HMI Systems - Research Paper Example

These human machine interface systems do give people ability to control operations, a system or processes. They incorporate all the necessary features enabling a user to touch, hear, see, or even use them to do certain control operations while receiving instant feedback at the same time. An environment of harmonious and efficient process is created. Communication with these machines is achieved in various ways and the most dominant ones are through hard wired connections, wireless or Wi-Fi connections or even serial bus connections. The technologies used in these connections to link the applications to HMI would be of greater impact on the operator and the whole system. Most of the time, it is required that these HMI machines are given the right instructions in order to ensure effective performance and avoid disasters. They work on the simple analogy of ‘garbage in garbage out’ where if bad data is fed in, bad information is processed and disseminated. Communication is an important tool and if not well used, it could be the source of serious problems in any operation1. Tenerife airport disaster of 1977 involving two Boeing 747 passenger aircrafts could mainly be attributed to poor communication and other leadership issues that were not addressed in time. This paper takes a look at the horrific crash from the perspective of a manager and tries to establish its metaphorical aspect in terms of leadership during turbulent times; considers the barriers to effective decision-making process; actions the pilots of both aircraft should have taken to avoid the crash; translation of these actions to successful corporate leadership; and derives certain fundamental lessons that should be learnt from this incidence. Leadership is a simple term but its effects are very great and might define failure or success of any business or operation. The effects of poor leadership are always very detrimental. 2.0 Antecedent events and final details of the March 27, 1977 crash of KLM 4805 and Pan Am 1736 at Tenerife in the Canary Islands These two aircrafts had been diverted from Gran Canaria Airport following a bomb explosion. The fear of further bombings led to many aircrafts being parked along the taxiway and thus blocking it. A very dense fog developed and these added problems to the already worse situation since visibility was highly reduced and the aircrafts could not locate each other and the controller normally at the tower also failed to see the taxiway and there was no radar on the ground. Only voice reports via could be used to communicate with pilots. There was total miscommunication during takeoff and the pilot of KLM tried taking off. The runway was also obstructed by the refueling vehicle and the KLM aircraft which made it hard for the Pan Am aircraft to get around the fueling point. Routine procedures for takeoff were done by the KLM captain and the co-pilot did advice the captain that they had not been given the ATC clearance after he witnessed the maneuver and he was told to ...Show more