#White Papers
Bespoke as Standard: Understanding User Expectations in Industrial Applications
It is not exactly a regular occurrence for the electronic products and systems used in industrial applications to be talked about in the same terms as a consumer device
However, increasingly users of industrial products are demanding the functionality, flexibility, usability and interface that consumers take for granted.
In particular industrial systems designers want to benefit from the customisability that has become the ‘norm’ in the consumer market in recent years. Not only can you tweak your smartphone to be just the way you want it, but now you can buy a Fiat 500 in one of 500,000 different configurations and your trainers can be customised simply and quickly through an easy to navigate website.
It is that sort of expectation that is now filtering through to the industrial sector - in particular in the area of panel meters and displays. This change is not necessarily filtering through at the ‘user’ level, but already system specifiers expect far more flexibility from their panel instruments. Specifiers need instruments that can be tailored to a specific application or function. Just as importantly there is also a need to ensure that the products and systems the instruments are being embedded in stand out from the competition.
DIY vs off-the-shelf
Panel instruments remain essential in a number of industrial processes to assist with monitoring a wide variety of sensitive physical variables. As a well-established product there is no shortage of off-the-shelf devices designed for every possible application. At the same time engineers and system designers always have the option of developing their own custom panel. Neither option though currently offers the true modern ‘consumer-style’ experience.
Off-the-shelf panel displays have the advantage of zero development time and ideally offer ‘plug-and-play’ functionality at relatively low cost. However, each individual system is inherently inflexible and may not have the exact mix of functionality a user might want. Moreover, there is no real ability to tailor the functionality or look and feel of a panel display ‘in the field’ either. As a result off-the-shelf solutions are only really suited to the very simplest applications or users must make do and be satisfied that at least it was quick and cheap to install.
On the other hand, custom instruments and displays can be tailored to a very high degree to meet even the most exacting specifications to deliver functionality and usability far beyond a standard device. The downside is that invariably the design and development of a custom solution is long and costly.
Responding to changing demands & expectations
Increasingly what specifiers and systems designers really want, driven by a ‘consumerisation’ of attitudes, is the best of both worlds. They don’t want a choice between off-the-shelf or DIY. They want the low cost and speed of deployment of a standard solution with the tailored approach of a bespoke device. We see this as a brand new product category that fills the gap that currently exists between full custom and off the shelf solutions - products that are ‘bespoke as standard.’
By way of illustrating this new category take the example of a control room where there are three or four displays displaying different parameters. Today, in most scenarios, these displays will all be the same off-the-shelf device and the only simple way of clearly delineating which display is showing which parameter would be through the use of labels. While it seems a practical solution clearly it is not without its limitations. By contrast, with a ‘bespoke as standard’ device the appearance or behaviour of the readings on each display could be easily changed so that an operator can quickly distinguish between them.
For display and meter manufacturers these changing demands present a big challenge for the development of the next generation of panels. Getting in to the ‘bespoke as standard’ mindset is a big change for the market, but already changes are happening.
Just in our own experience customers are already explicitly demanding far greater levels of customisation that does not require long development times or complex code writing. As manufacturers work to meet these shifting expectations we anticipate that the market for panel displays of this type will grow rapidly.
A growing trend for ‘consumerisation’
Ultimately the industrial sector is no different to any other. Engineers are consumers too and so it was really only a matter of time until their expectations of the systems they use in their jobs changed.
This process is already well established in a number of other sectors - for example in the IT space - and it is now spreading to a host of other areas. Even within the industrial space it is not just influencing the design of panel instruments, it is impacting on a range of industrial and manufacturing tools and products.
As much as it presents a challenge for device manufacturers it is also a major new opportunity for innovation. It is a trend that is only going to grow over the next few years and it will represent a big shift in the industrial sector. Of course there will always still be a need for both off-the-shelf devices and custom development, but perhaps in future comparing an industrial device to a consumer product will not seem so far-fetched.
