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Converting a folding machine is a job for real professionals. Such a machine folds brochures, leaflets, maps and much more in print shops – several tens of thousands of copies per hour. Depending on the type of machine and the job, the changeover may require many different settings, which are either made directly on the folding machine or controlled via the human-machine interface (HMI). An experienced bookbinder can do this in 15 to 20 minutes, but this is a profession that is threatened with extinction. In 2022, the Central Association of German Skilled Crafts counted just 1,646 bookbinders nationwide.<\/p>\n
In German print shops, there are now often lateral entrants at the machines. “As long as a job is being processed, that’s not a problem. But as soon as it comes to changeover, they are often dependent on the help of skilled workers or more experienced colleagues,” says Raphael H\u00e4gle from the Intelligent Manufacturing Processes and Interaction Systems research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. “While the changeover technician is resetting the folding machine, the machine operator is idle. He could also change over the machine himself if the machine’s operating concept was designed to guide him step by step.”<\/p>\n
This is exactly what H\u00e4gle has now done in collaboration with MBO Postpress Solutions using a folding machine as an example. To do this, the scientist first defined user roles. This ensures that all employees working on the folding machine are only ever shown exactly those setting options on the redesigned display that they actually need to be able to perform their task.<\/p>\n
The researcher then analyzed the workflows of all user roles. To do this, he asked experienced bookbinders to wear eye-tracking glasses while they worked at the folding machine. These glasses record where the wearer’s gaze falls and how long it remains there. H\u00e4gle then used these recordings to break down all work processes into subtasks and individual steps. “Retooling the machine, for example, comprises 46 subtasks made up of 130 individual steps,” says H\u00e4gle.<\/p>\n
The scientist has therefore derived detailed step-by-step instructions for each work process. This serves as the basis for the automatic creation of the graphic content on the folding machine’s display. Using arrows and schematic drawings, it shows the machine operator where to make the individual settings. MBO Postpress Solutions has granted H\u00e4gle access to the source code so that the display can be revised accordingly.<\/p>\n
Configuring a folding machine HMI before the machine was delivered to the buyer used to be complicated, time-consuming and correspondingly expensive. After all, depending on the version, each folding machine should only show those setting options on the display that it actually has to offer. “The configuration could take over eight hours,” H\u00e4gle observed. To speed up this process too, the scientist first divided it into subtasks and individual steps and then created a software tool that maps the operating logic of the entire machine. The result: a folding machine can now be configured on the computer within a few minutes and the HMI is created automatically.<\/p>\n
“In the future, generative artificial intelligence could help to further simplify HMI development or evaluate the recordings from the eye-tracking glasses,” says H\u00e4gle. The scientist is also toying with the idea of offering his methodology for simplifying human-machine interfaces in future as an independent service provider rather than as an employee. In principle, his approach is transferable to all machines and manufacturers – a huge potential market.<\/p>\n
Name: <\/b>Automatic creation of user-friendly and individual HMIs (aHMI)
Term: <\/b>01.07.2023 – 30.06.2025
Partner: <\/b>Fraunhofer IPA, MBO Postpress Solutions GmbH
Funding amount:<\/b> 260.628 euros
Funding provider:<\/b> Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg via the Invest BW funding program<\/p>\n
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