ISO/IEC GUIDE 75:2006

Strategic principles for future IEC and ISO standardization in industrial automation

This Guide provides strategic principles, derived from market experience, for use by IEC and ISO technical committees and subcommittees working in the industrial automation sector, as well as other bodies within IEC and ISO with interests in the work of these committees.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 13-Nov-2006
• ICS: 01 - GENERALITIES. TERMINOLOGY. STANDARDIZATION. DOCUMENTATION
• ICS: 25.040.01 - Industrial automation systems in general
• Technical Committee: SMB - STANDARDIZATION MANAGEMENT BOARD
• Current Stage: PPUB - Publication issued
• Start Date: 30-Oct-2006
• Completion Date: 14-Nov-2006

Standards Content (Sample)

GUIDE 75





First edition
2006-11

Strategic principles for future IEC and ISO
standardization in industrial automation


Reference number
ISO/IEC GUIDE 75:2006(E)

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GUIDE 75





First edition

2006-11



Strategic principles for future IEC and ISO
standardization in industrial automation

Copyright © 2006 ISO/IEC, Geneva  ─ All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from the publisher.
International Electrotechnical Commission, 3, rue de Varembé, PO Box 131, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
Telephone: [phone] Telefax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail] Web: www.iec.ch
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For price, see current catalogue

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD .3
1 Scope .4
2 Introduction .4
3 Abbreviations .5
4 New environment .6
5 Evolution of requirements .7
6 Recommendations for new standardization principles common to all segments .9
7 Recommendations for new standardization principles specific to segment 1 .12
8 Recommendations for new standardization principles specific to segment 2 .13
9 Recommendations for new standardization principles specific to segment 3 .14
10 Conformity assessment and marking common to all segments .14
BIBLIOGRAPHY .16

Table 1 – Standards segmentation . 5

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Guide 75 © ISO/IEC:2006 (E) – 3–
STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES FOR FUTURE IEC AND ISO STANDARDIZATION
IN INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION



FOREWORD
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International
Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standards. National
bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International
Standards through technical committees established by the respective organization to deal
with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in
fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-
governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.
Guides are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
Draft Guides adopted by the responsible committee or group are circulated to national bodies
for voting. Publication as a Guide requires approval by at least 75 % of the national bodies
casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this Guide may be the
subject of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all
such patent rights.
ISO/IEC Guide 75 was prepared by the IEC Sector Board 3 (SB 3), Industrial automation
systems.
This Guide may be revised in due course on the basis of practical experience. Committees
writing standards are invited to inform the ISO Central Secretariat or the IEC Central Office of
any difficulties encountered with the implementation of its provisions.
One aspect of this Guide requires particular comment.
 “Future . standardization” indicates that these proposals are forward-looking. However,
existing standards are also affected.
SB 3’s terms of reference and the experience of its members both restrict the formal domain
of these recommendations to that of industrial automation. However, the members are of the
unanimous opinion that the recommended principles could have much wider application
because many of them are generic, and could thus be relevant to many other industrial
sectors.
The text of this guide is based on the following documents:
Approval document Report on voting
C/1407/DV C/1442/RV

Full information on the voting for the approval of this Guide can be found in the report on vot-
ing indicated in the above table.

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STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES FOR FUTURE IEC AND ISO STANDARDIZATION
IN INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION


1 Scope
This Guide is applicable to IEC and ISO standardization for the industrial automation sector.
It provides strategic principles for use by the various technical committees and
subcommittees working in different domains within the sector, as well as other bodies within
IEC and ISO with interests in the work of these committees.
2 Introduction
Not all standards-related documents (referred to in what follows by the generic term
)
1
standards have the same purpose or the same consequences, or are subject to the same
constraints. For example, a standard that facilitates business in an application domain and a
standard defining safety requirements have little in common. Therefore, the relevant strategic
principles may vary, depending upon the different segments into which standards fall.
It is therefore proposed to segment standards according to three criteria: the purpose, the
actors concerned, and the technology involved.
Concerning purpose, the grouping could be
4 safety and/or compatibility;
4 interoperability;
4 performance; and
4 comprehension and/or best practices.
Concerning the actors, one may distinguish
4 governmental, representing the interests of the country and the public; and
4 end-users, vendors and integrators organized in a supply chain.
Concerning the technology involved, the distinguishing factor is rate of change (fast or
slow):
4 intensive use of IT (or other fast-changing technologies); or
4 no or limited use of IT (or any other fast-changing technology).
By combining the above elements, for the purposes of this document, a segmentation of
standards, shown in Table 1, may be derived.
___________
)
1
 The term “standard” as used in this document thus includes publications which are not necessarily full-
consensus documents.

