Randomly selecting an HMI design is risky, since it involves competitors. Therefore, I'll just capture a screenshot of a page, without including any information.
Figure 1 - Commonly seen HMI designs
If you say that "meeting the functional requirements" is enough, that's a lazy approach. We must consider multiple factors in HMI design:
In fact, HMI is also a place for "lean" considerations, because behind every exquisite page is a "user-friendly" design, which makes it easier for operators to learn and provide feedback on device problems in a more intuitive way. Figure 2 shows whether OEE is intuitive and beautiful.
Isn't Figure 2 much prettier?
Although the ancients often said "you can't judge a book by its cover," when it comes to machine design, "appearance" represents the pursuit of excellence. If someone pays attention to the design of HMI, then they will meticulously refine every detail of the entire machine. This is a kind of "quality"—the idea of striving for perfection.
For a machine manufacturer to focus on the elegant design of HMIs is itself a testament to its pursuit of exceptional quality, and this is the first step in winning the trust of users.
The control system not only undertakes the tasks of realizing the machine's actions and control, but also has more operational management functions, as shown in Figure 3, including the following aspects:
Figure 3 - More complex application integration of machines in the digital age
☞ Machine vision: In the pharmaceutical industry, we need to run machine vision for online defect monitoring or statistics on defective products;
☞ Audit trail: The pharmaceutical industry also requires electronic signature authentication and the ability to export encrypted files such as CSV, XML, and PDF.
☞ Order scheduling: For the pharmaceutical industry, both formula and order scheduling are functions that need to be completed on an integrated production line;
☞ Remote maintenance: Factory-issued equipment must have remote maintenance and diagnostic capabilities;
☞ Edge computing: Requires online calculation of OEE, monitoring of energy consumption, and status data for predictive maintenance of equipment;
☞ Cloud connectivity: The accumulated process data must be sent to the cloud for long-term accumulation, analysis and optimization.
Figure 4 - Machine interface developed with mappVIEW
Figures 4 and 5 show the HMI screens designed using mappVIEW. They look clean, simple, and clear, don't they? They also have a high-end feel, almost like the design style of apps in today's mobile internet era.
Figure 5 - HMI display designed with mappVIEW
Of course, there are many other very cool HMI designs, but I won't show you those that involve users. They all really like mappVIEW because it makes their machines seem so "extraordinary".
In fact, mappVIEW is not just about beautiful visuals; it also leverages two main capabilities of OPC UA:
(1) Supports Web transmission, including HTTP/Web Service, etc. Any terminal that supports Javascript, HTML, and XML can access the machine. As shown in Figure 6, it can be a PC (Windows or Linux) or a high-end smartphone such as iPad, iPhone, Huawei P20, or Mate 20 Pro.
Figure 6 - Diverse Display Terminals
(2) The roles in OPC UA, i.e., the different authorizations of different people, allow the electrical engineers, operators and plant managers of the pharmaceutical plant to access different data. Engineers can upgrade the machine process, while operators can only operate the machine and handle alarms, while plant managers are concerned with production status, yield rate, OEE, energy consumption and other operational management parameters. Figure 7 shows the structure of different people accessing the machine.
Figure 7 - mappVIEW supports flexible terminal access for multiple users.
mappVIEW is an HMI software designed by B&R based on Web technology. Figure 8 summarizes its advantages.
Figure 8 - Summary of the advantages of mappVIEW
In the future, machines will have more complex data display requirements. All of these are designed to make machines and production lines simpler and more powerful. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, we need to meet the electronic signature requirements of FDA Gamp certification. MappVIEW's sibling modules mpAudit and mpUser can generate CSV and PDF files that are tamper-proof and verifiable. Of course, help files can also be stored as PDFs on the machine's HMI.
The video and audio recordings are mainly used for online training on machine operation, including guidance on maintenance and replacement of parts, as well as defect detection through machine vision, such as counting pills and monitoring blister packs for missing pills in the pharmaceutical industry.
mappVIEW is integrated into B&R's Automation Studio platform, which is equivalent to integrating a web page editing software into the platform. This allows for direct access to and display of HMI controls and data objects without the need for editing through other software.
mappVIEW offers a variety of controls such as animations, checkboxes, dropdown lists, trend charts, pie charts, page tabs, language options, and command boxes—icon controls most familiar to everyday internet users. These controls are very intuitive and easy to understand, as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 - Example: Interface developed using mappVIEW
Figure 10 - Best way to open MapPhase View
The best way to use mappVIEW is, of course, with a large-size HMI that supports multi-touch. B&R's Panel PC also supports IP69K protection for the pharmaceutical industry, features a stainless steel casing, is waterproof, and supports multi-touch, making it an excellent choice.
☞ Operators like it because it's easy to learn, as it's based on commonly used IT controls and is easy to understand;
☞ The large screen allows for more content to be displayed without the need to switch between different pages;
Engineers like it because web technology development is relatively intuitive and allows them to unleash their creativity;
Machine manufacturers like it because it looks very high-end and classy, which is impressive to customers and can command a premium (this is still very important).
Today, education is also changing. The new engineering disciplines have raised the issue of interdisciplinary teaching. Top universities such as Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have begun to combine engineering with art. Just like Steve Jobs, who was an engineer with a strong artistic background and was good at calligraphy in his youth, the same is true in the industrial world. Industrial design is not only for aesthetics, but also contains very strong usability, user experience and lean thinking. Saving costs and reducing unnecessary time consumption are all manifestations of lean thinking.
Yes, good UI design can win customers, and good UI design requires strong technical support. mappVIEW has developed a large number of control libraries for users, and with simple training, we can also enable your engineers to design beautiful and elegant machines.
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