by Gary Mintchell | Apr 23, 2025 | Software, Standards, Sustainability
While I am on a standards reporting kick, this news reflects the growing collaboration among formerly competitive standards development organizations. I wrote recently about how OPAF is actively taking an end user view into standards collaboration and rationalization. Working together usually brings benefits to users.
From the statement of purpose: Accurate energy consumption data is essential for companies aiming to achieve climate-neutral production. To support this goal, a consortium of organizations has recently published a groundbreaking specification for interoperable and efficient energy management in industrial and process automation.
\A key goal of the mechanical and plant engineering industry is to achieve climate-neutral production in the future. This effort is supported by the European Union’s European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. In order to achieve this goal and implement many other use cases, accurate data on energy consumption in production is crucial. The consortium, consisting of the organizations ODVA, OPC Foundation, PI and VDMA, has now jointly published version 1.0.0 of their groundbreaking specification for interoperable and efficient energy management in industrial automation and process automation. This group is chaired by the VDMA.
Dietmar Bohn, Managing Director of PNO, explains: “The measurement and analysis of energy consumption in machines and systems is an extremely important topic for the future. We are pleased to make an active contribution to this important initiative to optimize energy consumption and thereby reduce the harmful effects on the environment caused by waste and surplus.”
This specification defines a standardized information model based on OPC UA that enables comprehensive energy management in industrial automation. “This Power Consumption Management collaboration ensures that end users have a highly standardized and interoperable means of achieving their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals,” explains Dr. Al Beydoun, President and CEO of ODVA.
The introduction of this standard will make energy management in industry considerably easier: companies can now record, analyze and use precise and consistent energy data even more efficiently in order to further increase their energy efficiency. This not only helps to reduce operating costs, but also to reduce the ecological footprint. Standardization makes it possible to implement innovative technologies and best practices faster and more effectively, which contributes to more sustainable and environmentally friendly production in the long term.
The specification essentially comprises two main content fields: Firstly, monitoring, i.e. the display of all types of energy consumption, including electrical energy as well as energy from air, water or coal. Secondly, standby management, which is understood to mean the control and display of various energy-saving modes on machines and components. It is based on the results of the research project “Development of energy management interfaces for IoT technologies (IoTEnRG)”. “The aim of the IoTEnRG research project was to make the results available to industry. We were able to contribute our results directly to the Joint Working Group and thus significantly accelerate the development of the OPC UA Companion Specification,” says Prof. Dr. Niemann from the Institute for Sensor Technology and Automation at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover.
“For digitalization, we need an agreement on a common understanding and description of data, including in the energy sector. OPC UA provides exactly that. I am proud that with this joint group, we can also contribute to the energy transition and thus promote optimized energy savings through standardized and efficient monitoring,” says Stefan Hoppe, President of the OPC Foundation.
The VDMA has defined a fundamental standard for the entire mechanical and plant engineering industry, known as “OPC UA for Machinery”. Various functional building blocks are specified in this standard. A new building block for energy management is being developed based on the publication. “The four organizations have been working hard to harmonize and standardize information on energy consumption in manufacturing. This is an excellent first step towards defining an upcoming OPC UA Building Block for mechanical engineering that will bring the machine and plant manufacturing industry a big step closer to the goal of climate-neutral production,” says Andreas Faath, director of the VDMA Machine Information Interoperability department.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 23, 2025 | Software, Standards
I have mixed feelings toward standards organizations and consortia. Some engineers use their work to build systems. I’m never sure what the final benefit is. Some have built technology in everyday use—OPC, ODVA, FieldComm (HART, FDT), Profinet. Some publish papers that I have hear practical outcomes emanating from.
Yet, I still report on some of these. You never know how some engineers may benefit from the work while building their systems.
This news (I’m catching up on news that came my way while traveling and thinking about what I learned there) comes from The Digital Twin Consortium (DTC), a unit of the Object Management Group. My last two trips and several subsequent interviews and press events all worked in the term Digital Twin somewhere in the discussion. So, it’s relevant.
