“Close cooperation for standardization is necessary”

The industry is transforming, driven by the wishes and needs of society. But that requires adjustments from suppliers to the process industry. Collaboration with end users is important in this, says Jacco Opmeer, who works at Shell Global Solutions BV and is active on behalf of Shell in the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) working group, an activity that runs under the Open Group umbrella and is also an Executive Board member of the WIB Process Automation Users' Association. During PPA, Opmeer will give a keynote on this subject.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

“There is no other option than to work together more closely,” says Opmeer. “On behalf of OPAF, we want to involve our ecosystem – a group of end users – much more in technical developments and enter into cooperation. This is not about selling a product, but about developing joint solutions.”

He explains the problem specifically: “It specifically concerns problems within process automation and the lock-in that has arisen with our suppliers. The suppliers face the same challenge as we end users: the product costs have to come down. This puts them in a 'squeeze' for what they can develop for end users, because the development costs for new platforms have to be passed on in the end.”

Opmeer continues: “What I am involved in is to achieve standardization within a platform via OPAF. Standardization is the magic word to make faster progress together and to escape the lock-in of proprietary products. We are working hard with OPAF to tackle this problem. The first products that are Open and also certified will be on the market by the end of this year. But there are more similar programs.”

This cooperative approach comes at just the right time, says Opmeer: “I see a trend break. Not enough with suppliers, because they often still hold on to their revenue model. But many end users now experience that this can hold them back. They now want standardization. But you can't do something like that alone, that's why we work together in these working groups.”

Successful standardization

During his lecture, Opmeer will provide several examples of successful standardization programs: “Schneider Electric, for example, has set up Universal Automation. But another good example from practice is the USB standard. It is an open standard that works immediately, partly thanks to an underlying certification process.”

And standardization is even more important in the future, Opmeer believes: “We want more autonomy in our factories. We are now defining 'autonimous operations' in a WIB working group. That has been a comprehensive theme since the corona crisis and we still see many gaps in the required technology, but there is increasing demand for it from the industry. The biggest challenge is how to develop different technologies in a standardized way. A major challenge for all of us together.”

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