Visualize your Operations outside Control Room

Posted: February 22, 2024

Fresh on the heels of AVEVA World San Francisco—an exhilarating few days that showcased incredible achievements and innovations—I’ve found myself inspired to think outside the box, just as our customers, partners, colleagues, and collaborators do day in and day out.

With this in mind, I’d like to try a little thought experiment: First, close your eyes. Now, picture the place where most operations control work happens. What do you see?

I’ll bet many of you imagine a control room. There is probably an array of hard-wired desktop computers. Monitors and displays take up most of the room’s the real estate. If this description approximates the image in your mind’s eye, you certainly wouldn’t be wrong.

A good deal of operations control work will always happen on-site, in a control room, at a computer. But, as tools and strategies have improved and evolved, a good deal of operations control work can—and should—happen elsewhere, too.

In short, to optimize your operations control and stay ahead of the competition, you need efficient visualization and control solutions that extend beyond traditional desktop interfaces. 

Thankfully, designing applications that enable this kind of operations control visibility and portability isn’t as difficult as you might think. AVEVA™ InTouch HMI’s open architecture makes it a versatile tool and the perfect foundation for bespoke applications for web clients.

Brian Martin, a technical sales consultant with AVEVA (and an expert on all things AVEVA InTouch HMI), gave an insightful, engaging presentation at AVEVA World San Francisco that covered this very topic. Rather than risk losing anything in translation, here’s Brian, in his own words.

What is the AVEVA InTouch HMI web client? What benefits can it deliver?

AVEVA InTouch HMI’s native web capability is nothing short of a game-changer. Its minimal footprint, backwards compatibility with any AVEVA InTouch HMI version, and scalability make it ideal for small, medium, and large businesses alike. It’s simple to configure, works right out of the box with no re-engineering, and can display real-time and historical data from AVEVA InTouch HMI and AVEVA™ System Platform.

Likewise, one of the greatest benefits the solution can deliver stems from the secure HTML5 technology. After all, just about everyone has a smart phone or tablet these days. By allowing workers on the plant floor to securely access data from any smart device, you can improve efficiency, share insights in real time, and reduce operator burden.

You can easily convert AVEVA InTouch HMI windows to industrial graphics, drawing on the solution’s extensive pre-built library. A diverse array of web widgets are also available, whether you choose to use the out-of-the-box application templates, import widgets, or create new widgets using ToolKit.

See AVEVA InTouch HMI’s web client in action

I know that sometimes seeing is believing. Check out the clip below to learn about the introductory demo that comes included with AVEVA InTouch HMI and see for yourself. 

When we really stop to consider the tangible benefits a tool like this can deliver, both for operators on the ground and the business as a whole, it’s nothing short of astounding. In just a few years, digital tools for operations control have come a long, long way.

Maybe the next time someone asks you to picture the place where operations control happens, you’ll imagine the control room, yes, but not only the control room—the control room and beyond.

Read the ebook to see how AVEVA InTouch HMI can deliver a 15% increase in time savings.