ISO/TC 184/SC 5/WG 1

1999-December-14/16

Paris La Defense, France

Jim Nell, WG 1 Convenor, opened the meeting at 1030 on 1999-December-14. Attending were:

Jean-Jacques Michel France, host
Peter Bernus Australia, Co chairman IFAC/IFIP Task Force
Kurt Kosanke Germany (except Thursday afternoon)
Jim Nevins US
David Shorter UK
Jim Nell TC 184 SC 5 WG 1 Convenor
Greg Winchester TC 184 SC 5 WG 1 Secretary
Marc Hawa Spain, IFAC/IFIP (Thursday morning only)
Michael Petit Belgium, IFAC/IFIP (Thursday only)
Vincent Chapurlat France, IFAC/IFIP (Thursday only)
Francois Vernadat France, IFAC/IFIP (Thursday morning only)
Richard Weston UK, IFAC/IFIP (Thursday afternoon only)

The Thursday, 16 December session was joint with the IFAC/IFIP Task Force led by Peter Bernus.

The group approved the agenda (N432) with the following changes:

• Item 5: change "combine work" to "coordinate work" as a more accurate description of the proposed relationship between SC 5 and CEN TC 310
• Item 7c: change "ENV 12 204" to "CEN-originated work" since both ENV 12 204 and ENV 40 003 will be discussed
• Item 4: add a report on ISO TC 184 SC 4 WG 10

The group approved the minutes of the London, Ontario meeting (N430) as written.

• UEML (Unified Enterprise Modelling Language)
• Extensions of GERAM (Generalized Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology)
• Modular-reference models for enterprises

The next Task Force meeting will likely be in June 2000 in Limerick, Ireland.

Greg Winchester reported that the ISA (the US-based Instrument Society of Measurement and Control) SP 95 committee has recently completed draft 14 of the first part of its "Enterprise-Control System Integration" standard covering terminology and models. ISA has deemed this effort to be stable enough to consider its introduction for international standardization. The SC 5 secretariat has written to ISA asking that they consider SC 5 as a venue for this standardization. WG 1 members questioned whether SC 5 wants to be in the business of standardizing reference models (draft 14 is based on the Purdue Reference Model). ACTION: Jim Nell to raise this issue as part of his WG 1 convenor’s report to SC5.

David Shorter reported that the most recent work of CEN/TC 310 WG 1 was EMEIS, but is now engaged in a "preliminary enquiry" regarding ENVs 12 204 and 40 003. The results of this enquiry are not yet known, however of nine CEN members responding earlier to this issue, six have recommended revising these ENVs. TC 310’s current position is that revision of these standards be done as a parallel project with ISO TC 184 SC 5. ACTION: David Shorter to prepare the ISO-CEN enquiry to proposed CEN-led parallel projects for revisions to ENV 12 204 and ENV 40 003. This proposal would be circulated for comment by early January 2000 to CEN TC 310 and the official roster of SC 5 WG 1, and would be based on comments made by WG 1 (see item 5 below) and by CEN members.

Kurt Kosanke reported briefly reported on CIMOSA’s activities regarding conferences, publications, and support of ENV 40 003.

Jean-Jacques Michel reported that a preliminary work item proposal for PSL (as an ontology) was circulated within SC 4 to no clear reaction. However Mr. Michel, as convenor of SC 4 WG 8, had indicated his interest in this work. WG 1 members noted a problem with standardizing on an ontology since each application is likely to have its own ontology. The group felt that the best approach is for standardization of a meta language; i.e., a framework for PSL. Greg Winchester pointed out that SC 5 WG 4 has an approved work item on manufacturing-software-capabilities profiling, which will probably need an ontology specific to its domain.

No expert present was able to report on this activity.

David Shorter reported on SC 4 WG 10 who is working on STEP modellization and integration of data structures. More information on this work can be found at www.pdtsolutions.co.uk/ideas/.

