Emerson’s Approach to Human Centered Design Makes Automation Easier

ARC WHITE PAPER By ARC Advisory Group SEPTEMBER, 2010 Emerson’s Approach to Human Centered Design Makes Automation Easier Executive Summary .3 Human Centered Design Concepts in Process Automation Emerson Forms Human Centered Design Institute The Economic Impact of Human Centered Design .7 AMS Device Manager and Device Dashboards .8 Conclusions and Recommendations 11 THOUGHT LEADERS FOR MANUFACTURING, ENERGY, & SUPPLY CHAIN ARC White Paper • September 2010 The Chemical Manufacturer’s Association Reports that 26 Percent of Plant Incidents are Due to Operator Error AMS Device Manager Dashboard: Note How Device Status and PV are the First Things Your Eye is Drawn to ã Copyright â ARC Advisory Group ã ARCweb.com ARC White Paper • September 2010 Executive Summary When you stay at a hotel, you use the alarm clock that is provided for you, or you rely on your cell phone or some travel clock that you bring with you? The myriad of buttons and features on most hotel alarm clocks can prevent you from even attempting to set an alarm Automation products and applications are very much the same Layer upon layer of functions and options that can be time consuming and complex to wade through, especially when you are going to spend most of your time doing maybe 20 percent of the functions offered in a certain application Human Centered Design (HCD), also known as User Centered Design (UCD), is the science of stripping away complexity and letting humans what humans need to with any given application or device (for purposes of this paper we’ll call it HCD) HCD is a well established discipline in the world of design, and has Emerson Process Management is one of the most active automation suppliers when it comes to embedding HCD principles into its been applied to everything from everyday products like vegetable peelers to fighter jets and complex software applications In offerings HCD principles have been North heavily embedded in a series of new people in the workforce are retiring in products and applications that were part of the DeltaV Version 11 release droves America, and a the most smaller experienced pool of experienced workers to replace them less In other regions, there simply aren’t enough experienced people available The time is right to apply HCD principles to process automation Emerson Process Management is one of the most active automation suppliers when it comes to embedding HCD principles into its offerings The company formed the Human Centered Design Institute through a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for Operator Performance with an eye toward making it easier for people to use process automation systems, applications, and devices HCD principles have been heavily embedded in a series of new products and applications that were part of the DeltaV Version 11 release These include AMS Device Manager dashboards for some 50 devices and a newly designed HART 475 handheld communicator, which is a de facto standard in the industry today Copyright â ARC Advisory Group ã ARCweb.com • ARC White Paper • September 2010 Employing HCD concepts, Emerson is making it easier and more intuitive for end users to get the information they need and to perform the functions that need to be performed Products are designed to make it even easier for those tasks that are performed most often Human Centered Design Concepts in Process Automation Products and applications in process automation are known for their complexity Most are designed by engineers who thrive on complexity Large sets of features and functionality are driven into these products, but how often we use all of these features and functions? Anyone who has sat through a demonstration of an application at a trade fair can recall the salesperson that went on and on about the layers of functionality and features in their product, but could you remember how to get at all the crucial functions and features after you saw the demonstration? Aside from easy access to information, how well is this information presented to the end user? screen, dashboards, and Use of color, presentation on the other techniques can all make information readily accessible and tasks easier to perform course, misapplication can have just the opposite effect Of Many users take it as a personal challenge to use every color in the visible spectrum in their HMI design Human Centered Design is a process through which products are designed around how the user does their job The reasoning is that if products and applications are designed around the way that people actually work, they will also be easier to use It also means designing products with an eye toward getting the right information quickly and at the right time, which means that alerts and alarms must be actionable and presented in such a manner that the user can be aware of the issue Not incorporating HCD can make you oblivious to opportunities when it comes to improving work processes ã Copyright â ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com Incorporating HCD into the design ARC White Paper • September 2010 process can result in an almost 82 percent reduction in the time it takes to routine tasks HCD Principles HCD principles include things like visibility, accessibility, and