UX in industrial settings: Intuitive design for enhanced efficiency

The city of Würzburg, situated charmingly on the River Main, is renowned not only for its historic old town and first-class wines but also for hosting the “Future of Industrial Usability“. The event gathered experts from all over Germany from October 23 to 24 to discuss the latest developments in user experience (UX) within the industrial environment. My colleague Vivien and I were also present and want to share some insights.

User-friendliness as a success factor

A central topic of the conference was the user experience of products in industrial applications. And for good reason: in an era in which technology and digital solutions are shaping everyday working life, designing products and applications that focus on the needs and expectations of users becomes increasingly crucial. Outstanding UX can not only enhance customer satisfaction but also boost employee productivity and efficiency.

The presentations and discussions emphasized the importance of a user-centric approach to product development. From the simplicity of user interfaces to the seamless integration of functions, companies must comprehend their users’ needs to create products and applications that can perform effectively in today’s complex working environment.

Focus on user needs: personas in the enterprise software context

Developing enterprise software is particularly challenging due to its complexity and diverse user groups. As described in our article “Personas for business software – a gimmick or sustainable added value?“, utilizing personas offers an effective approach to tackle this challenge. Personas are fictional characters representing typical users of a product or service. Working with them is an integral part of CONTACT’s software development process and plays a key role in getting a better understanding of users’ tasks and needs in their professional lives. With this understanding, companies can develop more user-centered products and software solutions. In Würzburg, we presented how to create personas, market them within the company, and utilize them across departments.

Card set as a playful tool to visualize personas within the company (©Vogel Communications Group)

Integrating AI into interaction concepts: The path to the future

Another intensely debated topic was the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into interaction concepts. AI is increasingly being used in industry as a means of improving processes and supporting decision-making. It holds the potential to fundamentally change the way we interact with machines and technology. Attendees were presented with impressive examples and best practices illustrating how AI can increase efficiency and performance in the industry. For instance, a concept showed how AI integration into a Human Machine Interface (HMI) assists machine users in adjusting facilities to be more energy efficient.

Future of Industrial Usability: a resounding success

Overall, the “Future of Industrial Usability” was an inspiring event. Alongside current trends, it showed that user-centered product development in the industry is not merely a passing trend but has taken a pivotal role in the future of product development and corporate success. Companies investing in usability enhancements will distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive market and better meet their customers’ needs.

We look forward to further exciting developments and innovations in this field and thank the organizers of the conference in Würzburg for this excellent event. See you next time.

How intuitive CAE apps accelerate product development

Today, companies face multiple challenges in launching increasingly complex products to the market faster. In particular, the lack of specialized knowledge available from simulation experts in the field of computer-aided engineering (CAE) often slows down product development. Easy-to-use CAE applications can remedy this situation and significantly improve the way products are developed and optimized.

Isolated expertise as a bottleneck in product development

However, daily practice reveals that answering supposedly simple questions, such as the effects of a material change on the deformation behavior of a component or the functional consequences of minor, production-related changes to the component geometry, via simulation, still demands significant organizational effort.

Complex issues require the exchange of numerous pieces of information between the involved process partners. Examples of this include providing current CAD statuses on the part of the design department or feeding back existing test results into the simulation. In addition, relevant decision deadlines and available simulation capacities must be considered. The execution and evaluation of the simulation usually demands specialized expertise, often isolated in expert groups and only available to a limited extent.

Providing access to expert knowledge throughout the organization

Therefore, the goal should be to break down barriers to using simulation technologies, making them accessible to a broad user group – regardless of their technical expertise. The way to achieve this can be termed as “technical democratization of simulation”. It involves integrating existing technical know-how into intuitive CAE applications and making them available to all users company-wide through a CAE business layer.

Three steps to the CAE business layer:

  1. Analysis
    The initial step involves a thorough inventory of the existing CAE processes within the company. This helps to identify the most important processes based on their relevance to the application and to decide which ones are suitable for the development of a CAE application according to the cost-benefit principle.
  2. Standardization
    The next step is the standardization of the identified CAE processes which needs the expertise of the calculation engineers. The requirements for the input factors of the CAE process, such as necessary parameters and data, as well as the desired output from the CAE process, are clearly defined. Since simulation processes are typically a complex interplay of different software tools, particular attention is paid to error handling in case potential issues arise during the ongoing process.
  3. Automation
    Subsequently, the CAE application is developed and implemented in the company. Deployment on a software platform available throughout the company, which also hosts the data required and generated for the process, ensures comprehensive traceability

Successively, a CAE business layer is created which unites the CAE applications.

