ISA NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Infantino
(919) 990-9287
jinfantino@isa.org
ISA and OAGi Establish Memorandum of Understanding
Research Triangle Park, NC (29 January 2007) - ISA and OAGi are pleased to announce they have entered into an agreement to cooperate on joint projects and exchange standards documentation. The first step taken under this cooperative agreement includes OAGi's commitment to express the ISA-95 data models in the OAGIS standard as both UML data models and OAGIS XML Schema definitions known as BODs, and to recommend enhancements to the ISA-95 standard based on the content and experience of the OAGi constituency.
A year ago, ISA and OAGi announced their involvement in the Manufacturing Interoperability Guideline Working Group, a collaborative venture of ISA, MIMOSA, OAGi, OPC, and WBF. The group is supporting development of an industry guideline that defines generic business process models for data exchange between manufacturing operations management and business support systems.
"This memorandum arises out of the agreement to harmonize our standards as a critical step in accomplishing the goals of the Manufacturing Interoperability Guideline Working Group," said ISA Director of Publishing Services Chip Lee.
"This additional commitment from ISA and OAGi furthers the objectives of the Manufacturing Interoperability Working Group and will help in the development of industry guidelines that customers have asked for," said Gary Sullivan of iBASEt and chair of the Manufacturing Interoperability Guideline Working Group.
The Open Applications Group is a not-for-profit open standards development organization building a standard called the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS). The OAGIS standard covers data exchange requirements for business systems and applications, including manufacturing and operations management systems.
The ISA-95 standard for manufacturing planning and operations and the related ISA-SP95 committee have contributed significant data exchange content and models supporting manufacturing industry. Because ISA's standard has been historically used in process manufacturing, and the OAGIS standard has typically been utilized in discrete manufacturing, an opportunity exists to further both standards through cooperation and refinement.
"The ISA-95 content is very important to all of the manufacturing end users I have spoken with," said David Connelly, CEO of the Open Applications Group. "The members and Board of Directors of the OAGi are pleased to be expressing this work in the OAGIS standard, and we believe it is the customer who wins in this tremendous example of standards organization collaboration."
In order to be in compliance with the UN/CEFACT Core Components technology, and also to avoid data duplication and redundancy in the two standards, the ISA-95 and OAGIS data models may have to be modified from time to time. Through their staff and project teams, ISA and OAGi have agreed to collaborate and help reconcile any differences.
"I'm excited about the expansion of the ISA SP95 work to a broader base that applies equally to the discrete, process and mixed mode manufacturing industries. Standards convergence enables customers to focus resources on delivery of value added application deployment and accelerates the underlying standards development and adoption lifecycle," said Keith Unger of Stone Technologies, Chairman of ISA SP95.
As part of the agreement, OAGi and ISA will exchange non-voting memberships on a no-fee basis. This enables OAGi and ISA staff and officers to attend each other's regularly scheduled meetings and participate in standard's development activities. Voting memberships remain independent for the two organizations.
The two organizations have also agreed to share the official minutes of all working group meetings associated with the program, which will help to increase communication and keep all parties updated on the status of the projects.
"Harmonization of these standards is critical for end users in the industry," said Pat Snack, AIAG Executive Loan, General Motors. "This effort will bring great value to the standards for the end users who will eventually implement and rely on them in the industrial environment."
The agreement does not preclude any coordination and cooperation by either organization with other groups.
About ISA
Founded in 1945, ISA (www.isa.org) is a leading, global, nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for automation by helping over 30,000 worldwide members and other professionals solve difficult technical problems, while enhancing their leadership and personal career capabilities. Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, ISA develops standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; and hosts the largest conference and exhibition for automation professionals in the Western Hemisphere. ISA is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org).
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