context Visibility means that information should be prioritized so the most important information is the most visible This could mean anything from the placement of bits of information on a screen to color schemes to types of graphs Accessibility means that the right information is found quickly and easily – the user only sees the things they need to see when they are trying to complete a given task Context means that people get information that is relevant to their job in a manner that is actionable HCD is more than just a design concept The ISO 9241-21:2010 standard “provides requirements and recommendations for human centered design principles and activities throughout the lifecycle of computer-based interactive systems.” With so much activity in this discipline and its potential impact on plant maintenance and operations, it is imperative the process automation suppliers embrace HCD concepts as part of their own design principles and user experience The time has come to strip away the often needless complexity of automation applications It’s the Operators! Ultimately, HCD is about the people who use the technology and interface with it This is a fundamental departure from traditional application design in the world of process automation, which is heavily influenced by development engineers and their propensity to drive maximum features and functions into products How many automation suppliers you know that have actually removed features from a product because they felt it compromised the ability of the end user to their job effectively? When an inexperienced operator is asked to navigate through each application to find basic data about the device such as status, diagnostic alerts, and other information that would most Copyright â ARC Advisory Group ã ARCweb.com ã ARC White Paper • September 2010 likely be used by an operator or instrument technician, how well you think they could find it? Demographic Changes Require Human Centered Design The current demographic picture of workers in the process automation related fields is troubling The situation is true for both mature industrialized economies like North America and Western Europe and for rapidly developing parts of the world like China and India In the US, for example, worker retirements, continued downsizing, and a lack of new talent entering the workforce are all converging to create a skilled labor crunch According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), for example, 25 percent of all “current engineers, geoscientists, multi-skilled maintenance professionals, process and production operators, and health and safety professionals” are currently ready to retire In China and India, there simply are not enough highly skilled people to supply the growing installed base of process plants A Human Centered Design approach will be required to fit the profile of the less experienced worker with responsibility over more areas of the plant than ever before Human centered design reduces training costs because information is more readily accessible and products are just easier to use Only the relevant information is presented to the end user Emerson Forms Human Centered Design Institute ã Copyright â ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com ARC White Paper • September 2010 Emerson’s involvement in Human Centered Design goes back many years Several years ago, the company sent approximately 60 of its engineers through the Human Computer Interaction Institute program immersion training at Carnegie Mellon University for HCD In 2009, Emerson decided to start its own Human Centered Design Institute in partnership with CMU and the Center for Operator Performance The formation of the HCD Institute is the product of more than years of customer workpractice analysis, new product development re-engineering and Emerson Created Many “Personas” that Embody the Typical Roles and Responsibilities of Key People in the Plant organizational training Personas and Stakeholder Maps The primary goal of Emerson’s Human Centered Design Institute is to “ensure that user work practices and improved task completion (usability or workforce productivity) are at the heart of every new product that Emerson introduces.”As part of its initial release of HCD intensive offerings, Emerson analyzed the day-to-day operations of many different stakeholders in the plant, creating multiple unique “personas” ranging from operators to instrument technicians Each of these personas has specific tasks that must be accomplished Designing their applications around the requirements of these specific plant roles and focusing on the Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com • ARC White Paper • September 2010 repetitive tasks that these operators and maintenance staff perform is an essential step towards implementation of HCD in process automation In addition to the stakeholder maps and personas, Emerson is performing extensive usability testing and observational research to further develop its HCD program The electronic marshalling available in DeltaV Version 11 was also heavily influenced by Emerson’s HCD focus Version 11 also includes a concept called Dynamos, which are available out of the box and allow operators to see things like percent in range indication, PV SP deviations, flexible