Frost & Sullivan, a growth consulting company based in New York, recently named Siemens Energy & Automation, based in Alpharetta, Ga., as its winner of two awards for human-machine interface (HMI) leadership—the “Market Leadership Award” for HMI entrepreneurial performance, and the “Technology Leadership Award” for developing exceptional infrastructures in HMI systems. Sandeep Maheshwari, vice president, Industrial & Electronics markets, Frost & Sullivan, presented the awards to Aubert Martin, president and chief executive officer, Siemens Energy & Automation, during the 2005 SPS Electric Automation America Exhibition, sponsored by Messe Frankfurt Inc., and held at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemount, Ill., May 24-26.
According to Frost & Sullivan, Siemens’ Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) strategy helps the company stand out in a worldwide market, and puts it ahead of the competition in terms of technology from the field level up to the management level. The HMI awards acknowledge Siemens’ Simatic WinCC family of visualization and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software tools, as well as its control panels and personal computer-based Panel PCs.
Showcase for users
Martin, in an interview with Automation World editors, stressed the importance of HMI tools in automation. “The HMI is the showcase for the user, whose productivity depends on it,” noted Martin. “As automation systems become more sophisticated, we have to make it simple again to work with these complex machines.”
As for future developments, Martin said Siemens will continue to support a strong integrated approach across the breadth of its products and services, including HMI, controllers, safety systems, networks and motion control. “The workforce of the future must be able to handle many more things at the same time. We will provide better usability and are even looking at technologies such as ‘augmented reality’ to blend real with virtual support, for improved maintenance and diagnostics,” added Martin.
