Research Triangle Park, N.C., November 20 - The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), a not-for-profit global trade and standards organization, and ISA announced today at the CIDX General Meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., an agreement that will formalize the sharing of information and benefits between both memberships.
"Plant asset lifecycle management (PALM) is the next frontier in operations profitability for chemical companies," said 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."
Today's agreement formalizes CIDX's participation and affiliation with ISA and The Open O&M Initiative, a standards industry consortium, which is 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," said T.S. "Chip" Lee, ISA director of publishing services.
The nature of the CIDX/ISA agreement includes:
1. CIDX involvement in and endorsement of ISA 88 (batch control standard) and ISA 95 (enterprise and control integration standard)
2. Two ISA limited memberships to CIDX staff
3. Multiple CIDX limited memberships to ISA staff in order to participate on relevant CIDX PALM projects
4. Special membership pricing to CIDX members for ISA membership.
Joint activities between the two groups will include bi-annual meetings
to discuss the activities outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding
and subjects of mutual interest between ISA and CIDX.