You're striving for automation in your plant layout. How do you keep it human-centered?
Curious about blending tech with touch? Share your strategies for maintaining a human element in automated environments.
You're striving for automation in your plant layout. How do you keep it human-centered?
Curious about blending tech with touch? Share your strategies for maintaining a human element in automated environments.
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1. Involve workers in the design and implementation phases of automation to ensure their needs and insights are considered. 2. Provide continuous training for employees to work effectively with automated systems and adapt to new technology. 3. Implement automation in a way that complements human abilities, offering flexibility in tasks and roles rather than eliminating them. 4. Focus on how automation can reduce physically demanding tasks, allowing workers to engage in more cognitive and higher-value work. 5. Re-imagine job roles to focus on areas where human expertise and judgment are still crucial, such as decision-making, creativity, and customer interaction.
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While automating our microalgae-based plant, I noticed most deployment teams focus on UI—how dashboards look—but ignore UX—how people use them under real conditions. Our early dashboard displayed all KPIs like DO, pH, and nutrient load, but the team found it confusing during high-pressure moments. So, I brought in a UI/UX expert to redesign it based on operator behavior. We simplified navigation, highlighted critical alerts, and added action-oriented prompts. Now, instead of just showing data, the system supports decision-making. This shift from UI to true UIX made automation more intuitive, trusted, and human-centered—because good tech must think like your team, not just like your code.
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Human Oversight & Decision-Making – Keeping people in control of critical decisions so technology remains a tool, not a replacement.
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