The near ubiquitous spread of HMIs throughout industry is due to the fact that they help companies make better business decisions by delivering控制工程网版权所有, managing, and presenting information—in real time—in a visually compelling and actionable format. Incorporating HMIs into applications has been proven to increase productivity, lower costs, improve quality, and reduce material waste. HMIs help companies become more profitable by positioning them for change.
　　Bringing information everywhere
　　Three de

velopments, in particular, have influenced industry’s growing dependence on HMIs, according to Gary NelsonCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, product marketing manager for InTouch industrial computers, DA servers, and toolkits for Wonderware:
　　Improvements in HMI software;
　　Ability of HMIs to visualize data more competently and bring information together where it matters most; and
　　Increased and improved integration and connectivity technologies.
　　“Companies are demanding tools that improve their business process控制工程网版权所有,” says NelsonCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, “and HMIs help them do that by measuring the effectiveness of their processes and their machines. An HMI doesn’t just present data on a machine. It presents information in different forms to different people at different levels of an organization all the way up to the executive level. The QC manager evaluates statistics while an operator views machine performance. Plant floor data doesn’t stay at the plant floor level anymoreCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, and the HMI is the key to moving that data.”

　　Increased capabilities at lower cost are encouraging manufacturers to place HMIs at more locationsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, and to move into applications they hadn't considered before. (Source: AutomationDirect)
　　Burgeoning use of HMIs is fueled by their transition from pure visualization tools to tools that help manage the manufacturing process. In the eyes of Bruce Fuller, director of product management, control and visualization business for Rockwell Automation, “There has been a huge shift over the past decade in what people expec