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such as BP, Nova Chemicals, and Suncor. The ultimate goal is to get everything to plug and play. “OPC wants to be like a USB: Just plug it in and it works,” Burke says. From the ISA’s perspective, it is difficult to promise the Holy Grail of perfect plug-and-play, at least anytime soon, says Don Clark, director of industry marketing for Invensys and vice chairperson of the ISA-95 committee. “Not only would it take us a zillion years to produce such a standard, but it would stifle the very innovation we want to foster,” he says. Comprising four parts — with more to come — ISA-95 defines data exchanges between business and manufacturing systems, as well as the data flows and messaging structures for creating common interfaces. It is a strong step in the right direction to help manufacturers find the common ground they desire and require to keep costs down and reliability up, industry observers agree. “As it stands now, the S-95 [ISA-95] standard greatly facilitates design, implementation, use, and maintenance over standard practices that preceded it,” Clark says. “Additionally, because of the common lingua franca involved in all S-95 offerings, integration between them is greatly facilitated. It is not plug-and-play, but the effort that will be needed to integrate such a hypothetical situation is substantially less than with no standard at all.” That’s why Suncor’s Pedersen is putting pressure on all of his vendors to comply with the standards under the OpenO&M umbrella. “We have important things to do, like run a business and make it profitable. We don’t want to mess with the systems anymore,” Pedersen says. MAKE IT RIGHT While manufacturing executives like Pedersen demand standards compliance, it’s important to remember that it’s one thing for a vendor to claim compliance, and it’s another thing to actually do it right. For example, the OPC Foundation has about 500 member companies that build products to the existing OPC specification. This year, roughly 30 companies will roll out products based on the latest version, called OPC UA, which provides the Web ser vices infrastructure for collaborating with other standards within the OpenO&M initiative. However, there is no way to test these products to find out whether they correctly adhere to the specification. “A lot of companies build OPC products, but products can give OPC a bad name if they do a bad job” of complying with the specification, Burke says. ISA faces a similar plight with its many stan- dards. To address the issue, the organization recently formed a non-profit company called the Automation Standards Compliance Institute. The organization is establishing consortia for its industrial wireless standard (ISA-100), industrial security standard (ISA99), and plant-to-enterprise standard (ISA-95). Each group will test products for compliance. For example, the group working on enterprise integration, the Industrial Interoperability Compliance Institute (IICI), will define certification and compliance at all levels of the written standard. IICI is just now getting started, having solicited suppliers and end users of manufacturing operations management systems to participate as members and define the interoperability compliance guidelines. The group is scheduled to officially launch next month, with outlines of technical direction, compliance profiles, and certification programs and policies to be unveiled throughout the year. The IICI, which will work with OpenO&M to certify a variety of standards, is a significant step forward in getting the standards to work effectively. “We’ve spent the last 15 years evolving standards to the point where they can be applied. Now people are applying them, but there’s a lot of misrepresentation of what compliance is,” says Charlie Gifford, an independent MES consultant who has been asked by the ISA to help spearhead the IICI effort. “That drove the end-user base to say they need a compliancy organization. So there is a natural evolution here that is occurring.” It will very likely take two years to get the organization into full swing, Gifford says, but the effort will ultimately solve many of the problems that companies like Suncor face in creating a reliable, integrated architecture. “The big prize is to keep the plant running, and running efficiently,” says Pedersen. s playlist UNDER THE OPENO&M UMBRELLA These once-separate standard-setting organizations are now dedicating their efforts to developing and using a harmonized set of standards for the exchange of operations and maintenance data. ISA: A global organization setting standards for automation, including ISA-88 for batch control and ISA-95 for data exchange between enterprise and manufacturing operations management systems. MIMOSA: An alliance of operations and maintenance solution providers working on an open standard for asset management in manufacturing, fleet, and facility environments. The OPC Foundation: An alliance of automation control system and instrumentation vendors that provides open specifications for communicating data, alarm, and event records. The vision is for OPC to be the foundation for moving information between multivendor systems on the factory floor, as well as providing interoperability between devices on different networks. The World Batch Forum (WBF): An association of vendors, consultants, end users, and academics that focuses on interoperability needs in the process automation and operations areas. Open Applications Group Inc. (OAGi): A group of vendors and end users dedicated to building a standard that covers business data exchange requirements for B2B and enterprise-to-manufacturing operations. Source: OpenO&M maonline managingautomation.com RELATED ARTICLES: Breaking Down Walls www.managingautomation.com/breakingwalls Onward, March! www.managingautomation.com/2007poll The Waiting Game www.managingautomation.com/waitinggame COMPANIES MENTIONED: Emerson Process Management www.managingautomation.com/Emerson Invensys www.managingautomation.com/Invensys SAP www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 39 March 2008 http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/breakingwalls http://www.managingautomation.com/2007poll http://www.managingautomation.com/waitinggame http://www.managingautomation.com/Emerson http://www.managingautomation.com/Invensys http://www.managingautomation.com/SAP3

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Managing Automation - March 2008 Contents Take 1 Mailbox Mitsubishi, IBM, and ILS Team Up to Make Integration Easy for Automakers Former Agile Exec Takes the Reins at Arena Solutions The Next Phase for 2006’s PM Award Winner Integration Firm Boomi Redesigns for On-Demand Ex-Wonderware Chief Takes Helm at Apprion Notes Cover Story: A Rare Breed Special Report: Where are Control Architectures Heading? Transformation: Back to Reality Integration: Getting Standards Under One Roof Industries: The Quest for the Perfect Order Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - March 2008

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