Bizerba relies on intuitive and flexible human machine interfaces (HMI)

Postharvest, poscosecha, balanzas, scales In the industry, the complexity and range of functions of machinery is constantly growing and in doing so, modern automation technology is fusing more and more strongly with information technology. User interfaces are the trickiest piece of technology in experts' experience. Here, where the user touches the device or where they read and enter information, it is determined whether the machine is doing what it is supposed to. User friendliness is therefore more crucial than ever, for both brand image and customer satisfaction."Meanwhile, I can say to my smart phone 'Play Beethoven's first symphony' and the piece starts playing. Customers do not expect such a user interface from a price labeller, but an intuitive, understandable usability is becoming increasingly important", Dieter Conzelman, Director of Industry Solutions at Bizerba explained. This is significant for temporary workers for example, who work in the company at peak times but who do not attend training courses for time and cost reasons. With intuitively structured human machine interfaces (HMI), they learn how to operate them in a short space of time according to the principle of "learning by doing", and can subsequently complete tasks efficiently and without loss of momentum. Production faults and downtime because of operating errors can thus be avoided, and production safety and competitiveness rise considerably.The following generally applies: The user interface must be clearly designed so that people really want to use the application. The user needs to feel confident when dealing with technologies, they want to feel understood. For this reason, engineers at Bizerba accompany customers through the first installation. They see how they handle the device and which difficulties arise. Conzelmann: "Through doing this we realised early on how important it is to use easily understandable and self-explanatory symbols in the food industry. As untrained employees also sometimes need to operate the machines, we have replaced most words with pictograms with the fully automatic GLM-Imaxx's GT-12C operating terminal".An example of this is the basic price, which the operator often has to change. Instead of the words "basic price" a coin symbolises that this button represents a sum of money. The next steps too are obvious. The user reaches the goal without running round in circles. They can configure the GT-12C terminal according to their own requirements- for example configuring the company logo and colours and positioning any pictograms desired. "Instead of fighting to understand machines", Conzelmann said in conclusion, "we need to feel understood by machines"- This is part of the Bizerba philosophy".Pictures show the GT-12C Touch-screen Terminal: Leads employees through the operation of the fully automatic GLM-Imaxx price labeller with pictograms.