Technology Shakers Part 3: User Interface Configurability Now Featured in MES
We recently spoke with Rami Lokas, Director of Research at Camstar Systems, who addressed the quantum leap taking place in user interface configurability for manufacturing execution systems (MES). “When you build interfaces for the business to consumer market, the end user profile is the lowest common denominator,” he says. “However, in the manufacturing environment, the needs are particular and vary from company to company; so user profiles also vary from low to high levels of sophistication. Therefore, the demand is high for configurability of the user interface.”
This configurability can make or break a project, because it takes time to get the user interface to precisely meet the needs of a customer. In an increasingly digital world, customer expectations are higher than ever, resulting in a strong desire for user interface configurability to be rapid, extensible, and very particular. Consequently, MES must have a degree of configurability beyond other applications.
“Once you introduce this high level of configurability, you’re leaving behind the days of coding and developing every single functional requirement on the screen,” explains Lokas. “We now empower business owners to build and define the screen they want, because they understand their businesses better than anyone. They don’t want to be strapped to an IT department or need additional specialized software or skill sets.”
According to Lokas, this ability gives them a tool to not only build the screen but also to prototype and build requirements. “With one tool, they can bring their ideas to life, share them, and get feedback.” he says. By lowering the traditional technical barrier, business owners can rapidly launch, interact, test, validate, and deploy with operators.
That’s the ultimate value of highly configurable user interfaces.
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Related Resources:
Technology Shakers Part 1: One Place for Manufacturing Data
Technology Shakers Part 2: An Array of Dashboards Drive Higher Performance
Hear more about User Interface Configurability