutions, Bosch (Mobility)
- Martina Merz, Board of Management, ThyssenKrupp (Social Impact)
- Matthias Postina, Innovations Manager, EWE (Utility Cross Domain)
- Rolf Najork, President & CEO, Bosch Rexroth (Manufacturing)
- Stefan Ferber, CEO, Bosch.IO (Bosch IoT Suite)
- Tanja Rueckert, President & CEO, Bosch Building Technologies (Buildings)
And the winner was… Team Manufacturing with “Popeye-Use” Equipment as a Service!
Team Manufacturing won the BCX19 with their “Pay per Use” solution, which automatically invoices customers via SAP according to usage time of the machine and tool wear.
What?
- End-to-end process for Equipment as a Service (EaaS)
- Flexible payment for outcomes pricing options for operators
How?
- Billing based on consumption
- Combine IoT data with SAP contract and billing systems
Why?
- Sell outcomes, not machines
- Equipment as a Service (EaaS)