Navigation needs to be a Natural Act!!!!

Last week I visited some sites and engineering houses as they developed new systems. What struck me was the amount of time, and effort we put into designing a forced navigation between screens and windows. Even though, I knew this in my mind, I asked Why?.

In designing navigational buttons,  thereby enforcing a method of navigating through the application, which then now needs to trained to the people. Why cannot the system has Natural navigation built from the application model.

So what is this about?

Change in Reaction Time due Advanced Process Graphics

Change in Reaction Time due Advanced Process Graphics

The transformation to Advanced ProcessGraphics aligned to the level shift in operational responsibility to achieve the operational agility needed in the “Flexible Operational Team”. In the last month, it has been rewarding to see two customers embracing this technique with results of straightforward, responsive Navigation.

The diagram below shows the evolution of the HMI graphic, in the 80s it was what I call the black DCS screen, to 90’s and 2000’s which we have a photo like graphics and many colors, to the drive today of uncomplicated, 2D graphics.

Operator Training Systems become the Corner Stone for Management of Change to a Flexible Operational Team.

Over the last month I have hosted a number of customer workshops on the evolution of Operational Teams, which you have seen in the discussion over the last couple of months is going through a significant change.

I enjoy these discussions, and brainstorming, especially with groups who have been charged with Operational Performance, and they have moved away from grinding out more value from capital assets (this is a very mature area with asset management) and have shifted their focus to the Human Assets. It is funny to think 10 years ago we were talking “lights out manufacturing” without humans, the best comment I have heard to this notion is that “turning the lights out makes it hard for operators to find their way to the control room”. The real change is people have realized that complex / agile decisions needed today require the human brain, so the role of people in the aligning of an operational process is key.

Composite Frameworks What are They, How do they Play?

As we look at MES and Operational solutions the role of the consistent operational execution and experience is key to achieving operational consistency.

Traditionally companies have built User Interfaces to an API, with the calls needed to execution actions and transactions coded in. These have worked well especially within a plant. But a key to operational systems being effective and agile is their ability to adapt on a regular basis, this requires a sustainable and evolving system. This is especially important in form/ transaction activities where information is provided and where actions/ data input, and procedures  that need to be carried out. But the challengers of operational procedures:

ü  Operational Process cross-over functional domains and applications

ü  Lack of governance

ü  Agility

ü  Responsive manufacturing business processes

ü  Increase the performance of their people assets