CAE apps dashboard in CONTACT Elements (© CONTACT Software)

Concerns and opportunities

Broad access to simulation technologies does not mean everyone becomes an expert but users are guided through complex processes. An integrated error-handling system reacts to incorrect inputs or deviations in the expected data. Experience shows that expert skills and simulation expertise are not devalued. On the contrary, experienced engineers with a wealth of practical experience and methodological know-how remain indispensable. Through general usage, they can focus on more challenging tasks, accompany decision-making processes, or concentrate on the advancement of simulation methods.

Conclusion: User-friendly CAE applications combine efficiency and innovation

The company-wide provision of user-friendly CAE applications marks an opportunity to establish simulation methods even earlier and more consistently in product development. More users are involved in the process, utilization of resources improves, innovations can be advanced more efficiently and enhanced products will be brought to market in less time. At the same time, it allows simulation experts to focus on more demanding tasks.

Asset Administration Shell as a catalyst of Industry 4.0

“Country of poets and thinkers” or ” Country of ideas”: Germany is proud of its writers, scientists, researchers, and engineers. And of its meticulous bureaucracy, which aims for absolute precision in statements or indications. Combined, this often results in awkward word creation when naming technical terms. A current example of this is the “Verwaltungsschale” (literally: administration shell), whose innovative potential and central relevance for Industry 4.0 are not immediately apparent.

What is an Asset Administration Shell?

“Verwaltungsschale” is not a dusty administrative authority, but the very German translation of the English term “Asset Administration Shell” (AAS). The AAS is a standardized complete digital description of an asset. An asset is basically anything that can be connected as part of an Industrie 4.0 solution (for example, plants, machines, products as well as their individual components). It contains all information and enables the exchange and interaction between different assets, systems, and organizations in a networked industry. Therefore, it is pretty much the opposite of a sluggish authority and currently the buzzword in digital transformation.

As with many new topics, definitions of AAS vary and are quite broad. From very specific like the Asset Administration Shell as an implementation of the digital twin for Industry 4.0 to the loose description of AAS as a data plug or integration plug for digital ecosystems.

I prefer the representation of the AAS as a metamodel for self-describing an asset. With this metamodel, further models can be generated to provide collected information. Through the use of software, these models are then “brought to life” and are made available to others via interfaces.

Concept and usage of the Asset Administration Shell

As a digital representation of an asset, the AAS provides information or functions related to a specific context through its submodels. Examples include digital nameplates, technical documents, the component or asset structure, simulation models, time series data, or sustainability-relevant information such as the carbon footprint. The information is generated along the various phases of the lifecycle, and it depends on the specific value network which asset information is of importance. Thus, submodels are initially created in certain lifecycle phases, specified and elaborated in subsequent phases, and enriched or updated with information in the further process. Thereby, the AAS refers to either a very generic (type) or a very concrete (instance) representation of an asset.

As assets change over time (as-defined, as-designed, as-ordered, as-built, as-maintained), so does the Asset Administration Shell. Thus, multiple AASs can exist for the same asset over the lifecycle. In order to utilize the information in the AAS within its value network, it needs to be accessible. Access is usually given via the Internet or via the cloud (repository-deployed AAS). In intelligent systems, the management shell can also be part of the asset itself (asset-deployed AAS).

Information can be exchanged in various ways. Either via files, so-called AASX files (AAS type 1), via a server-client interaction such as RestAPI (AAS type 2) or via peer-to-peer interaction (AAS type 3), in which the AASs communicate independently using the so-called I4.0 language and perform tasks cooperatively.

While type 1 and 2 take a passive role in the value network and are more likely to be used with repository-held AAS, type 3 describes an active participation in the value network and is more likely to be used with asset-held AAS running smart products.

Common standards connect!

No matter what type of Asset Administration Shell you choose: Important is that the recipient and the provider speak the same language. To achieve this, the exchange of concrete information must be standardized. Considering the amount of different industries, scenarios, assets, and functions, this is an immense number of submodels that need to be standardized. Organizations and associations such as the Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA), formed by research institutes, industrial companies, and software providers, are tackling this mammoth task. The rapidly growing number of members as well as the lively exchange at trade fairs and conferences among each other illustrate the potential for the industry. It is important not to leave SMEs behind, but to involve them in the standardization work in the best possible way.

Conclusion

The Asset Administration Shell is at the core of successful Industrie 4.0 scenarios. It enables manufacturer-independent interoperability and simplifies the integration of all types of assets into a collaborative value network. It increases efficiency within production processes by providing complete transparency of the real-time status of each asset. And it also offers a comprehensive security concept to protect the data. Within a very short time, the AAS has thus transformed from a theoretical construct to a real application in practice. Together with partners from research and industry, we are working within the ESCOM and Flex4Res research projects to make it usable on an industrial scale.

AAS in practice

In CONTACT Elements for IoT, you can create, manage and share asset administration shells. Our blog post ‘The asset administration shell in practice’ explains how companies benefit from this.