The Digital Twin Consortium (DTC) published a whitepaper titled Spatially Intelligent Digital Twin Capabilities and Characteristics to help business executives, enterprise, business, and solution architects, system designers, and developers understand the base concept of spatial information relative to the capabilities and characteristics used to describe locational intelligence in the context of digital twin capabilities. The concepts described in the whitepaper apply to a broad spectrum of digital twin use cases, industries, and disciplines.
The whitepaper provides organizations guidance to:
- Document the capabilities and resulting value streams provided through the ability to visualize, understand, and analyze the geospatial locational characteristics of real-world entities and conditions.
- Understand the distinction between different forms of locational representations, including geometric (3D models), spatial, and geospatial models.
- Document the key characteristics of locational representations in a digital twin so organizations can consistently capture locational attributes, enabling digital twin system-to-system integration.
- Capture the Spatially Intelligent Digital Twin’s locational characteristics in the context of capabilities using the DTC’s Capabilities Periodic Table (CPT).
By completing the steps outlined in the white paper, organizations can define locational capabilities and data requirements for their digital twins. They can design, develop, and operate digital twins that meet organizational needs and provide business value.
The Digital Twin Consortium Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) Working Group prepared the whitepaper. Download the DTC website’s Spatially Intelligent Digital Twin Capabilities and Characteristics whitepaper. Become a DTC member and join the global leaders in driving digital twin evolution and enabling technology. DTC is a program of Object Management Group.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 21, 2025 | Process Control, Standards
The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) provides annual updates at a forum in Orlando in February. I missed that meeting, however recently receiving an update from Aneil Ali, The Open Group OPAF Director.
OPAF members have worked diligently for years developing a standard of standards in order to break the proprietary grip of specific process automation suppliers—hence the word “Open” in the name. Owner/operators facing needed technology upgrades balked at the price of rip-and-replace automation.
I have seen these efforts a few times in the past. The results have provided benefits, but usually far from the vision of the founders.
This organization continues to move forward. They have released version 2.1 of the standard, launched a product certification program, and have witnessed some products making it through the system.
The headline news is ExxonMobil’s Lighthouse project. They have operationalized the OPAF system at a resin finishing plant in Baton Rouge at tail end of 2024. Engineers beat deadlines for startup. They have published some good lessons learned from the project. It’s the first deployment of a commercial OPAF system making money for the owner/operator.
One complaint levied over the years concerned the proliferation of standards, many of which are not interoperable. OPAF has addressed standards harmonization hosting for the fourth year standards harmonizing meetings in Eastern Hemisphere. Recently one was in Germany with FieldComm, OPC UA, Namur, OPAF, PI. They typically meet for three days looking for where there is a risk for divergence and potential problems for endusers.
Ali noted the OPAF have started a regular cadence of user meetings as an effort to get them together to air wishes/desires. These thoughts can be distilled to assignments for working groups.
Ali concluded, “The Forum always open to receiving guidance and feedback from end users not in the ecosystem—we’re not a closed club.”
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 1, 2024 | Automation, Commentary, News, Standards
This second in the series of posts on The Open Process Automation Forum concerns an in-depth analysis of a proposed system orchestration standard written by Harry Forbes of the ARC Advisory Group. This was written for Red Hat, but you can download a copy.
SYSTEM ORCHESTRATION FOR OPEN INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
ARC Whitepaper August 2024
Forbes looks at OPAF’s latest intention:
The Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) recently announced its intention to base its System Orchestration O-PAS specification on the OASIS TOSCA standard. In the context of open heterogenous industrial automation systems, the term “System Orchestration” has a very broad meaning. It includes automated configuration, deployment, coordination, integration, and management of distributed systems and services. System Orchestration is essential for successfully managing complex software environments in modern, cloud-native application architectures. As industrial automation adopts these same architectures, it will also become critical for the industrial automation systems of the Future.
It has been too many years since that first meeting with OPAF leaders in Florida. I seem to remember that they had hired a consulting group (Nassim Nicholas Taleb notes that mathematicians begin with a problem and create a solution while consultants begin with a solution and create a problem) who had ties to the aerospace industry. The foundation standards came from there. I’m not surprised by this OPAF proposal.