Members further discussed the enquiries that need to be created as part of the ISO-CEN Vienna Agreement concerning parallel projects. WG 1 felt that it can play a role in helping formulate these enquiries, which will be circulated to TC 310 and SC 5 members. Guidance given to David Shorter, editor of these enquiries, included the following:

• CEN 40 003 should be positioned within the GERA requirements, being an implementation of these requirements for a modelling framework
• CEN 40 003 needs to be extended to cover the concept of life cycle
• The CEN 40 003 structure should be aligned with ISO 15704
• Retitle CEN 40 003 as "A Framework for Model-based Integration"
• Both CEN 40 003 and CEN 12 204 need to explain how partial models are to be handled
• CEN 12 204 constructs must allow modelling of human processes
• CEN 12 204 must accommodate serial relationships of activities (i.e. a process starting other processes)
• The "order" and "product" constructs in CEN 12 204 are quite different and this needs to be resolved
• CEN 12 204 should address how to turn a rule book into a process
• CEN 12 204 needs to allow definitions of capabilities
• CEN 12 204 needs to support process analysis
• The constructs of CEN 12 204 need to be extended per updates made to CEN 40 003

Since ISA has not yet committed to introducing its models and terminology draft for enterprise-control system integration to any ISO/IEC committee, no specific role for WG 1 was foreseen, other than acting as a catalyst for an SC 5 plenary discussion on standardization of reference models.

Greg Winchester mentioned that the FDIS version of ISO 15704 has been submitted to ISO Central Secretariat for balloting to SC 5. No conclusions were reached regarding an amendment.

WG 1 felt that a proposal could be made by early February 2000 such that SC 5 voting on the proposal could be completed prior to the WG 1 meeting in Kyoto in May 2000. However, concern was expressed that the proposal would not be for an international standard, but for a technical report since such a project must address the state-of-the-art. This state will change quickly, making development and acceptance of an international standard difficult. On the other hand, the group realized that support for a technical report may materialize easier if the work was aimed a producing a standard.

WG 1 also felt that any proposal needs to careful about what the term "interoperability" means and that WG 1 should check definitions of the term in other standards. The proposal should identify a project to cover the following items:

• Processes that mediate on a case-by-case basis
• Communications acts that invoke the use cases identified at the last WG 1 meeting (see N 430);
• Defining a repository process
• Capabilities of the processes themselves (e.g. can they be interrupted, what services can they perform?)
• The "signature" of the process (i.e. what information does it provide and what information does it require)
• Establishing a common objective between two parties and their ability to share information and synchronize their processes

Members then began to edit WG 1 N433 as an aid to better defining the new-work-item proposal. ACTION: Jim Nell to revise N433 and circulate it to the WG 1 listserve for comments prior to submitting it to the SC 5 secretariat.

Since this project is still at stage 0 with the WG 4 convenorship issue yet to be settled, there appears to be no short-term opportunities for WG 1 in this area. Thus, no conclusions were reached on this project.

Jean-Jacques indicated that he will begin discussions on PSL ontology in SC 4/WG 8. Based on earlier discussions between the SC 4 and SC 5 leadership, SC 4/WG 8 would be transformed into a joint SC 4-SC 5 WG to deal with PSL. All WG 1 members expressing an interest in this project would be included on the roster of this JWG. This JWG would be tasked with drafting the new work item proposal, which is being targeted for completion by the time of the SC 4 meeting in either June 2000 SC 4 in Bordeaux or October 2000 in Charleston. It was not yet settled on who will be the administrative SC for this JWG; that is, which SC will vote on all stages of the project. However, among SC 4 P-members, the U.S., Canada, and France have said they would vote to participate in the project, and possible participation was expressed from Japan, Germany, U.K., Switzerland, and Italy.

Based on a draft prepared by NIST, SC4 developed the following elaborate structure for a PSL standard:

• Part 1: General overview
• Part 10 series: "Core" and "outer core" extensions
• Part 20 series: Mappings (for example to EXPRESS)
• Part 30 series: Implementation guidelines
• Part 40 series: PSL extensions

2000-May-15/16 WG 1
2000-May-17 Joint WG 1 and SC 4/WG 8; WG 4

A major part of the Thursday joint session with the IFAC-IFIP Task Force was taken up with a presentation on UEML. It was mentioned earlier that WG 1’s proposed project on rules for manufacturing process interoperability might be used as input to the UEML effort. There was consensus that UEML might be a project proposed for SC 5 WG 1 work sometime in the future.

The Task Force discussed the ISO/IEC JTC 1 CD 15288 on system life-cycle processes. The group questioned whether there is benefit in mapping this work to enterprise integration. WG 1 members were asked by the Task Force to contact their respective national committees by early February 2000 to determine the potential benefit of this mapping, what is needed to achieve that benefit, and from where the resources will come.

Upon thanking Jean-Jacques Michel for the excellent arrangements and hosting, the convenor adjourned the meeting on Thursday, 16 December 1999 at 1500.

PREPARED BY: Greg Winchester, WG 1 Secretary

EDITED BY: Jim Nell, WG 1 Convenor