On June 7, we held the second session of the EUAB. I provided an update on our 2017 Executive Conference and the initiative around the Open Process Automation Forum (OPA-F). One of the advisory board members (F&B and consumer packaged goods categories) is very close to OMAC/PackML, an initiative with some similarities to what the OPA-F is pursuing.
We had a good discussion around the following two topics, one of which had been initiated in the first session of the EUAB:
- Standardization
- The representative from the automotive industry was most passionate about this topic. In general, automotive has not been very active in industry-wide standardization efforts. Now standardization is viewed not only as a way to increase efficiency, but also as a way to cope with the reduction of internal engineering headcount due to retirement. They would like to be able to bring in external resources, but to have them follow their standards.
- The CSIA Best Practices and Certification provide some form of standardization on the managerial side.
- Specialization
At the conference, we had a good debate on the importance of specialization vs. geographical proximity. I wanted to understand what the EUAB members had to say.
- The pharmaceutical representative mentioned that for them, the ability to provide local support was most important (by the vendor or through an SI) but that an understanding of the industry was a pre-requisite (e.g. FDA for pharma, life sciences, F&B).
- The automotive representative brought it back to the topic of standardization. In his opinion, standardization provides the opportunity to leverage local resources that may be available, as the learning curve is small thanks to standardization.
For the next session we will address two topics:
- The realistic role of CSIA in standardization efforts
I have been reaching out to SIs to brainstorm ways in which we can assist. We don’t have a clear idea at this moment.
- Cybersecurity
It is interesting to see how concerned our industrial end users are in this regard. Other industries, such as the heavily-regulated banking industry, have been able to solve the challenges related to the internet/cloud. We plan to have a representative of a large cloud service provider, who has already identified, make a presentation on what other industries have done. This is important, because the adoption of technology that enables new business models will be slowed down if cybersecurity concerns are not addressed.