Redefining User-Centric Design in Industrial Automation
When TD Bank Group’s Amin Kermali spoke to theCUBE about intelligent automation, he explained that “We take a look at automations or gen AI use cases and say, ‘How is it going to help us deliver the business outcomes for our customers, our colleagues or to help us drive optimization on our controls and our costs?’” Those questions aren’t just important to the financial industry, but to integrating industrial automation as well. Essentially, they are getting at the heart of what makes systems user centric, which is critical for operators like it is for customers.
Traditional Design
As explained in a piece published by Industrial Cyber, industrial frameworks such as the IEC 62443 have been traditionally created using a system-centric approach. This may have been sufficient when networks were more independent from one another, but this no longer serves the industry in the age of convergence.
As Sinclair Koelemij writes for Industrial Cyber, “Modern industrial architectures are no longer closed-loop systems protected by a handful of network barriers. We are operating in converged environments where diagnostic systems, business logic, cloud services, and optimization engines interact directly with traditional control layers.”
While the concern there is largely around security, this thinking also relates to the user experience. End users are now having to consider multiple sources in the overall operations experience. Therefore, switching to a user-centric design rather than a system-centric design aims to simplify how teams engage with the networks.
User-Centric Design
Prioritizing usability is critical not only because it makes more sense in a converged environment, but because it supports the shift to Industry 5.0, which is defined by human and technology collaboration. It also caters better to the demands of future workforces. According to Amos Wagon’s article for Automation, “Users expect seamless, intuitive and engaging experiences. This shift is particularly pronounced among digital natives, a unique cohort of people born between 1995 and 2010.”
Beyond the workforce, switching to a user-centric design also allows operations teams to avoid more mistakes. For instance, the integration of automation that is focused on the user experience is able to streamline documentation of data and information. Such systems are also able to simplify inventory management. In the long run, this enhances productivity and scalability.
Sources:
● “TD Bank leverages intelligent automation to drive customer-centric innovation and operational excellence” - Brian Njuguna, SiliconANGLE
https://siliconangle.com/2024/10/25/intelligent-automation-customer-experience-uipathforward/
● “Exposure by Design: Rethinking Risk in Converged Industrial Environments” - Sinclair Koelemij, Industrial Cyber
● “Redesigning Industrial Software: Empowering Experts in a Digital Age” - Amos Wagon, Automation
● “User-Centered Design Approaches for Manufacturing Systems” - Arundhati Kumar, Analytics Insight