Siemens, SAP embrace ISA S95 standard to tie business and production processes
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 7/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Siemens Automation & Energy decided to bundle its first-ever North American manufacturing execution system (MES) conference with its Process Automation User Conference in May in Tampa, Fla., giving 500 joint attendees the opportunity to view the company's integrated portfolio vision, including links between the control and enterprise layers.
Siemens has invested $250 million in MES acquisitions and another $200 million in integration since 2001 to create its SIMATIC IT automation system. Siemens also partners with SAP to leverage the ISA S95 standard for interoperability. The MES market—long a case of "wait until next year," according to Bill Swanton, VP, Boston-based AMR Research—is poised for growth given these new strategies.
"In the past, small MES vendors couldn't get the resources needed to grow," asserts Swanton. "There was only so much scope they could ever hope to achieve. Now they've all been bought up. What you see now is a big step change. It's a different way to go to market."
Chad Couch, VP of manufacturing systems for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods, agrees. "ISA S95 is the glue that pulls it all together," says Couch, who gave a status report at the conference concerning Tyson's eventual 100+ plant SIMATIC IT/SAP rollout.
Couch says a one-line, one-plant pilot revealed an integrated MES/ERP solution would provide the process velocity needed to reduce costs and improve quality based on real-time, actionable intelligence. That pilot actually swayed Tyson senior management, which was originally skeptical of MES. The problem now, Couch says, is whether his team can ramp fast enough to meet the clamoring demand.
The ISA S95 standard segments the manufacturing enterprise into four levels: Levels 1 and 2 focus on plant floor automation control; Level 3 and 4 address MES and ERP, respectively.
The standard specifies the functions within—and communications between—Levels 3 and 4, aided by the business-to-manufacturing markup language standard—or B2MML—for definitions and data format for information exchange. The goal is to seamlessly coordinate business and production processes.
The partnership between Siemens and SAP is unique, concludes Swanton. "These guys have been working at this for some time. Having ISA S95 as a shared vision is very good."
