- Standards
Summary
ISA108 has been working collaboratively with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) SC65E WG10 for several years to develop a series of standards and technical reports of the best practices and work processes for effective implementation, management, and use of diagnostics and other information provided by intelligent field devices. The intent is to gain the inherent increases in reliability that such devices bring through intelligent device management (IDM)—a multidisciplinary approach for managing intelligent devices through the facility, supplier, and technology lifecycles, independent of particular asset management tools or sets of those tools.
The initial document describing the concepts and terminology of IDM was developed solely by ISA108 and published in 2015 as ISA-TR108.1. That ISA technical report was then further developed in the joint ISA-IEC work, with updated and equivalent versions of the technical report published in 2020 as ISA-TR63082-1 and IEC TR 63082-1, respectively. The ongoing ISA108-IEC series is being developed in three main levels or parts:
- Concepts and terminology as set forth in part 1 form the basis for the subsequent documents by explaining the intent and benefits of the series (the “why”).
- Part 2 will be a normative document describing the “what, when, and who” necessary to implement an IDM program.
- Part 3 will address the “how,” providing guidance on implementations in different industries or for specific types of equipment.
The part 3 documents will be started as a series of technical reports once part 1 and part 2 are fully aligned as international ISA/IEC documents presently under development.
Despite setbacks caused by the pandemic, the joint committee has been meeting regularly to develop part 2, a standard setting forth normative requirements and recommendations. A draft of the standard was distributed in February to both IEC SC65E and ISA108 committee members for their respective reviews and balloting processes.
With the part 2 standard nearing a stage of technical completeness, the ISA108/IEC joint team is beginning an update of the part 1 technical report to make it an ISA/IEC international standard in complete alignment with the forthcoming part 2 standard.
The current ISA-TR63082-1-2020 technical report is available at www.isa.org/findstandards. Experts from any country who are interested in participating in this joint project are asked to contact standards@isa.org.
This update was provided by Ian Verhappen, CAP, a senior solution architect at Willowglen Systems in Calgary AB. He is an ISA Fellow and a member and former vice president of the ISA Standards & Practices Board, for which he serves as managing director of several ISA standards committees including ISA108, as well as co-chair of ISA112, SCADA Systems. He represents Canada as an expert in several IEC standards committees, most notably as international chair of IEC SC65C, Industrial Networks, which is responsible for fieldbus protocols. In 2018, he received ISA’s highest award for leadership in standards development, the ISA Standards Excellence Award.Reader Feedback
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