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SAP and Siemens Announce Cooperation with the Intention to Deliver Integrated Solution (based on ISA-95)

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) are announcing their intent for a preferred strategic partnership to deliver an integrated solution that will help companies eliminate the disconnect of mission-critical information between Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and business software solutions. The intent of the cooperation is to address some of the major concerns that production supervisors and plant managers of manufacturing companies are facing today such as the lack of integration of MES on the plant floor with business software solutions, increased IT spending, and the need for production personnel to measure, monitor or control their key performance indicators (KPIs) on demand. The joint offering shall be a significant step in helping manufacturing companies address these everyday issues, while also lowering total-cost-of-ownership (TCO), and easing implementation, maintenance and performance management.

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Download for free: Presentations ISA-95 for real managers

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ANSI/ISA-95.00.03-2005 Enterprise-Control System Integration, Part 3 (Downloadable)

ISA-95, Part 3 is now available for download. Now is also a perfect time to get all three parts of the standard- all are downloadable and available on the web.

This part of the standard defines activity models of manufacturing operations management that enable an enterprise system to control system integration. The activities defined in this part of the standard are consistent with the Part 1 object models definitions. The modeled activities operate between business planning and logistics functions, defined as the Part 1 Level 4 functions, and the process control functions, defined as the Part 1 Level 2 functions. The scope of Part 3 encompasses: a model of the activities associated with manufacturing operations management, Level 3 functions; and an identification of some of the data exchanged between Level 3 activities.

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ISA approves merger with OMAC

ISA—The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society's Executive Board today approved its merger with OMAC—The Open Modular Architecture Controls Users' Group. OMAC will now act as a subsidiary of ISA. "OMAC has been blessed with the active participation of a dedicated group of volunteers from numerous end user companies, automation suppliers, and OEM's over its past eight years or so of informal existence," said OMAC Board Chair Andy McDonald of Unilever. "We are delighted that we are now affiliating with such a respected and established organization as ISA. It should help OMAC achieve even more success in establishing guidelines in areas such as packaging, computerized numerical control, and manufacturing architecture."

"ISA is excited about the opportunity to work more closely with the members of OMAC to establish consensus industry standards for the manufacturing community," said ISA President Donald Zee. "The guidelines that OMAC has established have greatly facilitated more efficient and effective manufacturing. They serve as an excellent complement to ISA's legacy of useful industry standards, and we look forward to working together in the future."

"ARC has been working with both groups for many years," said Dick Hill, vice president at Dedham, Mass.-based industry research firm, ARC Advisory Group. "Both OMAC and ISA are respected for helping achieve consensus and direction in the automation community. They have respective strengths in the discrete and process industries. By joining forces, they are positioned to leverage those strengths to become even more effective in serving the needs of automation professionals and manufacturing industries."

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New versions of BML and B2MML available

BatchML is an XML implementation of the ANSI/ISA 88 family of standards (ISA-88), known internationally as IEC 61512. BatchML consists of a set of XML schemas written using the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Schema language (XSD) that implements the models and terminology in the ISA-88 standard. B2MML is an XML implementation of the ANSI/ISA 95 family of standards (ISA-95), known internationally as IEC/ISO 62264. New versions of BML and B2MML can now be downloaded.

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SAP adopts ISA-95

SAP AG is addressing concerns about the lack of adoption of defined standards which is preventing the efficient movement of information from the shop floor execution layer to the enterprise business layer. SAP is starting with support for ISA-95 and is developing a roadmap for the adoption of process industry standards.

"Given SAP's reputation in the global manufacturing ecosystem and the breadth of SAP's manufacturing solutions, SAP's support of any standards gives those standards immediate validation," said Bob Mick, V.P. Emerging Technology, ARC Advisory Group. "We believe that the adoption rate of standards like ISA-95 can also be positively impacted should SAP decide to build the requirements into its solution."

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Download for free: the PFC symbols (ISA-88.02 Master Recipes) in Visio template

Part 2 of S88 provides standard symbols for the depiction of S88 Master Recipes. For the development of these recipes you can get a Visio template at TWP Training. The template is free of charge. You will need the program Visio to be able to use it.

