Situation awareness (SA) demystified: Highlights of the new SA features presented in Buenos Aires

My last blog covered the key aspects of the 2014 of the Wonderware HMI /SCADA software release, namely: Engineering Simplicity, Operational Agility, Real-Time Performance Mastery, Historical Revelation. Having just completed a seminar on situational awareness in Buenos Aires, I would like to expand with this blog and provide the highlights of the actual related features of the new 2014 release. I am  highlighting the situational awareness issue because “42 percent of industrial business losses are generated by human error most commonly caused by a lack of situational awareness according to a study done by ASM consortium.  Situation awareness is defined as the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status. (Source: Automation World).

Buenos Aires, Boca area, live restaurant entertaining: Tango dancers 

There are many names for situation awareness, but all have the same intent:

• High Performance HMI
• Abnormal Situation Management (ASM)
• Operator/User Centered Design
• Situation(al) Awareness
• Advanced Process Graphics
• Human Factors Design

With the new HMI/ SCADA,  InTouch and System Platform 2014, Wonderware is providing out of the box solutions that go beyond great graphics to deliver solutions to the core operational performance challenges and opportunities in your organization by incorporate many aspects of good HMI design philosophy, such as

• Goal Oriented Design
• Hierarchical Information Organization
• Proper Color Usage
• Actionable Alarm Awareness
• Effective Design Elements

As you have seen above, these new capabilities can be categorized in alarm management, color representation, information presentation and window navigation.  Invensys is  delivering a graphic tool set that transforms the way that industrial user interfaces and HMIs are defined, moving from presenting Data to the next evolution of displaying Information in Context. Instead of developing a library of “graphics”, these new capabilities enable application builders to focus on creating content; easily assembling the most effective HMI applications and user interfaces for operational excellence and abnormal situation management.

In my next blog, I plan to take each one of those features and present the value and benefits  is poised to bring to our customers.

You have heard the expression, “it takes 2 to tango”. I have provided a brief preview of the 2014 Wonderware key aspects, now it is your turn to comment on your organization efforts to improve situational awareness. Be in the top 10 people to comment here and I will email you an outline of a program designed to put up to $500 in your pocket per month.

For more information, please visit our HMI/SCADA web page.

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