This SC 5 strategic plan has been developed by the SC 5 Strategy Planning Group (SPG), which is the advisory body to SC 5 tasked to define and review SC 5’s standards strategy. The SPG will meet on an as-needed basis with an appropriate membership to ensure the strategic plan is relevant, focused, and enhances participation in the SC 5 work program.

This document is based on the strategic plan of TC 184 and takes into account input primarily from the following groups:

a) ISO/TC 184/SC 4/WG 8;

b) CEN/TC 310;

c) SC 5/WG 1;

d) ICEIMT Metrics;

e) CALS/HLSG;

f) ISO/TC 184/SC 1/WG 7;

g) ISO/TC 184/SC 4/WG 10;

h) ISO/TC 184/AG.

This document acknowledges that SC 5 has been chosen by TC 184 to provide the integrating overview across the areas of industrial automation identified in TC 184’s scope and strategic plan. As such, TC 184 will rely upon SC 5 as the developer of standards that integrate the standards of the other TC 184 SCs, as well as the standards of other relevant bodies. Therefore, this plan will make references to work under the responsibility of TC 184 SCs and other bodies, as SC 5 must also rely on these bodies to produce standards to fulfill SC 5’s stated objectives.

This strategic plan is a living document and shall be considered by the SC 5 Chairman as the guidelines for the development of architecture and communications standards required by the SC 5 P-members and the industrial automation and integration industry they serve. For users of these standards, this plan can be considered as a comprehensive summary and schedule of emerging SC 5 standards. This plan can also be used to identify potential and actual delays in the SC 5 standards development process and assist in the formulation of solutions to overcome these delays.  

The tasks associated with implementing this plan (with those responsible within SC 5 for these tasks shown in parentheses), are as follows:

a) Reporting of SC 5’s progress per the strategic plan (SC 5 Secretariat);

b) Analysis of progress reports and authorization of any necessary corrective actions (SC 5 P-members);

c) Standards development/revision (WGs or project leaders as assigned by SC 5 Secretariat);

d) Work/resources planning (SC 5 SPG). 

The following conditions are assumed for the planning period (3 to 6 years from now):

a) manufacturing enterprises, due to competition, must deliver increased customer satisfaction and quality, with increased efficiency, at lower production and ownership costs in a shorter lead time;

b) customers are moving away from traditional process-oriented standards to an overall performance-related approach to products, which gives businesses some flexibility in determining how the required performance is to be delivered;

c) industry is allocating more resources to increase its awareness of the status and usefulness of existing standards;

d) industry implementation of existing standards (which apply only to the current or next generation of systems) is at a low level, thus leading to a growing base of vendor-specific solutions.

e) the contents and descriptions in standards are very complex and not understandable to most experts in end-user organizations, and guidance and implementation documentation for these end users is generally poor, difficult to use, or non-existent;

f) in the planning period (3 to 6 years from now), computer and information technologies will continue to change and progress very rapidly;

g) the ISO Directives call for a maximum of three years from NP to FDIS approval, new standards proposals to be very well defined at the start, and, as is currently the case, a minimum of five countries to agree to participate (with individual experts identified) in new proposals before further standardization steps can occur. 

The following enterprise-level trends are expected based on the assumed conditions noted in 3.1:

a) there will be increased use of collaborative structures, involving partnerships, that may be created and dissolved rapidly to meet changing market needs;

b) the various business functions throughout the lifecycle of a product will be undertaken by increasingly integrated processes, which will continue to be optimized to drive down costs and timescales;

c) manufacturing equipment will need to be capable of being deployed more flexibly to support manufacture of a variety of products.

The following technologies and associated standards are expected to be needed to support the enterprise-level trends noted in 3.2:

a) specification of business information requirements and information flows optimized to form the backbone of both internal communication and delivery to the customer;

b) specification of the elements of manufacturing equipment that are designed for easy integration through local and remote networks;

c) modular sets of IT tools, used as building blocks, which can be assembled into systems with a minimum of integration costs;

d) simulation tools to model business processes and operations, and to evaluate the business impact of proposed changes;

e) real-time management and maintenance of assets, using multimedia technology for the delivery and presentation of information.

In general, the standardization process will need to make more efficient use of its resources, and to work to develop its market in parallel with the standards process. More specifically, the standardization process should provide for the following:

a) features and functionality that are based on actual and future needs of the users;

b) confirmation of industry interest through nomination of experts and/or endorsement of the need for the work;

c) funding resources that are managed and directed to match industry priorities;

d) cooperation with other standards bodies to avoid duplication and conflict;

e) development work undertaken with careful project planning using small working groups and using phases where first results can be achieved rapidly;

f) close cooperation with ongoing research and development work;

g) supplementary guidance information for industry (users and vendors) that can be given in an easily readable and understandable short form;

h) management of standards to ensure consistency of changes;

i) implementors involved from the start of the process, and pilot implementations encouraged in parallel with the standardization process;

j) monitoring of implementations and addressing of barriers to their progress by standards bodies.

The overall objective of SC5’s standardization activity is to ensure the following:

a) the work of SC5 supports and influences the TC184 strategic objectives;

b) the interests of SC5 P-members are served.

In addition to the stated responsibilities of TC184 appropriate to SC5 (see TC184/AG N153), SC 5 has the following responsibilities:

a) to work with TC184, its Advisory Group, and other bodies that identify and define standardization requirements in the area of integration (e.g., communications) and architecture for industrial automation;

b) to develop standards to enable integration of the control domain with other enterprise domains;

c) to work with bodies (e.g., CALS/HLSG, UN/EDIFACT) that coordinate standards in the area of electronic commerce relying on industrial automation standards;

d) to develop a framework for industrial automation profiles derived from the OSE guidelines developed by JTC1/SGFS;

e) to develop industrial automation application profiles that are based on IEC/ISO industrial automation standards, PASs, IT profiles, and OSI profiles;

f) ensure that resulting SC5-developed profiles enable interoperability and portability, and describes methods of conformance.

The title of SC 5 embodying the above responsibilities is as follows:

The scope of SC 5 embodying these responsibilities is as follows:

When considering new work item proposals and giving direction to its WGs, the first priority of SC 5 will be for standards that enable integration within the manufacturing domain. SC 5’s second priority will be for standards that enable integration of the manufacturing domain with other enterprise domains. Proposals not at all concerned with the manufacturing domain will not be considered by SC 5. 

To enable enterprise agility and extension through architecture, data/information model, physical model, and profile standards for the integration of systems within an enterprise and between enterprises.

Areas of work, along with their status and priority are shown in Table 1. 

To enable interworking of systems through communications standards that address meta-data and meta-information, negotiation/brokering, and representation.

Areas of work, along with their status and priority are shown in Table 2.

To ensure consistent, integrated standards that can be used by the industrial automation community, including other standards developers.

Areas of work, along with their status and priority are shown in Table 3.

To provide technical oversight on behalf of TC 184 concerning integration of areas of industrial automation identified by TC 184.

Areas of work, along with their status and priority are shown in Table 4.