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ISA-88 part 3 about General Recipes accepted by IEC

Recently ISA has published part 3 of the ISA-88 standard. This part provides the detailed definition of the content of a general recipe. What format should this information take? How do we draw it or write it down so everyone understands it? How should the information be structured? It also provides a methodology of a conversion of a general or site recipe to a master recipe. “This presents the possibility of having a single corporate wide recipe for a product that can be rolled out to a large number of local manufacturing plants with assurance the product will be the same in each location”, according to Lynn Craig, the committees chairman (Intech). Up till now there was no accepted method for depicting a general recipe in a consistent manner and no generally accepted method of going from general and site to a master recipe. ISA-88 part 3 provides the solution to this problem. The standard has recently been accepted by the IEC and has thus become an international standard. The standard can be downloaded.

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Download for free: example of Risk Assessment based on GAMP4

The AllMons consultants have developed and example of a Risk Assessment based on GAMP 4. This example makes clear at which phases in automation projects you can apply a Risk Assessment. Risks of the defined functions are estimated and validation effort and pay back time of the investment are decreased. The investment of a Risk Assessment will be paid back in a short time.

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English-spoken training courses about ISA-88 and ISA-95

TWP Training, an ISA certified company, provides English spoken training courses and seminars about the ANSI/ISA S88 standard and the ANSI/ISA S95 standard. These courses are not scheduled on a regular basis, but they can be provided as on site training courses in several countries. For more information about the possibilities, contact TWP Training.

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Download for free: ppt. Presentation Applying ISA-95 the whole picture

TWP Training provided a webcast seminar for the World Batch Forum, called Applying ISA-95: the Whole Picture.

Do you understand how to build information flows using the ISA-95 object models? The SP95 committee has put a lot of time and effort into the development of the ISA-95 standard. Their knowledge and practical experience were combined into a consistent set of models and terminology. The standard is very complex, so it will take a lot of time to really understand the object models, their internal relationships, and the ISA-95 terms (e.g. ‘Material segment specification property attributes’). Many people are looking for a complete and consistent case, which is not too complex or too industry specific, as an example of how to apply ISA-95.

This case study provides an example of the application of the 9 object models of S95, and how these can be used to build the S95 information flows in B2MML (XML).

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Training course GAMP, Validation and 21CFR11

In addition to the ISA-88 and ISA-95 training courses and seminars, TWP training also offers a training course and workshop about Gamp, Validation and 21 CFR 11. These English spoken training courses are not scheduled on a regular basis, but can be provided as on site training courses in several countries. The class presents the definition of validation in USA FDA regulated manufacturing, and the methods that must be used to have a validated system. GAMP is described and is presented as a guideline for development of validation processes for a wide range of control systems.

The class also presents an overview of the requirements placed on manufacturing in pharmaceutical and biotech for the USA FDA regulated markets. It describes the requirements for electronic records and electronic signatures as specified in the USA FDA 21 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 11. This regulation describes the controls and procedures that must be placed on information maintained in electronic form and on electronic documents used in place of officially signed documents.

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New training possibility: ISA-88 and ISA-95 FlexTraining

Suddenly your company needs to know more about the ISA-88- or the ISA-95 standard, about 21 CFR 11 or about GAMP and validation. You’re in a hurry, so you don’t want to wait for the next course date of the ISA training courses. But you do not have enough employees to organize an official In company training course. TWP training can help you solve this problem with its new kind of education: FlexTraining.

FlexTraining is a combination of training and consultancy (a workshop). Just call TWP training and they will provide you the needed information as soon as possible. The contents, duration and level of the FlexTraining will be fine tuned with your companies needs. If necessary, the trainer-consultant will pay attention to specific problems that you are dealing with in your projects. The training can take place at your company’s site, or somewhere else.

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New part of ISA-88 about Production Records

The ISA-88 committee has started the development of a new part: ISA-88 part 4. After part 1 about models and terminology for batch control, part 2 about data structures and guidelines for languages and part 3 about General Recipes, part 4 is about production records. Draft 6 was finished recently. Once finished, the document will define a reference model for production records, which contain information about batches and production segments.