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Guide 75 © ISO/IEC:2006 (E) – 5–
Table 1 – Standards segmentation
Segment Types of "standards" Comments
Segment 1 Safety-, functional safety- and/or compatibility- Will incorporate more and more IT techniques
oriented applied to automation. Should be objectives-
oriented rather than methods-/techniques-oriented
Segment 2 Fast-changing technologies Include technologies such as IT, telecom, power
electronics, wireless communications, as applied
to the automation and control world
2a Interoperability-oriented As technology changes, standards should focus
on methods and functions
2b Performance-oriented
Segment 3 Mature technologies, performance- or Example 1: performance-oriented standards:
interoperability-oriented defining appropriate frameworks enabling
evaluation of products against requirements
Example 2: electromechanical products: electrical
compatibility, mechanical compatibility
Segment 4 Engineering recommendations
The main purpose of the segmentation is to provide the context for obtaining quickly
standards or other IEC/ISO products that may have a short lifetime.
Segment 1 standards generally involve governmental actors as well as market players. The
role of the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity and, where the market forces or regulations
require it, certification, is very important for market access.
Segment 2a standards need to be global and stable over time because their effectiveness
depends on their use by suppliers, integrators and end-users.
Segments 2b and 3 standards are, in a sense, private between vendors or between vendors
and users.
Segment 4 standards are not true standards but a collection of best practices that can be
used as a reference. There will be little consideration of segment 4 in this document.
After Clauses 4 and 5, which provide the background and rationale for these recommendations,
Clause 6 gives recommendations common to all standards segments, and Clauses 7 to 9 give
ones specific to segments 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Clause 10 deals with conformity assessment.
3 Abbreviations
EMC Electromagnetic compatibility
IEC/CAB IEC Conformity Assessment Board
IS International Standard
ISO/CASCO ISO Conformity Assessment Committee
IT Information technology
ITA Industry Technical Agreement
IWA International Workshop Agreement
NC  National Committee
PAS Publicly Available Specification
SDO Standards Development Organization
SDoC Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity
SME Small and medium-sized enterprise
TC Technical Committee
TR Technical Report
TS Technical Specification
TTA Technical Trend Assessment

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4 New environment
The industrial world has changed greatly since the process of standards-writing began. The
new environment is characterized by the following.
4.1 Globalization
Elements of society are becoming increasingly interdependent on a global basis.
Globalization in industrial automation systems implies standardization across global supply
and knowledge chains, involving extended enterprises.
4.2 Spread and dynamism of information technologies
The amount and complexity of the knowledge inherent in industrial products and services
have increased by several orders of magnitude. This knowledge (technology) is changing and
invading new domains faster than the time needed for a set of independent parties to develop
a single, proven interface specification for interoperability across their respective system
elements in the traditional standardization process.
4.3 Rapid innovation in other technologies
These include materials processing, energy generation and storage, and bio/ecosystem
management and control.
4.4 Systems
While a need remains for the standardization of individual elements using both traditional and
advanced technologies, there is increasing emphasis on the ability to integrate elements into
systems of varying complexity. These integrated systems are further expected to be
sustainable, portable, dependable and scalable.
4.5 Exploitation in other sectors
Many traditional standards groups are seeking to deliver digital definitions of the products
that are the subject of their standards. Industry demands a consistent approach across these
groups, which should be encouraged to utilize the existing industrial automation standards to
develop such definitions.
4.6 Various market demands
Conflicting needs are often expressed by users of products: on the one hand, there is an
increasing interest in the use of standards to enable free choice among an ever-greater
diversity of more and more complex products  which implies that these products must match
all the interfaces required by the user’s automation system; on the other hand, there is a
trend towards requiring more responsibility from the system integrator, ranging from efficient
integration to a guarantee of performance, dependability and results.
4.7 Various vendor answers
Producers no longer require uniformity for their very survival; instead, competitive forces
determine survival. However, while smaller market actors (for example, product specialists)
require standards for better interoperability and interchangeability, larger ones targeting the
system market are less interested in opening up the architectures they have invested in and
more interested in differentiation.
4.8 Various system integrator answers
The needs of system integrators may also be divergent: using proprietary specifications may
help deliver cost-effective one-stop-shop, turnkey solutions (as well as protect a competitive

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Guide 75 © ISO/IEC:2006 (E) – 7–
position), whereas the use of widely applied international standards allows better
management of risks. Overall, the challenge is to find solutions which benefit all
stakeholders.
4.9 Liberalization
Many areas which used to form the subject of government monopolies or closed oligopolies
(telecommunications, air transport, energy) no longer do so; almost all markets are open and
competitive. This liberalization is an enabler of the globalization mentioned in 3.1.
4.10 Changing relationships between governments and SDOs
In more and more countries, SDOs are no longer under government control but delegated to
associations with the public and the private sector represented. This is partly thanks to
confidence in the results obtained by ISO and IEC in the past.
Industry as a producer of goods and services (producers), no matter how capital-intensive or
how advanced technologically, requires less government leadership than it once did, while
still welcoming government support.
Some regional economies and their governments continue to use regional or national
standards as a basis for technical barriers to trade.
Producers and exporters are seeking for regulation and conformance to standards to be less
and less governmental and more and more market-based and industry-driven regulatory
functions. Small producers and users are concerned that this may result in a new kind of
central force controlling the markets, jeopardizing broader societal interests.

