ISA101, Human
Machine Interfaces
Applying ISA101 Concepts to
Your HMI Projects
Standards
Certification
Education & Training
Publishing
Conferences & Exhibits
Presenter
Michael A. Lennon, P.E.
• Earned his Bachelors of Chemical Engineering in 1995
from the University of Delaware
• Joined Applied Control Engineering, Inc. (ACE) in 2001
• Based in ACE’s Newark, DE headquarters but has also
worked in ACE’s Houston, TX and Taunton, MA offices
• Certified ISA 99 / IEC 62443 Cybersecurity
Fundamentals Specialist
• Licensed Professional Engineer
2
Standard Overview
What is published?
• ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, Human Machine
Interfaces for Process Automation Systems
• Technical Report Workgroups are just starting as
of October 2015. The workgroups are:
– HMI Philosophy, Style Guide & Design Guide
– HMI Usability and Performance
– HMI for Mobile Platforms
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Presentation Overview
Purpose of today’s talk
• Discuss how to use the ISA standard and HMI
concepts with your existing systems
• This presentation is not intended to define
– How your HMI should be designed, what colors to
use, what furniture to use in your control room, etc.
– How to administer your HMI change control process,
including management of change and training
– How to implement HMI changes and best practices
4
Our Challenge
Existing HMI issues
• Configured by multiple system implementers
• Designed with P&IDs as the lone design criteria
• Not designed to a common style guide
– Color usage is not consistent
– Process objects not from a common toolkit
• No contextual information
– Embedded trends, etc.
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Immovable Object
Existing HMIs are not carved in stone
• ISA101 has an HMI life cycle
• System owners and end
users should be familiar with
similar life cycles
– Safety system life cycle (ISA84)
– Alarm management life cycle
(ISA18.2)
image via
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HMI Life Cycle
from Section 4 of ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015
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HMI Life Cycle
Starting an HMI upgrade
• Begin process by defining your
– Philosophy & Style Guide
• Focus on how a “new” HMI would operate
• Engage system users and owners
– Know what works well with your system now
– Look for source of continuous improvement
• Improvement can be incremental
– Use of Color, Navigation, and Object Animation
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Use of Color, Example
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Use of Color, Example
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Use of Color
Proposed Guideline for Use of Color
• Gray backgrounds are used to minimize glare
and provide a low-contrast depiction
• Bright colors are used to highlight alarms and
abnormal situations
• Colors that are used for alarms should not be
used elsewhere
11
Navigation, Example
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Navigation, example
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Navigation
Proposed Navigation Guidelines
• Techniques are employed to facilitate quick and
efficient navigation
• Consistent navigation techniques are used
throughout the system
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Object Animation, Example
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Object Animation, Example
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Object Animation
Proposed Animation Guidelines
• Highlight only abnormal situations
– E.g. change color when in alarm
• Gratuitous animation should be avoided.
Refrain from having
– Spinning motors
– Moving conveyors
– Splashing liquids
– Fire breathing burners
17
Creating the HMI You Want
How to Run an HMI Project
• Where does every HMI project start?
– With a set of P&IDs
– Some are very dense; some should not be graphics
• P&IDs can be a good start; can be used to
– Introduce situational awareness concepts
– Define HMI philosophy for the project
– Group graphics into Functional Areas
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Know Your Levels
ISA 101 Documents Four Levels
• Level 1: Overview of entire responsibility
• Level 2: Primary operating display
• Level 3: System/Subsystem detail displays
• Level 4: Diagnostic displays
• Your project needs to determine how to
implement these levels for your system
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Level 3 Graphic
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Situation Awareness
What does situation awareness mean?
• Being aware of what is happening in the process
• Understanding the process state now
• Understanding the likely process state of the
future
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Level 3 Graphic
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Use Your Tools
Toolkits can be used as a Style Guide
• At the project kickoff meeting, present a sample
screen using the tools from your HMI package
• Present topics to be a part of the system
– Color conventions
– Navigation philosophy
– Use of contextual information
– Minimizing static information to better highlight
abnormal situations
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Review Early and Often
Develop and Build Level 3 Graphics
• Conduct an early HMI Review
• Discuss topics present at the project kickoff
• Give each participant a copy of the screens
• Engage multiple levels of system users
– Operators
– Supervisors
– Engineers
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Focus on the System / Plant
Introduce Level 2 Graphics
• Should be the primary operating displays
• During the Level 3 Screen reviews,
implementers and system owners captured
– Key Performance Indicators
– What makes the plant run well
– What makes the plant spiral out of control
– What an operator always needs to see
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Level 2 Graphic
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What Is Missing?
Level 2 Graphics
• Immediate knowledge of the system’s state
• No knowledge of details that are not important
• What is not important?
– If a valve is opened or closed
– Where a valve and its piping are located
– Watching an agitator spin in a tank
• What is important is a matter of opinion
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Level 2 Graphic
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Contextual Information
Operators need information
• Current values do not tell a story
• Analog bars can show
– Process contextual information (e.g. at SP)
• Trends can show where a value
– Has been
– Is likely going
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Where Do We Begin?
Upgrading existing HMIs
• Produce results
– Start small; show value
– Continuous improvement
Creating new HMIs
• Create sample graphics
– Use them as your style guide or create a document
• Introduce Levels
– Know which screens should always be displayed
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References
• ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, Human Machine Interfaces for
Process Automation Systems
• Hollifield, Bill; Oliver, Dana; Nimmo, Ian; Habibi, Eddie.
The High Performance HMI Handbook, First Edition.
Houston: PAS, 2008. Print.
• Bullemer, Peter. Effective Operator Display Design 2008.
Phoenix: ASM® Joint R&D Consortium, 2008. Print.
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ISA101, Human
Machine Interfaces
Applying ISA101 Concepts to
Your HMI Projects
Standards
Certification
Education & Training
Publishing
Conferences & Exhibits
