Do you remember your first smartphone? How about your first tablet? Do you remember thinking: “Why did I ever love my buttons? Touch screens are the future!” Ever since that sort of revolutionary moment, touchscreen technology has been busily creeping into almost every way in which we interact with technology – washing machines, car entertainment systems, your household temperature control, you name it. But touch screen technology hasn’t just revolutionised the world of consumer electronics – all of those benefits have established themselves firmly into your business operations, too, with a similarly staggering impact.
The Human Machine Interface (HMI)… evolved
Ask anyone in charge of the technological side of their business operations what “HMI” is, and they won’t hesitate: It’s the Human Machine Interface. Basically, the HMI is any interface that allows us mere mortals to tell our machine counterparts what we want them to do – the control panel, if you will. Human thinks up complex tasks for the machine to complete, uses his or her real-world body to do the talking, and the machine gets to work.
As the HMI has caught up with our smartphones, tablets and washing machine interfaces, it has signalled a serious boost in streamlined business operations. HMI touchscreens now display real-time and graphical context about what the machine is capable of, what it’s getting done and what it’s already achieved (and more). It expands our insights, supercharges our control and opens up a new and innovative landscape in optimisation and results.
And the very real benefits for your business operations? Let us count the ways…
1. Costs
The easiest way for any business to boost profits isn’t always by selling more, but by reducing manufacturing costs. And as touch screen technology goes fully mainstream, and you replace all those ‘real world’ buttons, levers and lights, what we’re left with is actually a lot simpler and cheaper. And if you’re putting touch screen HMI technology in the product you’re selling, it can be made for less while doing a whole lot more.
2. Productivity
In an industrial setting, it’s not hard to imagine that switching to touch screen HMIs boost productivity. Remember, as the HMI technology evolves, it’s the way the human uses it that becomes more powerful, and you count that benefit in speed, flexibility … and dollars and cents.
3. Internet of things
When we needed a phrase to describe all the devices that are hooked up to the ‘net, it proved difficult – until someone first said “internet of things”. So when touch screen HMIs all get hooked up, as they are more than capable of doing as the technology evolves, those user-end benefits add up and then compound.
4. Data
In our technological world, and in the business context, more data means more knowledge – and ultimately greater wisdom to make truly empowered and inspired decisions. As your HMIs switch over to touch screen, you’ll discover that one of the hidden benefits is the ability to record data which can then be analysed ingeniously and put to seriously profitable work.
5. Ease-of-use
Pre-touch screen HMIs were complex and confusing bits of kit – all those aforementioned analogue buttons, lights and switches. Touch screen technology, in contrast, is super user-friendly, so that tasks can be done easier, faster and smarter with even less user training.
The final word: touch screen HMIs = creativity
We’ve saved the biggest benefit for last, and it really is the factor that makes touch screen technology seriously shine in the HMI realm – creativity. The businesses and operations that really shine, stand out and prosper are the ones that are the most innovative and adaptive – and the future of HMI touch screens is a truly blank slate that allows us to continue to close the communication gap between human and machine through ingenuity. And that’s a truly exciting future ahead of us and our businesses, indeed.
Photograph by Niek Verlaan