Products will flow more efficiently from production through packaging as those on standards committees and others continue to refine the details of ISA-88 Part 5. Machine builders, users, automation vendors, system integrators and others are providing input for “Batch Control Part 5: Working Draft 03, June 2007” via the “Comment Form, Working Draft 03, June 2007,” available at the “Technical Information” area of www.make2pack.org.

In addition to refining the draft for a target January 2008 vote, the committee also is working on a second-generation demonstration of the technology this fall, on-site in a Procter & Gamble lab. It’s all part of the effort to “put science around magic dust, applying engineering discipline in consistent way, viewing and interacting with reusable components,” said Make2Pack co-chairman David A. Chappell, in a recent Part 5 conference call and online committee meeting.

The ISA-88 standard, originally designed for batch, has become useful throughout automation, discrete, batch, and continuous control. The technical area of the Make2Pack site includes functional and graphic descriptions for batch and machine models and a graphic description of continuous model, along with other resources.

You need not be on the committee to comment or to reference the resources. The Part 5 draft is 56 pages of great reading, with diagrams, tables, and models. Print a copy, write in the margins, fill out the form, and send in your comments. Need convincing? Related implementations suggest cost savings of 50% are possible through greater reuse, less rework, and better information flow. According to the draft, here’s some of what’s involved in Part 5 efforts.

Refine the ISA 88 models for automation across all types of manufacturing that will encourage and support a layered and hierarchical architecture that provides modularity and common methods for the automation modules to interact with one another. This model will encompass the control module, equipment module and unit layers in the ISA 88 physical model.

Refine the definitions in ISA 88 Part 1 that relate to three different types of control: a) Coordination control; b) Procedural control; and c) Basic control

Develop a method or approach that will guide the development of a library of automation components which can be supported by all automation vendors to provide a common base of functionality. This could include:

a) A method to describe the command and control functional names and the behavior of the automation function in a public environment.

b) A method to describe each instance of a control function such that an external function outside of the native environment of the actual logic that is used to implement that instance of a control function can interact with it in a standardized manner.

c) Methods that are consistent with other evolving standards to support vertical integration of these control functions.

Develop physical demo examples that support the concepts of this standard and can be used to clearly communicate the concepts and approaches for batch, continuous, and packaging, complete with a) process diagrams and operational descriptions and b) some working components for demonstration purposes. Chappell expects work on this to continue through WBF, ISA, and Automation Federation.

Refine the definitions of modes to support use across all of manufacturing. Identify the use of a “mode-matrix” to be consistent with current use in manufacturing.

Develop an ISA-88 technical report for early release on the OMAC PackML Version 3.0 standard, which will eventually be incorporated into the S88 Part 5 standard.

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