tag name displays, interlock conditions, and other bits of information, all while incorporating the improved use of color and control information enabled by the Human Centered Design approach The Economic Impact of Human Centered Design Talk of Human Centered Design typically revolves around those who use technology and making their experience better, but employing HCD also has an economic impact on the enterprise Products built according to HCD principles reduce the amount of time it takes to routine tasks, which frees people up to more value added work HCD can also results in faster time to startup if you are doing a new project or are in the middle of a maintenance turnaround because configuration and commissioning times are significantly reduced Operator error accounts for a significant portion of plant incidents Employing HCD principles results in fewer operator errors because only the relevant information is presented to the operator in a contextual and actionable manner HCD Principles also result in reduced unplanned downtime because problems are identified and addressed more easily and rapidly Unplanned downtime currently represents between and percent of all production in the process industries, and a single incident of unplanned downtime can wipe out plant profit for the entire year ARC estimates 80 percent of these production losses ã Copyright â ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com ARC White Paper • September 2010 are preventable and 40 percent of those preventable losses result of human or operator error The ability react to abnormal situations also increases significantly when you have easier access to the information you need Losses accrue not only from reduced throughput from unplanned shutdowns, but also from off-spec production, equipment damage, reduction in asset availability, disruptions to schedules, safety hazards, and environmental remediation Unscheduled shut downs and slowdowns are the biggest performance issues facing the heavy process industries AMS Device Manager and Device Dashboards A key product of Emerson’s investment in Human Centered Design is the new series of AMS Device Manager Dashboards AMS Device Manager is a key component of Emerson’s AMS Suite of plant asset management (PAM) applications, which use the data from intelligent field devices and plant equipment to create proactive maintenance strategies in addition to doing a wide range of other instrument related tasks Device AMS Manager provides a universal window into the health of intelligent field devices It takes Device Dashboards Tell the Operator What the Problem is and How to Fix It plant personnel can respond maintenance decisions real time condition data from devices so quickly and make intelligent AMS is also heavily used during plant commissioning and startup as a tool for checking out and commissioning devices With AMS Device Manager, you can commission and configure instruments and valves, monitor status Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com • ARC White Paper • September 2010 and alerts, troubleshoot from the control room, perform advanced diagnostics, manage calibration, and automatically document activities Device Dashboard Overhauls Just as with any application, there are steps that operators and maintenance personnel perform frequently in AMS Device Manager These include things like device status and diagnostics Applying HCD principles, Emerson has overhauled the dashboards for over 50 instrument screens that improve their usability for various workers in the plant The dashboards themselves are developed by the people in the instrument division Using the latest EDDL enhancements, Emerson’s instrument experts drew most heavily from the job role of the maintenance technician, Emerson retooled their traditional device screens and instead created “device dashboards” to quantify and qualify the primary tasks that are faced by those technicians These tasks fall into the two primary groups of doing device configuration and commissioning as part of project work and routine maintenance tasks in the field Emerson looked at some of the key field devices sold by the company and figured out the primary things commonly done to that device Once those tasks were identified, they were able to make those tasks more easily accessible to the user for configuration This may not seem like a big deal if you are reading this on paper or electronically, but a typical device configurator will give you New Dashboard Displays are Simple and not Overcrowded, Providing only the Most Relevant Information Device Interfaces also Look the Same Regardless of Protocol 10 ã Copyright â ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com ARC White Paper • September 2010 many tabs of data with literally hundreds of options If you have no way to get to the data you will probably need on a regular basis in an easy and intuitive fashion, it can really make your job difficult, especially if you are an inexperienced operator or technician or you use the application infrequently Emerson had some additional help developing these dashboards since they were able to build them using industry standard Enhanced Electronic technology Device Description Language (EDDL) EDDL is a text-based language for describing the digital