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
cornerstone of improving the overall HMI design is to deliver Situational
Awareness (SA). Only by achieving the proper Situational Awareness can the
operations team make effective decisions that will deliver overall business success.”
In Figure the figure below situational
awareness has been broken into 3 Levels; perception, comprehension, and
projection.
“Most HMI applications only assist the operations teams in
achieving the first Level; perception4. HMI applications far too often will only
place a numerical value representing a current transmitter signal on the screen
in a location that will orient the origin of the signal to the operator. How
the operator processes
this
information will vary greatly based on the experience Level. The HMI can
provide information that will facilitate attaining the second Level of
situational awareness; comprehension. In addition to the current value of the
transmitter signal the HMI can provide the operator with a clear indication of
the expected value from the transmitter. Typically the difference between the
experience operators and the inexperienced
operators is that the experienced operators have memorized the system
parameters and have familiarized themselves with the expected values. By
providing this information up front it is possible to empower an inexperienced operator
to behave more like an experienced operator. But in most cases
even the most experienced operators will inconsistently achieve the highest
level of situational awareness; projection. In order to reach projection the
system must facilitate determining if an
action is required and the consequence of that action or inaction. The good
news is that there are tools and techniques available to improve the operations
outcomes through
- goal oriented design,
- effective window structure,
- effective color usage,
- actionable alarm management, and
- effective design elements.”
Source:
Krajewski, John (“Situational
Awareness The Next Leap in Industrial Human Machine Interface Design”
In
the next few posts I will provide a detail view at each one of the tools and
techniques available to improve the operations outcomes mentioned above.
How are you approaching the
HMI design at you facility? Let me know in the Comments section below
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FREE copy of the recent White paper: “Situational Awareness, The Next Leap in
Industrial Human Machine Interface Design”.
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