I am pleased to announce the Class of 2011 for the Process Automation Hall of Fame. Elected by their peers in the Hall, these automation professionals have made clear and extensive contributions to the domain of process automation, and are being recognized for their work and careers.

John Berra, recently retired Chairman of Emerson Process Management.

Having worked withWBF for many years, and having become convinced that the techniques and technologies of the ISA88 batch standard could be applied successfully in other, non-batch industries and processes, several of us, including Marcus Tennant, Dave Emerson (who will be one of the co-chairs) and Maurice Wilkins of Yokogawa, wrote a proposal to ISA for a new standard committee that would apply the ISA88 principles to other processes than batch.

You read it here first-- maybe before the inductees themselves have checked their email.

In an unusually tight voting (usually we take more than one ballot), the inductees of the Process Automation Hall of Fame have chosen the class of 2010...

1. Joe Alford, Joseph Alford LLC and formerly of Eli Lilly

2. John Gerry, Expertune Inc.

3. (tie) Willy Wojsznis, Emerson Process Management and Les Driskell, ValveConsultant

4. Yukata Wakasa, Yokogawa Electric Corporation.

I received yesterday a review copy of Bianca Scholten's latest book: MES Guide for Executives: Why and How to Select, Implement, and Maintain a Manufacturing Execution System. It is published by ISA Press. I'm going to read it over the weekend and I'll let you know what I think.

All WBF members are entitled to the discount for Automation Federation membership:

The Automation Federation is supporting the Progressive Manufacturing Summit 2009: Redefining the Business of Manufacturing in Turbulent Economic Times.

When: 9-11 June
Where: The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, FL

This is an unabashed commercial for WBF (www.wbf.org), once known as World Batch Forum, one of the first members of the Automation Federation, because it really needs our help.  WBF pioneered two technologies that are now ubiquitous in the manufacturing industries. Note, I said the manufacturing industries, not “the process  industries,” because WBF’s reach has grown substantially beyond its origins.

I received a news release from Tom Clary at Invensys this morning that got me thinking. It announced that IPS was hosting the ISA95 standard meetings next week:

Invensys Process Systems (IPS) is hosting an international meeting of enterprise integration standards experts at its headquarters in Plano, Texas, January 27-30, 2009.

From Dr. Maurice Wilkins, Chairman of WBF:

To the Members and Sponsors of WBF,

We want to wish you a happy 2009, one in which the economy improves over 2008. We have some important news for you, and we'd like to ask you to take the time to read this message.

If you have never heard Pat Kennedy, President and CEO of OSIsoft speak, you need to attend this webcast. If you  have heard Pat talk, you know why you ARE attending this webcast.

From WBF's press release:

WBF brings you another insightful and up-to-date technical webcast.

Process Data Benefits for the Modern Plant
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET

To register, go 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

From the press release:

ISA Publishes Technical Report on Using ISA88 and ISA95 Together.

Research Triangle Park, NC (31 July 2008) - ISA88, the Batch Control Systems standards committee, has completed a technical report on using its standards with the ISA95 Enterprise/Control System Integration standards.

The technical report is targeted for industry stakeholders intending to use the ANSI/ISA95 series for enterprise-to-control system integration and the ANSI/ISA88 serie...