Research Triangle Park, NC (31 October 2007) - A new blog, hosted by Control Engineering magazine, focuses on increasing efficiency and profitability in manufacturing. Blog topics will center on the development and implementation of WBF Make2Pack, ISA88 Part 5, and related standards efforts.
The blog, titled "Standard Profits: Make2Pack and ISA88," encourages readers to ask questions and make suggestions to help the standard's development, and to offer advice on implementation and gaining a competitive advantage. Links to other resources and organizations are also included on the blog.
David Chappell, Make2Pack chair, and other ISA88 Part 5 committee members provide intelligence and specific links for the blog, spanning OMAC, WBF, and ISA standards efforts. The Make2Pack and ISA88 Part 5 standards aim to streamline information flow from continuous or batch processes through discrete operations, such as packaging, and has the ability to cut overall automation costs in half.
About the effort, Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering editor in chief, says, "Modular designs, facilitated by a variety of standards organizations, can help OEMs, end users, and system integrators gain efficiency. I hope this blog will help show how the growing ISA88 standard, once only considered just for batch processing, can help throughout manufacturing." Hoske continues, "I've followed these efforts for several years. Those involved are incredibly passionate about their involvement, because they know implementations will bring incredible savings and efficiencies."
Chappell says the efforts go beyond batch and packaging with intention to "develop conceptual models and terminology for industrial automation that can be consistently applied to the total manufacturing process," to increase manufacturing and packaging efficiency.
September 2007; The OMAC Packaging Workgroup is in the process of moving the PackML and PackTags guidelines as an implementation specification of the ISA88 standard for Discrete Machines. Joining forces with the ISA88 Part 5 (Make2Pack) committee, the workgroup has reached an agreement with the Part 5 Committee to incorporate PackML and PackTags into the ISA88 Part 5 standard as a Technical Report, which provides guidance relative to the implementation of the standard.
Moving PackML and PackTags from a guideline to a standard is a key objective for the OMAC Packaging Workgroup for this year. Moving the two under an ISA standard should accelerate adoption of PackML and PackTags by users and packaging original equipment manufacturers. These guidelines make packaging operations more effective by simplifying customization and integration, which enables world-class packaging operations. When implemented, packaging companies and their partners gain a competitive advantage as they leverage an integrated supply chain to optimize operations.
During the development of the latest version of PackML and PackTags, Version 3, the PackML subgroup made changes to better align with the ISA88 standard for use in the process area. Earlier this year, they initiated conference calls and a face-to-face meeting at Hannover Fair to address harmonization with the Weihenstephan University in Europe, who developed a production data acquisition standard for the bottling industry. Some of the changes to better harmonize with Weihenstephan have been incorporated in the technical report just completed as part of ISA88 Part 5.