More Awards for KHS GmbH
Innovative KHS machine operating concept wins two further iF awards
As part of the iF communication design award competition for 2011 KHS GmbH has now won both the iF product design award 2011 and the iF gold award, the latter a mark of particular distinction bestowed upon its new pioneering machine operating concept. Over 2,700 products from 43 different countries were entered for the iF product design award; around 1,000 of them received a prize. Nearly 900 entries were submitted for the iF communication design award 2011 from 27 countries of the world, with the jury presenting the coveted iF seal denoting quality design over 200 times. Only 30 of the prize-winning products were later given the additional iF gold award. The jury made a definite decision to present KHS GmbH with the iF gold award in the product interfaces category for several clear reasons. The unanimous verdict was that this was "a very intuitive concept, combined with clear symbolism. User-specific profiles enable operators to concentrate on what's important, with any irrelevant functions suppressed to avoid distraction." The jury was also agreed that the technically perfect implementation of a good concept merited the granting of this distinguished award. The major plus point of the new KHS operating concept, developed in close collaboration with the Fraunhofer IAO Institute, is that both machines and entire production lines can be controlled and monitored on a single interface for the first time. What were once many heterogeneous GUIs have now become a uniform system. Operator prompting is extremely user friendly; easy-to-decipher buttons, colored graphics and icons, and interactive handling instructions speak a language that is plain and simple. Complex processes are depicted in a manner that is easy to understand. The multistructured layout grants access to various detailed views and operating levels. The new interface also allows user profiles to be accessed with an ID card, displaying relevant data to specific individual users. The general idea behind the new operating concept is that all steps are easy to learn and comprehend for operators all over the world. The system also perfectly combines ergonomics, navigation, and design. The next innovation planned for KHS' operating concept is to adapt it for use on mobile hand-held devices, enabling operation independent of any particular stationary workstation. Incidentally, the three aforementioned awards conferred upon the new KHS operating system in 2011 are not the only ones. For instance, at the end of 2010 KHS GmbH was awarded the exclusive order of merit red dot: best of the best. In this competition just one percent of the 6,000 entries from 44 countries were able to secure themselves this highly acclaimed award.