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Interesting discount: subscription to ISA standards

At ISA it is possible to get a subscription on the more than 100 ISA standards, like ANSI - ISA S88 and ANSI- ISA S95. This subscription will give you the possibility to access all the ISA standards on line, and you have permission to download up to 10 standards a year. The costs for non-members is 900,00 a year. ISA members get a significant discount, they only have to pay 95 dollars a year. For more information: : www.ISA.org.

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SP95 committee starts development of ISA-95 part 4 and part 5

The ISA SP95 committee has started the development of part 4 and part 5 of the standard Enterprise – Control System Integration. Part 4 is entitled Object models and attributes of Manufacturing Operations Management. Part 5 is called Business to Manufacturing Transactions. This technical specification defines business to manufacturing transactions to enable information collection, retrieval, transfer and storage in support of enterprise/control system integration.

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Microsoft broadens support for ISA-95

Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday its Plant-to-Enterprise Interoperability initiative with the support of ISA-95 standards that will extend its longtime commitment to the OPC standard for the shop floor. The information came out at National Manufacturing Week 2005 in Chicago. ISA-95 is an international standard that defines the terminology and models used in the integration of business systems at the enterprise level with control systems at the plant-floor level. Dennis Brandl, editor of the ISA-95 standard and president of BR&L Consulting in Cary, NC, told InTech he was encouraged to see Microsoft's support, indicating the standard has value to ERP vendors and customers. "I'm happy Microsoft has listened to the leading edge participants in the ISA-95 standard and is supporting that work," he said. Microsoft also recently joined and accepted a board position with the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA), a not-for-profit organization of manufacturers and information system providers focused on leveraging technology in order to better achieve business goals. MESA promotes the exchange of best practices, strategies, and innovation in managing manufacturing operations and quality and in achieving plant-floor execution excellence. "Growing market dynamics and increased competition have made it necessary to integrate manufacturing operations into business performance metrics," said Robert Mick, vice president of emerging technologies at ARC Advisory Group Inc. "Interoperability of business and operations systems is key, and Microsoft's support of standards such as ISA-95 will accelerate industry adoption as well as hasten the development of implementation standards."

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Now is the moment

A group of leading manufacturing companies, software vendors, system integrators and training institutes have launched this website in January 2006, as a new initiative to promote the ISA-95 standard. The standard establishes a common definition and format for information exchange between shop floor systems and business systems.

Director of “ISA-95.com,” Pieter van der Klooster, believes the use of the ISA-95 standard will deliver significant benefits to users. ARC Advisory Group expressed similar thoughts in a recent electronic newsletter. "ARC believes that the time has come to make some real progress in the area of plant to business interoperability", the consulting firm wrote.

"Advances in technology as well as standards have brought us to the point where a catalyst can effect some major changes, and we believe this initiative can be that catalyst". "There is a huge amount of interest in this among our clients, and an overwhelming response from the manufacturing community" Van der Klooster said. Dave Emerson, Chairman of WBF's XML Working Group, and Keith Unger, Chairman of the ISA's SP-95 Committee said that key end-user companies that have adopted ISA-95 are reporting reductions in integration time and costs and greater agility in integrating plant floor systems with business systems.

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ARC News

WBF (formerly known as the World Batch Forum) and ISA are announcing their intention to affiliate in furtherance of their missions to aid professionals and industry in the successful development and application of automation technologies.

The affiliation will allow both organizations to build on their respective strengths. The two organizations are working through the final stages of the arrangements that would result in WBF functioning as independent affiliate of ISA. Remaining steps should be completed in the first half of 2006.

John Blanchard, ARC Advisory Group, commented, "This more formal relationship between WBF and ISA should go a long way toward educating current and future engineers on applying the ISA 88 and ISA 95 standards in manufacturing operations, as well as educating senior executives on the benefits they can realize from the application of these standards and standardized approaches to deploying automation technology."

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ISA to Create The Automation Alliance

ISA announced the intent to create The Automation Alliance as an umbrella organization under which associations and societies engaged in manufacturing and process automation activities can work more effectively to fulfill their missions. It will coordinate the work of member organizations engaged in advancement of the science and engineering of automation technologies and applications.

