The role of the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) is to provide operators, maintenance personnel and management with the tools necessary to access, control and view the parameters of a process. The HMI is typically a graphical interface that displays the current status of a process, such as motor status, valve status, temperatures, pressures and other system variables. The HMI may range in scope from a single standalone operator panel, to multi-plant, client server installations with multiple redundant servers and distributed view nodes on the plant floor.

Wunderlich–Malec’s experience with HMI installations includes:

• Client/server set-up
• Computer installation
• Software installation and configuration
• Network configuration
• Redundant servers configuration
• Standards and templates development
• Access and security levels definition
• Workstation lockdown policies

Projects at Wunderlich–Malec are successfully designed, built, tested and commissioned by following a rigorous project methodology; for HMI development, key aspects of our methodology include:

• Documented sequence of operations
• Correlation of process flow diagrams
• Operations requirement identification
• Access and security levels definition
• Establishment of a symbols library
• Template methodology implementation
  • Motor control
  • Valve control
  • Analog alarms
  • Discrete alarms
  • PID control loops
  • Alarm monitoring
• Standards development including:
  • Screen naming conventions
  • Navigation
  • Alarm display and response
  • Graphics, colors, fonts and animation
  • Abbreviation conventions