What’s driving this welcome trend? Metrology experts weigh in.
I have a cellphone that doesn’t behave like a phone: It behaves like a computer that makes calls. Computers are becoming an integral part of daily life. And if people don’t start designing them to be more user-friendly, then an even larger part of the population is going to be left out of even more stuff.
So said Alan Cooper, the father of Visual Basic, in 1999—eight years before the release of the first iPhone. Today, Cooper’s observation holds true as a general statement about new technologies. Whether you’re talking about the latest consumer SMART device or a sophisticated measurement tool, user experience (UX) matters.
On the shop floor, UX can mean the difference between parts being measured properly or not, which in turn leads to manufacturing defects being caught before they’re shipped to the customer (or not).
In the bygone days of metrology and manufacturing quality, UX naturally took a backseat to accuracy and precision. Today, more and more metrology companies are starting to recognize how much the latter can be impacted by the former when human operators are in the mix.
While programming a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) still takes a considerable amount of experience and expertise, operating that same machine is not nearly as complicated as it used to be. The same is true for laser scanners and many of the other tools manufacturers depend on to deliver high-quality products.
Engineering.com reached out to experts from some of the world’s leading metrology companies to ask a deceptively simple question:
Are quality tools becoming more user-friendly?
Hexagon on the Manufacturing Skills Gap
“Yes, definitely,” says Joerg Deller, general manager of stationary metrology devices and machine-tool measurement at Hexagon AB, “but there’s still a ways to go.” Deller points to a trend within Hexagon to make using CMMs as simple as possible for the operator: “I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I can say the technology is much easier to understand than it was when I started.”
Deller believes the manufacturing skills gap is fueling the trend toward more user-friendly metrology tools. “There’s less labor available out there, so it’s really hard to find people who fully understand what they’re doing,” he says. “To paraphrase one of our aerospace customers: it’s very hard to find a metrology application engineer, it’s even harder to find a metrology application engineer for a specific software, and if you need someone to run all the measurements on top of it, that’s like finding a unicorn.”
However, Deller also suggests that more than just a lack of personnel with the right training is pushing metrology companies to put more emphasis on UX in their new products. There’s also the natural progression toward more intuitive user interfaces as technology and scientific understanding of cognition improve, like how Windows replaced MS-DOS.
“If you think back 30 years ago, it was all single-touch trigger probes, which were quite easy to understand,” he explains. “Nowadays, we’re talking about laser scanners, white-light interferometers combined with cameras, tactile scanners and all these axes moving at the same time on a rotary table. So, the measurement tasks are more complex, while the human brain is made for thinking in three dimensions. With all the possibilities in UI and UX, all the research that has been done on how humans learn and interact with new systems, a simpler UX is the logical next step.”
Renishaw on the Transition from Lab to Shop Floor
Paul Maxted agrees that quality tools are becoming more user-friendly. However, the director of industrial metrology applications at Renishaw believes the increased focus on UX comes from recognizing that as quality tools move from the slow-paced environment of the lab to the fast-paced shop floor, they need to be more responsive and easier to use—good news for those working in production.
“This transition towards shop-floor measurement is of course empowering production personnel with the capability to create measurement routines and collect process data rather than relying on the traditionally skilled quality function in an organisation,” says Maxted. “The user interface and tools required to integrate shop-floor measurement need to be much more intuitive from a programming perspective and allow simulation or extreme confidence of successful, safe measurement execution.”
One final factor worth noting, according to Maxted, is the increase in on-machine quality apps. These tie measurement directly into production, making it easier to integrate on-machine probing into CNC processes, for example.
CAPTURE 3D, a ZEISS Company on the Benefits of User-Friendly Metrology
Johan Gout has a perspective somewhere in between those of Deller and Maxted. “We are seeing ease of use become a priority,” he says, “particularly as portable metrology technology becomes more popular for collecting measurement data throughout any stage of a process or in non-traditional measuring environments.”
As senior director of operations and co-founder of CAPTURE 3D, a ZEISS Company, Gout understands the benefits of making quality tools more user friendly. “If a user can essentially pick up a new piece of metrology equipment and get to work after only a couple of hours of training, they’re going to preserve a lot of productivity that’s usually lost when introducing new technology that’s complicated to learn.”
Gout also points to metrology software becoming more centralized as part of the trend towards improving user experience. “For example,” he explains, “the ZEISS Quality Suite is an ecosystem that allows the user to access various software apps along with training, a tech guide and gives users access to a community.”
Gout agrees that the manufacturing skills gap is a major driver for the greater emphasis on UX. “Traditionally, it took a lot of training or a certification to work in a measuring room and operate metrology-grade equipment like a CMM,” he says. “In the case of automation, companies typically needed a robotics expert on staff in the past. With the user-friendly focus on our technology, we’re eliminating these barriers.”
Beyond addressing the manufacturing skills gap, Gout suggests that making quality tools more user-friendly can also improve the quality of life for current employees. “Your team becomes more agile, because multiple people know how to operate the technology,” he explains. “Employees are also less stressed because they can eliminate bottlenecks and get more done with technology that’s easy to use.”
We may never reach a point where CMMs and optical scanners are as easy and intuitive to use as cellphones or tablets, but as the digital transformation in manufacturing continues, it looks like the trend toward more user-friendly quality tools will continue as well.