Forbes continues:
Over the last 20 years in the IT and cloud computing space, many software tools have been developed and commercialized to serve these types of functions. These tools originated in open source, and several are now supported by commercial suppliers. Some have large installed bases in major enterprises. They also have large and active end user communities. They do not comply with a single standard, but rather support distinct Domain Specific Languages (DSL). During the same period, the vendor-neutral TOSCA specification has been employed in academic research and reportedly in some proprietary software in the telecom industry but has had negligible impact in commercial markets.
I side with Forbes in this preliminary conclusion:
Open automation supporters should leverage the large existing IT communities, human talent pools, and documented best practices that leading commercial products provide. While this precludes adopting a single standard, the OPAF could instead focus on carefully defining orchestration use cases for O-PAS systems, enabling end users to implement them with the commercial software that OT suppliers and industrial automation end users both prefer.
The entire whitepaper is worth a read.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 1, 2024 | Process Control, Standards, Technology
I have two pieces of news regarding The Open Process Automation Forum. These came just as I was wondering if the organization had been making any more progress. I have unfortunately seen enough of these open automation standards attempts to wonder if this one will go much farther—especially given the maturity of the market.
This group started as a response to the high cost of upgrading automation systems in the field in the process industries. Where I see more opportunities would be in the discrete manufacturing area where the old trend of larger and more complex systems seem to be reversing to a more manageable size for the automation with the requirement to tie the systems to information networks.
My second piece, following this one, reports on an analysis of OPAF’s proposed system orchestration standard.
Philosophy aside, OPAF has made another step forward by launching the O-PAS Certification Program.
The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) has developed the O-PAS Standard, a standard of The Open Group, which uses existing and emerging standards whenever possible, making it a standard of standards. The standard enables the development of fit-for-purpose systems consisting of cohesive functional elements acquired from independent suppliers and integrated easily, via a modular architecture characterized by open standard interfaces between elements.
O-PAS certified products allow end users to build open, interoperable, and secure systems with products from multiple suppliers, offering greater flexibility in obsolescence management, system upgrades, and technology infusion.
Jacco Opmeer, Co-Chair of the Open Process Automation Forum at The Open Group and Principal Automation Engineer at Shell says, “Certification provides the credibility that the fundamental qualities open systems will bring are measurable, and this will support the realization of many of the values the Open Process Automation Forum has been promoting.”
Hideki Murata, head of the Systems Integration Planning Dept. at Yokogawa Electric Corporation, commented, “Yokogawa welcomes the O-PAS Certification Program as this will allow us to officially certify our products designed for the O-PAS Standard. We expect the program will accelerate the development of the O-PAS ecosystem by enabling end users to select certified products with confidence. This will help the industry move forward with open, interoperable, and secure products and systems.”
Within the O-PAS Standard, there are Profiles that define the various segments of the architecture. The O-PAS Certification Program is based on these Profiles and for each Profile, the Supplier must attain independent verification of its claims of conformance. The Connectivity Framework and the Global Discovery Server Profiles are currently ready to be certified against, and The Open Group is anticipating that more Profiles will be available by the end of the year.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 7, 2024 | Edge, Operations Management, Standards
ZEDEDA works at the Edge—they call it Edge Orchestration–and is joining a standards body. I am not sanguine about these interoperability organizations. Perhaps those of you who use these tools in manufacturing or production could send a note about if (or how) you use these industry standards. I know that the IT industry makes great use of them. I am not so sure about the OT side.
At any rate, there is a new initiative underway that appears to duplicate the work of EdgeX Foundry that was begun several years ago. This one sponsored by the Linux Foundation is called Margo.
This news from ZEDEDA announces that it has joined the Linux Foundation’s Margo project as a steering committee member. Margo is a new open-source project focused on creating open standards for interoperability at the edge for industrial automation environments.
ZEDEDA joins founding members ABB, Capgemini, Microsoft, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and Siemens in the Margo project. Darren Kimura, ZEDEDA’s president and COO, will be the company’s representative on the steering committee, which also includes a representative from Intel. ZEDEDA co-founder and CTO Erik Nordmark will be part of the technical working group, while senior director of marketing communications and partner marketing Sarah Beaudoin will be part of the marketing working group.
The Margo project represents a significant industry collaboration to define mechanisms for interoperable orchestration of edge applications, workloads and devices. It will deliver the promise of interoperability through an open standard, reference implementation, and comprehensive compliance testing toolkit.
