GrainTruckPlus
John Deere
Perception
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Reality
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People in the midwest think harvest looks like a perfect arrangement of combine harvesters plowing through fields in perfect unison. Photos fail to capture the logistic nightmare of handling tons of grain coming from the field. Combines unload into grain carts hauled behind tractors. Once the grain carts are full, they head to the edge of the field where massive grain trucks wait. Once the grain trucks are full, they head to grain elevators where the grain is weighed and sampled for moisture and quality assurance. It's then dumped into a pit, which sends the corn or soybeans into huge storage bins. Grain elevators often get bogged down with heavy traffic during harvest season, resulting in long wait times.
What happens to the farmer operating the combine while his trucks are waiting in a long line at an elevator? The combine operator can continue harvesting, loading grain into in-field grain carts for as long as possible. However, eventually the combine needs to stop when it's completely full and there are no nearby trucks. No matter how efficient your combine is, the whole operation shuts down if the grain trucks are stuck at the elevator.
What happens to the farmer operating the combine while his trucks are waiting in a long line at an elevator? The combine operator can continue harvesting, loading grain into in-field grain carts for as long as possible. However, eventually the combine needs to stop when it's completely full and there are no nearby trucks. No matter how efficient your combine is, the whole operation shuts down if the grain trucks are stuck at the elevator.
Traditionally, John Deere’s journey with the customer doesn't reach beyond selling and servicing equipment. Our office at the University of Illinois Research Park saw an opportunity to help solve the harvest logistics problem for our customers. Beginning in May 2015, we started talking with customers to understand the difficulties of harvest season logistics. We uncovered that most farmers constantly ask two questions: (1) where are my grain trucks, and (2) how busy are the grain elevators? We knew we could answer these questions using existing technology, but we weren't sure how.
After collaborating with farmers from the Champaign County area, our team of designers, software developers, project managers, and researchers arrived at a possible solution to farmers' harvest-time problems: we'll make an app!
After collaborating with farmers from the Champaign County area, our team of designers, software developers, project managers, and researchers arrived at a possible solution to farmers' harvest-time problems: we'll make an app!
Obviously, it wasn’t as simple as “we'll make an app.” Our back-end, iOS, and Android developers thought of creative ways we could solve this problem using an app. To address the first question ("where are my grain trucks?"), we imagined putting cellular and GPS enabled ODB dongles into every grain truck (ex. Automatic) to gather location data. Aside from the hardware cost (a possible barrier to entry), there’s a huge number of grain trucks on the road today that don’t have an ODB port. To solve the second question ("how busy are the grain elevators?"), we thought about putting iBeacons at each elevator, detecting when trucks enter and depart, letting us calculate wait times. The beacon approach seemed reasonable until we discovered there are over five-thousand grain elevators and ethanol plants in the United States alone. Building partnerships with thousands of elevators seemed like an uphill battle.
A "day in the life" of a GrainTruckPlus user.
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Meanwhile, our user-experience researchers and designers were meeting with customers to understand the conditions and scenarios the app would need to account for. By riding with grain truck drivers, we found out first-hand that driving a fully-loaded grain truck is serious business. We learned that the app must be able to send location updates all-day without any driver interaction—distracted driving is bad enough in a normal car or SUV, but it’s especially dangerous in heavy commercial semi-truck.
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The design of the app began with whiteboard sessions. We went through a number of interactions on our way through low-fidelity designs, while gathering feedback from customers using clickable Invision prototypes. Using our mobile design standards as a guide, we moved into high-fidelity visual designs, working closely with our iOS and Android developers to nail every animation and interaction throughout the app’s development.
Considering the stressful and complicated nature of harvest season, we set out to design an incredibly simple experience. The app opens on the Map tab, where people can see nearby elevators. Elevators have different colors based on their wait times. The List tab contains a list of nearby elevators, which is useful for finding the right elevator quickly. The Drivers tab lets you pair with other users to create a team. The app is simple, the complexity and smarts behind how it works.
Considering the stressful and complicated nature of harvest season, we set out to design an incredibly simple experience. The app opens on the Map tab, where people can see nearby elevators. Elevators have different colors based on their wait times. The List tab contains a list of nearby elevators, which is useful for finding the right elevator quickly. The Drivers tab lets you pair with other users to create a team. The app is simple, the complexity and smarts behind how it works.
How have farmers been using the app? Well, the manager throws an Android device or iPhone into every grain cart, combine, and grain truck. Each device joins the farmer's same team, and everyone can see one another’s location. Even if the phones are in a cupholder with the display locked, they'll continually check-in and check-out of grain elevators as they drive across the countryside. These check-ins are what calculate wait times. But where do the elevators in the app come from? While the designers and programmers were busy building the software, a researcher on the team created a nationwide database of grain elevators.
At any point during the day, the farm manager can open GrainTruckPlus and see the location of her team, along with wait times of all nearby elevators. The cool part? While the farmer can only see the location of her teammates, everyone using the app contributes to crowdsourced wait times for elevators, so the system gets more accurate over time.
We have cycled back to our customers throughout the process to continue getting feedback and learning more about their harvest season experience. We never forgot their fundamental questions of: (1) where are my grain trucks, and (2) how busy are the elevators? The entire app—from its straightforward user experience to its backend architecture—was designed to answer these two simple questions. These questions act as guiding principles, which help use stay focused to delivering meaningful insights for farmers.
GrainTruckPlus launched in May 2016. The team in Champaign made several monthly updates addressing feature requests from users. By the beginning of October, we had 1,000 registered users tracking their teams during harvest season. We can't wait to see where it goes in the future.
At any point during the day, the farm manager can open GrainTruckPlus and see the location of her team, along with wait times of all nearby elevators. The cool part? While the farmer can only see the location of her teammates, everyone using the app contributes to crowdsourced wait times for elevators, so the system gets more accurate over time.
We have cycled back to our customers throughout the process to continue getting feedback and learning more about their harvest season experience. We never forgot their fundamental questions of: (1) where are my grain trucks, and (2) how busy are the elevators? The entire app—from its straightforward user experience to its backend architecture—was designed to answer these two simple questions. These questions act as guiding principles, which help use stay focused to delivering meaningful insights for farmers.
GrainTruckPlus launched in May 2016. The team in Champaign made several monthly updates addressing feature requests from users. By the beginning of October, we had 1,000 registered users tracking their teams during harvest season. We can't wait to see where it goes in the future.