Improving machine
operators' performance
Client: Caterpillar Inc.
Overview​
The challenge
Caterpillar tasked our team of UX Designers to identify ways to improve operators’ performance of Caterpillar equipment without “changing the iron” (i.e. changing the machine itself).
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The team
Our team consisted of 3 freelance UX Designers working alongside a group of Caterpillar engineers, product support and marketers.
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My role
I conducted interviews with machine owners and operators, solutioned ways to improve the operators performance and then created mockups of the proposed dashboard app.
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The solution
We designed a holistic solution focusing on the problem areas of operator training and supervision. Our solution involved a dashboard system to notify managers of problem areas, and videos to train the operators in better machine practices.
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Project brief​
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Caterpillar brought on our team of UX designers to explore ways to improve operators’ performance of cat equipment. They wanted to provide ways of assessing how operators are currently using the machine, identifying areas of improvement, and providing tips and learning materials to improve their skills.
Some areas of exploration they suggested were around - but not limited to - improving fuel efficiency of the machine, promoting safety, and increasing operator productivity on the machines.
Interviewing owners​
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We started by talking to owners of construction companies to understand ways in which changing operators performance would address their business needs.
The biggest divide we found between the owners was the size of their company. Some owners ran large construction companies with millions of dollars worth of caterpillar equipment, while on the other end were smaller family run companies with a fewer pieces of equipment.
Interviewing operators​
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In order to change the operators performance we needed to understand the operators themselves: how they were trained on the machine, how they improve their performance, their motivations, and day to day challenges they experience.
The biggest dividers we found for operators were around age and experience level.
Creating personas​
We created personas for the owners and operators we met during the interviews. In our solution we mainly focused on the personas of the large fleet owner and the inexperienced machine operator, as our solution to improve the operators performance would have the biggest effect on those personas.
JOSH BARNES
Large Fleet Owner
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Owns millions of dollars in CAT equipment
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Has hundreds of operators and workers on his crew.
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Works with a tight budget for the jobs
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Focuses on safety, productivity, and machine downtime because these all cost him time and money
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MARISSA GATES
Inexperienced Machine Operator ​
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Union operator for 2 years
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Has a "feel" for most of the machines
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Wants to be seen as competent by the more experienced operators
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Still relies on the foreman for feedback on her performance
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Defining the problem space​
After our interviews we had a clearer picture of the ways in which the companies were run and the role of the operators:
Owners are in charge of the business and making sure the projects didn't go over budget, while Operators are the "money makers". A good operator will make the business money, while a bad operator would cost the business money.
Some of the main areas we found in which operators could either make or lose the company money were around productivity, safety, fuel efficiency, and machine misuse.
Choosing the right problem
We looked into the different problem areas and discussed with engineers from Caterpillar to determine which would be the best to tackle first. Originally we decided to focus on machine misuse (actions that cause excessive wear and tear to the machine) as we determined it was more objective and easier to detect by the machine.
We later decided to expand the alerts to include safety, and efficiency metrics, as we determined that the problems we would be detecting for machine misuse like "incorrect gear", "tire slip" etc. would also effect the operators efficiency and on site safety.
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Solution ideation
To come up with solution ideas for addressing the machine misuse we first explored how the construction sites were dealing with it at the time.
We found that currently owners are reliant on the foreman to both spot the issue and then give the operator the right coaching to correct the behavior.
This requires that the foreman spots all the problems and knows what feedback to give the operators to correct the behavior. As there is a wide range in foremen's abilities, and even the best ones can't spot every problem, we focused our solution on filling in the gaps in the foreman's role.
Proposed experience solution
We decided to focus our solution on improving these main areas that may be lacking with the current system which relies on the foreman:
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1. Detection
Spotting the machine misuse
2. Notification
Alerting managers
to problem areas
3. Corrective Action
Providing tips and training to correct the problem
1. Detection
For detection, Caterpillar equipment already has Product Link™: hardware built into its machines that transmits machine information via cell and satellite.
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Using Product Link, the CAT engineers could program the machine to detect certain machine misuses such as over revving of the tires and excessive impact on the bucket, and send the information to the notification system.
2. Notification
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For notification, we designed dashboard for the site manager and equipment managers to get batched feedback on machine alerts and track improvement in those areas.
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To design the notification screens, we worked with the Caterpillar engineers to sketch out the types of data we could display. Caterpillar then took those initial designs to the owners of the equipment to gauge excitement for this type of tool, and to identify areas of improvement for the dashboard.
3. Corrective action​
As it wasn't enough to simply alert the managers to the problems, we created the third component of corrective action to train operators in better practices for using their equipment.
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The corrective action could take a variety of forms, but we focused on this idea of online CAT videos to train operators on their equipment.
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The training videos will demonstrate to operators best practices for using the machine and can be paired with the detection and notification systems to provide training on targeted problem areas.
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