Chemical industry: Plant asset lifecycle management is “next frontier”

By Control Engineering Staff December 5, 2007

The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), a not-for-profit global trade and standards organization, and ISA, a global, nonprofit standards organization, announced at the November CIDX general meeting that they have struck an agreement that will formalize information sharing and benefits between memberships as both plan standards for plant asset lifecycle management strategies.

“Plant asset lifecycle management is the next frontier in operations profitability for chemical companies,” says CIDX executive director John Wheeler. “Standards that are being developed today in this arena will ensure the smooth and consistent flow of critical information between plant assets and enterprise management systems. It is an enormous value opportunity for our members and our industry.”

The new agreement formalizes CIDX’s participation and affiliation with ISA and the Open O&M Initiative, a standards industry consortium working to create system and data interoperability standards in manufacturing operations, maintenance and enterprise asset management.

“This agreement provides ISA an avenue for reaching and educating chemical companies on the interoperability standards that are being developed. With the CIDX leadership, we hope to see chemical companies become early adopters of these standards because of the intrinsic value they offer,” says T.S. “Chip” Lee, ISA director of publishing services.

The nature of the CIDX/ISA agreement includes:

CIDX involvement in and endorsement of ISA 88 (batch control standard) and ISA 95 (enterprise and control integration standard);

Two ISA limited memberships for CIDX staff;

Multiple CIDX limited memberships for ISA staff in order to participate on relevant CIDX plant asset lifecycle management projects;

Special membership pricing to CIDX members for ISA membership; and,

Joint activities between the two groups, including bi-annual meetings to discuss the activities outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding and subjects of mutual interest between ISA and CIDX.

—Edited by Peter Welander, process industries editor, PWelander@cfemedia.com , Control Engineering Weekly News