Kiefel receives the Red Dot Award for “Modular and smart visualized HMI for Kiefel Packaging machines” in the category Brands & Communication Design 2020. On top, the HMI (Human Machine Interface HMI) was even rewarded with the “Red Dot: Best of the Best”.
The Red Dot Award ...
... is an internationally well-known badge for high-quality composition and design. The “Red Dot: Best of the Best” is an award for outstanding design. 76 projects - a tiny fraction of the 6,992 contributions in 2020 - have been awarded the “Red Dot: Best of the Best”. The Red Dot Awards committee chose the best contributions in accordance with this year’s slogan “In search of good design and creativity”. Selection was on the basis of three distinct evaluation guideline categories: Originality & Creativity, Design Quality & Innovation, and Comprehensibility & Emotional Significance.
With this award, the committee recognizes the ingenuity and creativity of Kiefel and its strong team. The HMI was first presented at the K Show 2019 in cooperation with CaderaDesign GmbH, an industrial and user-interface-design specialist.
The new Kiefel HMI
The proven predecessor-HMI has been in service for the last 15 years and it was high time to adapt the system to the rising digital requirements” marks Christian Lang, project manager for the implementation of the new HMI.
The demand for operating comfort and usability, especially for digital products has increased consistently for the whole industry sector. This increase also raises expectancies for the human-machine interaction. During the last years requirements for machine-visualization and operation have majorly changed. The use of everyday gadgets like tablets and smartphone has become common practice and is going to play a bigger and more important role in the industrial fields and is demanded more and more, especially by younger generations.
Unlike any other system, the Kiefel designed machine-visualization HMI simplifies even the most complex machine-data, offering an appealing, well-structured and user-friendly interface. The intelligent HMI - on a panel directly attached to the machine itself - displays the status of the whole system and its current processes. This includes the forming process with clear diagrams and animations which reduce the initial training time drastically. Illustrations and animations make the complex thermoforming adjustment process much more intuitive.
A predefined system of colors and shapes helps with input and monitoring of machine parameters as well as troubleshooting. Results are immediately visible and verifiable. Adjusters are additionally supported by the visual representation of bottlenecks and are notified which machine parts can be optimized.
Strong team - strong performance
„The biggest challenge within the development process besides the technical component lies in the simplification of the otherwise very complex adjustment process of thermoforming” states Christian Lang. The schedule was tight: The Kiefel-Team only had 21 months until the presentation of the new HMI at the K Show (2019) in Düsseldorf.
Crucial success factor of the whole project was the highly motivated and interdisciplinary team, consisting of development partners, a university and in-house project members.
“For us it was very important to visualize the whole machine status at a glance for our customers as well as show the forming process via intelligent diagrams and animations which reduce the initial training time drastically” says Christian Lang.
