Bill Hollifield - The High Performance HMI Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Designing, Implementing and Maintaining Effective HMIs for Industrial Plant Operations

A Comprehensive Guide to Designing,
Implementing and Maintaining
Effective HMIs for
Industrial Plant Operations

First Edition

By
Bill R. Hollifield
PAS Principal Alarm Management Consultant

Dana Oliver
PAS Principal HMI Consultant

Ian Nimmo
President of User Centered Design Services (UCDS)

Eddie Habibi
Founder and CEO of PAS

PAS, 16055 Space Center Blvd, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77062

2008 by PAS

All rights reserved. Published 2008.

Printed in the United States of America by 360 Digital Books, Kalamazoo, MI 49009.

14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 2 3 4 5

ISBN: 978-0-9778969-1-2

Usage of photographs and diagrams is either attributed or claimed under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.

eBooks created by www.ebookconversion.com

Dedications

For my parents, Joe and Leona, who provided me
with a wonderful, living example of
the benefits of love and hard work.

- Bill

For my wife and children, Elizabeth, David,
and Katelyn. Thanks for allowing me to sometimes
get too involved in my work but always remember
that what I love most is you guys.

- Dana

For Barbara, my best friend and life partner,
who has supported me in all my undertakings
and has been faithful and patient
as I have traveled the world

- Ian

For my parents, who never had the privilege of learning
to read and write themselves, but instilled in their
eleven children the need for an education, a thirst
for knowledge, a strong work ethic,
and above all kindness.

- Eddie

Acknowledgements

Many people have significantly contributed to the High Performance HMI body of knowledge, and deserve recognition and thanks for those contributions. Here are a few of these people.

Significant Champions of HMI Improvement and Contributors to the Industrial HMI Body of Knowledge

R.W. Bailey

Angelo DAgostino

Nick Dinadis

Jeff English

Jamie Errington

Bridget Fitzpatrick

Lisa Garrison

Mark Green

Stephanie Guerlain

John Hajdukiewicz

Greg Jamieson

Lothar Lang

Chris Miller

Dal Vernon Reising

Dave Strohbar

Kim Vincente

Mike Wilson

Organizations

The Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Consortium

EEMUA: The Engineering Equipment and Materials User Association

The Honeywell Technology Center

The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA)

Indispensable People

Jennifer Hicks, for tireless manuscript checking and editing.

Table of Contents

PART I:
The History and Current Status of the Industrial HMI

We begin with the origin and evolution of the industrial HMI. The positive and negative issues posed by the introduction of the Distributed Control System (DCS) are covered. The current status of industrial HMIs is characterized, along with clear justification for significant improvement.

PART II:
Fundamentals of HMI Design and Best Practices

The concepts and practices of proper HMI design are examined in detail. Good and bad practices are illustrated. Assessment methods for existing systems are provided. Methods for providing proper process overview, graphic hierarchy, and progressive exposure of detail are introduced, along with detailed design principles and examples. Proper physical console layout and other factors are covered in detail.

PART III:
Design and Implementation of a High Performance HMI

A straightforward methodology is provided for the development, implementation, and maintenance of a High Performance HMI. The methodology is useful for either new applications or for the improvement of existing HMIs.

PART IV:
Control Rooms, Abnormal Situation Management, and the Future of the Industrial HMI

The effect of the control room environment on operator effectiveness is detailed. Proper and improper practices and design considerations are covered. The principles of proper Abnormal Situation Management and human performance are explained. The future direction and capabilities of the industrial HMI are predicted.

Illustrations

Foreword

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

- Albert Einstein

Todays control room console operator is responsible for operating a process manufacturing facility safely, securely, and efficiently. This critical task is intended to ensure that the millions, or even billions of dollars invested in these facilities are providing optimum returns. To accomplish this task, the operator views the process through glass.

The degree of success of the plant is determined by the degree of success of this control room console operator. The glass is the operators Human Machine Interface (HMI), and whether petroleum refinery, chemical processing unit, or power plant, is the window on the operation providing the second-to-second and minute-to-minute pulse of equipment performance, process integrity, product quality and operational effectiveness.

This important window has historically been neglected. The HMI has received little attention in plant studies or in industry literature. Poor HMIs have been specifically cited time and time again in major industrial accidents. They are contributing factors to on-going poor performance. In many cases, the HMI impedes rather than assists an operator in handling a process upset or abnormal condition.

Attractive justifications for operator HMI improvement include safety and loss prevention. The best way to put a value on such an initiative is to assess cumulative losses over time that can be traced to operator error. Unfortunately, abnormal situations, upsets, and shutdowns are not even tracked in many companies, and in those that do the root causes are often obscured and many times ignored.

Although the HMI is seen as a key component of operational success, it has not generally been developed with the control room console operators work process or tasks in mind. Any effective HMI must incorporate such a viewpoint.

So, why the lack of proper HMI development? Even in new control systems and projects implemented today, the design of the HMI usually embodies concepts and techniques that originated in relatively primitive digital systems. Those paradigms have become deeply ingrained; they have remained with us even though todays technology can now support vastly improved HMIs. In fact, while many control systems have gone through multiple generations of technological improvement, the original poorly designed and operationally inefficient HMIs have often been simply migrated.

Things are changing.

The combination of changing work process, technology and people is driving the HMI to a new level of performance. Companies are beginning to recognize the need for HMI improvements. The operators HMI is becoming a core element of an overall plant operations and situation awareness strategy an element that is key to safe and reliable plant operations.