    The common objectives of the member organizations are to:
  • Promote the value and image of the automation profession in contributing to manufacturing effectiveness and efficiency,
  • Facilitate the development and dissemination of educational and informational resources intended to develop new generations of automation professionals, enhance the effectiveness of existing professionals, and advance the automation profession.
  • Facilitate the promulgation of industry standards that enhance the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and safety of automation technology and application.

The Automation Alliance will provide industry wide strategic analysis and coordination through its member organizations. The Alliance will provide technical management, administration, and integrated services such as seminars, web conferences, training, and conference services to be shared among participating organizations.

OMAC and WBF announced their intent to be charter members of The Automation Alliance. The Automation Alliance will allow WBF and OMAC volunteers to concentrate on the professional exchange of information between automation and manufacturing professionals. Cost effective, technically oriented professional management will help WBF, OMAC, and other Alliance members to coordinate their efforts and extend their reach into other active regions in the world. In addition, The Automation Alliance will provide more opportunities for professional interaction and sharing of knowledge through a broader range of services and coordinated activities.

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Enterprise Integration and the Evolving Role of ISA-95

Managing Automation and GE Fanuc, a leading production management, automation, embedded and business intelligence technology supplier, are proud to present Extended Enterprise Integration and the Evolving Role of ISA-95, which will address the importance of extended enterprise integration and the role of standards. GE Fanuc leads and contributes to the development of key industry interoperability standards such as ISA-95, SCOR, OPC-UA and OAG. Live webcast at April 26, 20:00 hrs CET.

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Processing & ICT Exhibition

November 2006; ISA-95.com has participated in this fair with 18 partners; Actemium, Allmons Consulting, Automatie, Care Automation, Conet Engineering, EKB, HVL, IAP, Imtech, ISA, Koning & Hartman, KSE, OA Europe, Pro - At, ProLeiT, Raster, SAG Controlec, Siemens, Simac Quadcore, TWP Training. An eye catcher was their Meeting Point; a Greyhound Senic Cruiser Bus from 1954.

The ISA-95.com partners were recognized by a real busstop. Every day there was a presentation about ISA-95 with the slogan; “Get in for the Perfect Connection”.

Many thousands of end-users visted this fair and about 1000 people were registrated by ISA-95.com!

Click here for pictures of this exhibition.

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IAS Exhibition

Click here for pictures of this exhibition

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ISA Releases "The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA-95 Standard in Manufacturing"

Research Triangle Park, NC (10 April 2007) - ISA recently announced the publication of "The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA-95 Standard in Manufacturing" by Bianca Scholten.

This handy resource explains how to apply ISA-95 in manufacturing enterprise systems (MES) and vertical integration projects, as well as reveals the most important ISA-95 models and terminology. It is ideal for those just starting out who need to get up to speed on ISA-95's background information but also for those who have some practical experience with ISA-95 and require additional support in carrying out analyses to determine a specific company's MES strategy and to define user requirements. Additionally, if you develop MES functionality or realize interfaces based on ISA-95, then this guide will help you understand and apply the ISA-95 object models.

Most importantly, the guide explains how to integrate ERP and MES systems using ISA-95. It places ISA-95 in the broader context of modern information exchange technologies and thus offers a complete picture for project managers, consultants, programmers, and information architects who want to integrate ERP and MES systems based on the international standard.

For more information on this resource, or any of the resources that ISA offers, visit www.isa.org/books.

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Nieuwe datum ISA seminar

Het jaarlijkse ISA-seminar op raderboot De Majesteit in Rotterdam zal dit jaar niet - zoals eerder aangekondigd - in april plaatsvinden, maar op donderdag 27 september van 16.00 uur t/m 21.30 uur. De ISA Netherlands Section organiseert deze bijeenkomst dit jaar voor de vijfde maal; een jubileum dus! Dat is een reden om het nog grootser aan te pakken dan anders, wat de nodige voorbereiding vergt. De jaarlijkse ledenvergadering zal overigens ook tijdens dit seminar plaatsvinden. Nadere informatie over de inhoud van het programma volgt later op deze website.

