Top 10 Common Issues with Alarm Handling

Alarms by definition are events that require an action and as such alarms are a pivotal mechanism for driving industrial operator actions. In a recent survey completed by Automation World, 52% of respondents said they do not perform an analysis of their alarm systems to identify its strengths and deficiencies. Below is a list of the top 10 most common problems with alarm handling that reach across various  industries identified by our partner Solutions PT and a video  with techniques for better Situational Awareness through Actionable Alarm Management. 

Video: Color Usage for Industrial Human Machine Design

As a follow up to my earlier blog post, Industrial HMIdesign: Effective Color and Animation Usage for better operator efficiency, this video shows an example using the Wonderware InTouch 2014 HMI.

Situational Awareness Design Elements You Should Consider For Improved Operational Outcomes

This video, developed by John Krajewski, Director of Product Management, HMI/Supervisory at Invensys Wonderware,  introduces a sampling of the new Situational Awareness focused symbols and Wizards that are provided with Wonderware InTouch 2014 HMI/SCADA  and why you should consider them to improve the operations outcomes.

Industrial HMI design: Effective Color and Animation Usage for better operator efficiency

"When computers were first put into use in industrial processes for the purpose of HMI they had only the most basic graphical capabilities. Eventually the computing systems gained more and more graphical capability and the HMI applications also began to leverage these improvements with little thought of whether that was the right choice to make. It has become commonplace for the HMI applications to become a show piece that emulates the process in a very visual manner and often that visual presentation is used to justify the automation investment to key stakeholders. However, these very elaborate visual approaches often impair the operator’s ability to ascertain the current situation and ultimately make key decisions to maximize the business value of the application.

Industrial HMI: Effective Window Structure

In the blog post, Goal Oriented HMI Design For Improved Operation, I covered a method for designing and identifying the goals of an application, called Goal Directed Task Analysis (GDTA), based on an the white paper: “Situational Awareness The Next Leap in Industrial Human Machine Interface Design”. This post covers elements of effective window structure for improved HMI Design.

Figure 5 – Effective HMI Window Structure

New 2014 Manufacturing Trends By Infosys [Infographic]

Infosys, a global technology consultant with over $8BN annual revenue and over 158000 employees recently published an infographic with the 2014 top trends in manufacturing. Click to see more details or read the whole article.

HMI Weekend fun watch: A Conference Call in Real Life

This clip needs no explanation.

Share with us the most interesting conference call using the comments section below.

Sign up today  to get the weekly Wonderware HMI/SCADA Times newsletter at http://situation-awareness.com/ and click on Subscribe and you will be receiving a FREE copy of the recent White paper: “Situational Awareness, The Next Leap in Industrial Human Machine Interface Design”.

Goal Oriented HMI Design For Improved Operations

The last blog post, “A Results Driven Approach to improving overall HMI design” described the needs of achieving safety and economic goals in order to deliver the expected business value for an industrial operation. However, if the safety and economic goals of a process are not considered during the design of the interfaces by which the system will be controlled and operated then it is doubtful those goals will be achieved. To better achieve these goals, they must be strongly taken into consideration during the design of the HMI application.

A Results Driven Approach to improving overall HMI design

In the last couple of blog posts we looked at the trends that currently drive the need of the modern industrial HMI application and the impact of human error. This article provides a results driven approach to improving overall HMI design based on a recent John Krajewsky’s white paper: “Situational Awareness, The Next Leap in Industrial Human Machine Interface Design”.

 

The Impact of Human Error in Industrial Operations

Last blog, Top 5 trends that currently drive the need of the modern industrial HMI application, covered the trends pushing the limits of operations teams, often resulting in interruptions and inefficiencies in the process due to human error. This post summarizes the impact of human error in Industrial Operations. According to a recent  white paper, “Situational Awareness: The Next Leap in Industrial Human Machine Interface Design, these “errors, or mistakes, account for 42% of abnormal situations in industrial systems. These abnormal situations have a direct correlation to economic losses and safety concerns.

Top 5 trends that currently drive the needs of the modern industrial HMI application

John Krajewski has recently published a white paper on “Situational Awareness: The Next Leap in Industrial Human Machine Interface Design". This blog post reviews the industrial operators interface evolution and covers his findings on the trends that currently drive the needs of the industrial HMI application. 

An Illustration of Industrial Operator Interface Evolution