OMAC-Weihenstephan-Meeting

How can two different standards be harmonized – this was the topic of a meeting initiated by Siemens on the occasion of the Hanover Trade Fair 2007. Participants included representatives of the user organiza-tion OMAC and the firm of Weihenstephan as well as end customers and machine builders. .

Rudolf Meier, Head of the Motion Control Sub-Division of Siemens Automation & Drives PM, opened the event and underlined the importance of standardization for the packaging industry in reducing the total costs of ownership.

The meeting had been prompted by requests from end customers, machine users to be exact, to Siemens to assist them in implementing packaging lines with the OMAC Standard by modules for SIMOTION and SIMATIC. Machine builders on their part broached the subject of the Weihenstephan standard that they had already implemented in their machines.

Goal: Minimize costs and risks

Both standards have the same goal: To minimize integration risks and costs in the case of a packaging line. What could be more obvious than to harmonize the standards and thus to reduce the expense for all concerned?

Already during the first discussions, those present agreed that it would be rational to integrate harmonization in future versions. Valuable contributions to the discussion came from the firms of P&G and SAB Miller, to name a few.

Understanding was reached on the following concrete points:

• Weihenstephan will not go ahead with the State Model in their own standardization and, instead, refer to that of OMAC
• Terminology will be standardized.
• Packtags V3 will be revised so as to include Weihenstephan's industry-specific extensions.
• A subject to be discussed at the next meeting of the OMAC Steering Committee will be to what extent further industry-specific extensions (in addition to bottling) are to be included in the scope of the guidelines and, consequently, to be defined by OMAC.
• Stricter terms of reference are to be laid down for "mandatory" tags.

All these points are subject to concurrence in the respective committees.

Good chances for the future

This has been a good step forward towards harmonization. It is assumed that implementation will be completed before the end of the year.

It will then be up to the OEMs, among which KHS will be one of the first users, also to implement this unified standard.

Follow-up per Telcos and another face-to-face meeting are expected to take place at PackEpo in Las Vegas.