communication characteristics of intelligent field devices EDDL files are similar to XML files, and are used to describe equipment parameters, such as device status, diagnostic data, and configuration details Foundation Fieldbus, HART and Profibus DP protocols all incorporate EDDL underwent a series of EDDL technology recently enhancements for graphical data visualization and data organization that made it a lot easier for Emerson to develop the new dashboards One of the things you notice when you look at these device dashboards is that the screen is relatively uncrowded The frontend dashboard display only shows the most relevant pieces of data The eye of the operator is immediately drawn to the most common data accessed from the device – process value and device status Other key functions are immediately accessible, such as device mode and calibration Shortcut buttons embed knowledge, allowing for more complex tasks to be completed quickly The look of the dashboard is also consistent across devices of different protocols, whether they be on Foundation Fieldbus, HART, or Wireless HART 475 Field Communicator Gets an HCD Redesign The 375 Field Communicator is essentially a de facto standard in the industry as a handheld interface for intelligent field devices As part of the Human Centered design initiative, the next generation 475 Field Communicator has had a complete redesign that provides a new full color graphical user interface and Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com • 11 Redesigned 475 Field Communicator has a new Interface Incorporating HCD Principles ARC White Paper • September 2010 a series of self-guided interactive menus for the most common tasks accomplished by maintenance technicians These include basic setup of a HART and Foundation Fieldbus transmitters, basic commissioning, and determining alarm conditions in field devices Conclusions and Recommendations The new series of device dashboards and introduction of the 475 field communicator are just two examples of the first wave of Human Centered Design technologies from Emerson The less experienced yet more IT savvy workforce entering today’s plants is used to products and applications that are designed with human factors in mind Examples include the iPhone, modern notebook computers, GPS, Xbox Live, web-based applications, and many more The way that most automation applications and products are designed today does not meet the expectations of these workers Taking a human centered design approach to process automation is a necessity if you want your new breed of customers to keep using your products Workers will no longer have time to wade through endless windows and tabs of options and data until they find what they need Emerson has made a big step forward with the HCD approach and its investment in the Human Centered Design Institute Now it must continue to build on its positive momentum and drive HCD concepts into its full suite of products 12 ã Copyright â ARC Advisory Group • ARCweb.com ARC White Paper • September 2010 Analyst: Larry O'Brien Editor: Dick Hill Acronym Reference: For a complete list of industry acronyms, refer to our web page at www.arcweb.com/Research/IndustryTerms/ Copyright â ARC Advisory Group ã ARCweb.com ã 13 API Application Program Interface B2B Business-to-Business BPM Business Process Management IEC Commission ISA CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate CAS Collaborative Automation System CMM Collaborative Manufacturing Management CPG Management CRM Customer Relationship International Society of Automation MPA Modular Procedural Automation OpX Operational Excellence OEE Operational Equipment Consumer Packaged Goods CPM Collaborative Production International Electrotechnical Effectiveness OLE Object Linking & Embedding OPC OLE for Process Control PAS Process Automation System Management PLC Programmable Logic Controller Distributed Control System PV Process Variable DOM Design, Operate, Maintain ROA Return on Assets EAM Enterprise Asset Management RPM Real-time Performance DCS EDDL Electronic Device Description Language Management SFC Sequential Function Chart HCD Human Centered Design SHE Safety, Health and Environment HMI UCD User Centered Design Human Machine Interface HART Highway Addressable Remote Transducer Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group has grown to become the Thought 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ARC Advisory Group, Three Allied Drive, Dedham, MA 02026 USA Tel: 781-471-1000, Fax: 781-471-1100, Email: info@arcweb.com Visit our web pages at www.arcweb.com ALLIED DRIVE DEDHAM, MA 02026 USA 781-471-1000 USA | GERMANY | J APAN | INDIA | CHINA | BRAZIL | ARGENTINA ... products are designed today does not meet the expectations of these workers Taking a human centered design approach to process automation is a necessity if you want your new breed of customers to keep... of color and control information enabled by the Human Centered Design approach The Economic Impact of Human Centered Design Talk of Human Centered Design typically revolves around those who use... are performed most often Human Centered Design Concepts in Process Automation Products and applications in process automation are known for their complexity Most are designed by engineers who