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ISA publiceert ISA-95 deel 5; gratis voor ISA leden

Op 10 januari j.l. heeft ISA het vijfde deel van de ISA-95 standaard voor Enterprise - Control System Integration officieel gepubliceerd. Deel 5 is een aanvulling op de onderwerpen van deel 1 en deel 2 van de standaard, die de interfaces tussen ERP en MES systemen standaardiseren met behulp van datamodellen. Ze maken duidelijk welke informatie ERP en MES systemen met elkaar moeten uitwisselen en volgens welke structuur. In deze datamodellen staan de gegevens, maar er staat niet in wat het ontvangende systeem met de gegevens moet doen. Moet het de gegevens aanmaken, wijzigen of verwijderen? De SP95 commissie heeft daarom deel 5 van de standaard ontwikkeld ("Part 5: Business to Manufacturing Transactions"). Dit deel stelt vast welke werkwoorden systemen dienen te gebruiken om elkaar duidelijk te maken wat het andere systeem met de gegevens moet doen. 'S95 transacties' zijn als het ware de gesprekken die ERP en MES systemen met elkaar voeren. Het ene systeem stuurt een bericht en het andere systeem reageert daar op met een ander bericht. De berichten bestaan standaard uit een applicatie identificatie veld en een dataveld. In het applicatie identificatieveld staan de gegevens die de systemen nodig hebben om te weten waar het bericht vandaan komt, waar de reactie naar toe moet, of het andere systeem ook een bevestiging wenst, etc. Het dataveld is opgebouwd uit een werkwoord en een zelfstandig naamwoord. De combinatie van een werkwoord met een zelfstandig naamwoord levert een unieke opdracht op, bijvoorbeeld 'GET equipment ID 201', waarin 'GET' het werkwoord is, en 'equipment ID 201' het zelfstandige naamwoord. De zelfstandige naamwoorden zijn de gegevens die al waren vastgesteld door deel 1 en deel 2 van de standaard. Nieuw zijn de werkwoorden. De B2MML werkgroep van het WBF zal op basis van deel 5 van ANSI/ISA-95 nieuwe versies van de B2MML schema's gaan ontwikkelen, waarin deze standaard werkwoorden worden opgenomen.

Deel 5 is te verkrijgen via www.ISA.org. Voor ISA leden is dit gratis. Overigens werkt de commissie nu nog aan deel 4, dat voorlopig nog niet gepubliceerd zal worden. Deel 4 standaardiseert de informatie-uitwisseling tussen het laboratorium, de onderhoudsafdeling en het magazijn onderling en tussen deze afdelingen en de productieafdeling en het kantoor. Verder is de commissie gestart met het herzien van deel 1 en deel 2 op basis van de jarenlange praktijkervaring die er inmiddels mee is opgedaan.

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ISA-95.com in China

The president of ISA-95.com, Pieter van der Klooster, will be a speaker on the 2007 China Metalworking Technology Forum.

Topic: Get in for the perfect connection: standards integrate automation systems.

For more information about this forum click here.

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Wonderware Extends ISA-95 Enterprise Integration Capabilities to Include Microsoft Dynamics AX

LAKE FOREST, Calif., July 10, 2006 -- Wonderware, a business unit of Invensys Systems Inc., today announced that it will extend the integration of Wonderware’s open manufacturing software solutions built on ArchestrA technology to the Microsoft Dynamics AX business management solution.

This new capability will utilize the ISA-95 standard for enterprise-to-control system integration and will enable more seamless transfer of production order and material transactions between Microsoft Dynamics AX and multi-vendor plant systems that are integrated with Wonderware’s software solutions.

“Wonderware’s existing enterprise integration capabilities have been designed to improve synchronization of business processes and manufacturing operations activities on the plant floor, effectively bridging the gap between the real-time domain of the plant floor and the transactional domain of business systems,” said Mark Davidson, vice president of global marketing for Wonderware.

Wonderware’s production and performance management, supervisory control, HMI and SCADA software solutions are built on the open standards-based ArchestrA technology. By using standard B2MML (Business-To-Manufacturing Markup Language) messages, customers can automatically download production schedule and bill-of-material (BOM) information to plant systems, obtain real-time views of actual production order status including alerts and receive real-time feedback of actual material consumptions for accurate report-as-finished journals.

