WBF: the most important organization you never heard of

WBF has a problem. It has had this problem ever since it was first formed... It is the most important automation organization on the planet, in terms of what it has done, and what it will do in the future for the practice of manufacturing automation... ...and nobody knows what it is.  WBF used to be called World Batch Forum, and was established to be the educational arm of ISA SP88, the batch standard committee. There were a whole bunch of reasons that seemed good at the time for doing it this way, entirely independent of ISA, but things have changed, and the Forum, now known simply as WBF, is back in the fold as part of the Automation Federation, a captive ISA organization. Please note that the word captive is discriptive, and not pejorative. Why is WBF so  important? The only way to make what we do as automation professionals visible to the financial community so they'll stop laying us off to increase productivity is to connect the data we control to the enterprise in such a way that the financial managers at the enterprise level both see it, believe it, and can use it. Years ago, the members of WBF realized this, and partnered with another important committee, ISA's SP95 to help create a description of how the manufacture of goods is done. SAP and Microsoft have signed on to this effort, but still, WBF isn't as well known as it should be, and there are virtually no attendees from the financial side of the enterprise-- and they should be here. Why? Because we are getting tired of saving their financial bacon, and having them get all the rewards, that's why.