It’s hard to say it was planned, but it’s certainly fitting that many of today’s young adults have been groomed from early childhood to operate HMI/SCADA-based applications. After all, they grew up using the world’s most popular human-machine interface: the video game. In fact, a generation of moms and dads have been pulling their hair out trying to get their kids to stop endlessly experimenting with HMI and get out into the real world. Well, now that much of the real world is being monitored and controlled via video screens, maybe Mom and Dad should have saved themselves some stress by simply accepting the inevitable march of progress and letting their kids prepare for a much more automated future. .
Of course, HMI screens are not video games. They are used to manage some very serious processes with some very serious consequences for mistakes. If little Susie accidentally removes the reactor coolant rod too soon, she doesn’t just go back to her previous save. Mistakes now carry severe penalties, including death. That doesn’t sound like a game, nor should it be treated as such.
Yet all these years of seeing things in terms of graphical representations, while simultaneously developing expert hand-eye coordination, has filled the world with a plethora of aspiring process control operators, whether they know it or not.
Today’s 35-year-olds were raised at a time when video games were in their infancy. Many men and women watched the evolution of gaming as they themselves grew from childhood through adolescence and adulthood. They saw how Mario went from jumping barrels and smashing blocks with his head to racing cars and taming dinosaurs. They recoiled in horror each time Princess Zelda was kidnapped and Hyrule plunged once more into darkness, before leading young Link to his inevitable rescue. They carried out large-scale military operations with little more than a few buttons and a thumb. How’s that for some HMI training?
What does that say about the future?
In the early days of SCADA software, some of the key concerns that would shape a company’s decision to employ one product over another revolved around reliability and security. It was important to know that the system was stable and secure. If a SCADA system could not be relied upon to transmit accurate and timely information on a consistent basis, then it was of little value. In fact, if the system could not be trusted, it was worthless.
Enter the next generation of process control engineers and operators. These are people who have been brought up alongside evolving technology. A computer is as natural and appropriate a tool as a car was to your parents. Reliability and security? Of course, these are still concerns, but for techies, these concerns are almost taken for granted. From race this system is reliable. From race this system is safe. Why would it be available if it wasn’t? Today’s consumers want more features, more bells and whistles.
Think about the changes that took place in the auto industry. In the 1960s and 1970s, people still thought about security and reliability, but the technology had established itself to the point where these concerns were almost taken for granted. People wanted something else; they wanted potency and sex appeal. They didn’t just want to get from point A to point B, they wanted to get there in style, maybe even turn heads along the way.
I’m not trying to compare today’s SCADA systems to American muscle cars, but the analogy isn’t entirely inappropriate. Of course, today’s culture is a bit different: more cost sensitive and environmentally conscious, but the fact is that many of today’s consumers of SCADA will naturally expect it to do what it is supposed to do. The question is less about ‘what does is that what he does?’ and more about ‘what may is that what he does?’
And SCADA goes mobile
Smartphones and tablets are not just fun accessories. Today, they are tools for business and education. Today’s process control operators will want mobile access to their SCADA systems. And why not? Why do I have to be on the production floor to monitor production? That’s not how the world works anymore.
More and more developers are creating SCADA software that enables mobile access. This is the kind of innovation that does nothing to make a SCADA system more secure or reliable; it just makes it fit more easily into our lives. And there are many benefits: key decision makers can more easily access real-time data from wherever they are, field operators can have accurate real-time data with them as they move from site to site.
Mobile accessibility is yet another example of what today’s operators are looking for from the current generation of SCADA software. And mobility is an example of how the world of SCADA is changing. A more tech-savvy generation is stepping up and they intend to bring their toys with them. SCADA developers who are willing to embrace the changing demands of today’s young adults will position themselves as tomorrow’s SCADA industry leaders.
Today’s innovations will become tomorrow’s standards and today’s standards will become obsolete. It’s time to embrace change or be swallowed up by it.