“Our intention to evolve the enterprise integration capabilities to include integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX is a natural step in Wonderware’s longstanding technology and business relationship with Microsoft,” Davidson said. “We believe this will provide a great combined solution for small to mid-size manufacturing customers.

“Our goal with ArchestrA technology is to offer comprehensive manufacturing enterprise software solutions that are low risk, highly sustainable, and faster and easier to implement. This cooperation is another great example of how Wonderware and Microsoft work together to add significant value to our mutual customers.”

In response to the continued growth in market demand for integrated business-to-manufacturing solutions, Wonderware and Microsoft collaborate to help customers improve manufacturing throughput and on-time delivery with more accurate, real-time information for production planning, execution and predictable order fulfillment. At the same time, reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) is achieved through the widespread use of industry standards and the re-usability of engineering and best practices.

Wonderware’s production and performance management software solutions include a complete range of manufacturing execution system (MES) and reporting and analysis applications that give manufacturers the freedom, flexibility and scalability to adapt to local plant requirements and budgets, while simultaneously supporting multi-plant standardization initiatives aimed at operational excellence and higher corporate profitability.

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Dennis Brandl and Dave Emerson; 2007 Tom Fisher Award Winners

Dennis Brandl, Principal Consultant of BR&L Consulting, Inc., and Dave Emerson, Principal System Architect, Yokogawa Corporation of America, have been cited for the Thomas G. Fisher award for their outstanding contribution to the ISA-88 and ISA-95 specifications. Their collaboration, leadership and dedicated service in the development of the ISA-88 Batch Control Systems and ISA-95 Enterprise/Control Integration standards committees has earned them worldwide recognition and enrollment as life members of WBF.

Brandl and Emerson jointly worked with the WBF XML Working Group to produce the Batch Markup Language (BatchML) and the Business-To-Manufacturing Markup Language (B2MML). BatchML is an XML schema implementation of the ISA-88 Batch Control System standard and B2MML is an XML schema implementation of the ISA-95 Enterprise/Control Integration standard.

WBF's Thomas G. Fisher Award was established in 2003 to honor Thomas G. Fisher, a former WBF Chairman and tireless contributor to efforts to improve batch manufacturing standards and methods. It recognizes outstanding leadership in the field of manufacturing process operation and control. Only two other individuals have ever been recognized with this coveted award.

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OAGIS Release 9.2 Featuring ISA95 Business Object Documents Now Generally Available

Research Triangle Park, NC (3 March 2008) - OAGi, the Open Applications Group, announced the general availability of OAGIS Release 9.2. This release of OAGIS is backwardly compatible to OAGIS 9.0 and 9.1, and features the ISA95 Business Object Documents related to production performance and production schedule.

"Our OAGi members really drive the direction of the standard," said OAGi CEO David Connelly. "And they have told us that ISA95 is very important to them, so we are pleased to be able to partner with ISA to deliver these new BODs as part of OAGIS 9.2."

ISA95 is a multi-part standards effort that defines an abstract model of the enterprise, including manufacturing control functions and business functions, and its information exchange. The standard works to define electronic information exchange between the manufacturing control functions and other enterprise functions including data models and exchange definitions.

"The ISA95 committee is thrilled to have our standards included in the OAGIS 9.2 release," said ISA95 chair Keith Unger. "ISA95 has improved the processes of many users, and we're confident that the OAGIS standard will utilize our work to continue that mission."

OAGIS 9.2 is an enhancement release that includes full support for the UN/CEFACT/ISO Core Components Technical Specification, CCTS 2.01, harmonized Core Components from UN/CEFACT TBG17, many enhancements for manufacturing functionality, and technical improvements to better support Web Services and to make OAGIS easier to use. The standard includes 494 business object documents, 79 Nouns, and one new Verb, the Notify Verb.

OAGi was formed in 1994 as the first post-EDI organization focusing on the improvement of application integration. The group promotes business process interoperability for both inter & intra enterprise business processes and encourages the creation standards to assist organizations in achieving connectivity and multiple-source integration.

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Pictures exhibition Industry & ICT

Click here for the pictures of the Industry & ICT exhibition

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