5 Evolution of requirements
The new environment leads to the following concrete reasons why the principles behind
standardization, in the industrial automation and similar systems areas, must in some cases
evolve.
5.1 System-oriented versus product-oriented
The more the systems approach is of concern (segment 2 standards), the less adequate the
traditional function/component-product oriented topics of standardization are. New
standardization approaches are needed, for example:
 enabling “plug and play” of elements into systems, thanks to proper (relevant, open,
stable) interfaces and associated tools;
 allowing re-use of past proven work, thanks, for example, to standard object-
oriented/encapsulation/library and database techniques;
 streamlining the necessary exchanges between individuals and organizations cooperating
in the same project  ideally: “write information once, use it everywhere”, at no extra cost.
5.2 Timely development of standards
IEC and ISO develop standards too late. This is particularly true  and a sensitive issue  for
segment 2 standards, where the key market values are the capability to be ready on time and
to innovate.
The track record of ISO and IEC work is clear: the bigger the IT content, the bigger the
chances that a document will be obsolete, at least in part, at the date of publication. In
addition to speeding up, another potential solution to this is to segment functionally rather

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than by technology type, since this makes the standards less vulnerable to technological
obsolescence.
5.3 Limits to the applicability of the consensus method
The consensus method of achieving ISs, in the traditional ISO and IEC manner, is not
relevant in all cases.
The agreement of almost all parties concerned, or the agreement of public bodies or
nationally grouped interests, is not relevant in all industrial domains or for all possible
subjects of standardization  and especially not for all segment 2 and segment 3 standards.
5.4 Applying the consensus method to safety standards
At the same time, the consensus method is the only relevant one in some cases.
Information technology pervades all domains, particularly the ones requiring safety features.
However, it must be kept in mind that, as far as public safety is concerned, the consensus in
a standard between public and industry representatives cannot be avoided even if it is time-
consuming.
Thus, in order to speed up the development of purely industry-driven standards, the safety
requirement should be isolated and placed in safety standards, and these standards should
be explicitly referenced in industry-driven (segment 2 and 3) standards.
5.5 Limits to the efficiency of the consensus method
Even when it is relevant, the IEC and ISO method of assessing consensus is not always
efficient enough.
Although international standards are increasingly being recognized as eliminating barriers to
trade, the slow, formal, traditional process of standardization cannot efficiently determine that
a consensus has been achieved between the major forces represented in the market. Any
other method  independent of IEC and ISO  based on a flat, unweighted approach may
similarly be too slow.
5.6 Relationship of standards to regulations
IEC and ISO leave the door too wide open for governments to introduce additional
compulsory regulations based on purely industry-driven standards.
When not dealing with the public interest  health, safety or the environment  the
development of a standard by industry should not in itself be taken as a reason by
governments, which are of course sovereign in these matters, to enact a corresponding
regulation. However, whenever a regulation is necessary by law to protect the public interest,
it should be based on an IEC or ISO International Standard where applicable, developed on a
consensus basis by industry and public representatives and enacted with the consent of
industry but outside IEC or ISO.
5.7 Conserving the values inherent in IEC and ISO
Nevertheless the IEC and ISO represent values of worldwide importance which must be
conserved for the benefit of all the industrial market actors.
Among these key values are:
 IEC’s and ISO’s reputation as international, neutral, non-profit organizations;

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Guide 75 © ISO/IEC:2006 (E) – 9–
 IEC’s and ISO’s status as standardization organizations recognized by the World Trade
Organization as significantly contributing to the improvement of world trade in goods and
services;
 their highly appreciated track record due, among other factors, to the standards-making
process’s ability to guarantee the following for all technical specifications (especially in
the segment 3 domain):
– their quality;
– their maintenance;
– their stability.
6 Recommendations for new standardization principles common to all
segments
These recommendations apply primarily to the industrial automation and similar systems
sectors with extensive high-technology contents. Their pertinence to each segment is
mentioned. Their relevance to other industrial or service domains should form the subject of
further consideration.
6.1 Take full advantage of having different IEC and ISO products addressing cl
...