BS ISO 16300-4:2019

What is ISO 16300-4 - Interoperability of capability units about?  

ISO 16300-4 specifies the search methodology from software unit catalogues for acquiring candidate capability units that satisfy the manufacturing application requirements. ISO 16300-4 specifies the search methodology for acquiring candidate capability units that satisfy the manufacturing application requirements from the software unit catalogues. 

ISO 16300-4 provides a way to exchange a Manufacturing Software Unit’s (MSU) capability as information by means of a capability profile. Software capability profiling is the basis for providing the above-mentioned software interoperability services. ISO 16300-4 is used and applied as the foundation for the ISO 16300 series. ISO 16300-4 shows what interoperability services are enabled by using software capability profiles. The subsequent steps develop concrete methods and mechanisms to provide these interoperability services.  

Who is ISO 16300-4 - Interoperability of capability units for? 

ISO 16300-4 on Interoperability of capability units is useful for: 

• The automation industry 
• Software programmers  
• The IT industry 
• Quality control personnel 

Why should you use ISO 16300-4 - Interoperability of capability units?  

ISO 16300-4 addresses the requirements of users and suppliers of manufacturing software regarding the interoperability of software in the area of industrial automation. 

User interoperability requirements include: 

• Integrating an automation application system by combining capabilities of a set of software components provided by various sources 
• Integrating the capability of a software unit from one resource system platform to another platform 
• Validating and verifying the capability of a software unit to meet the automation application system requirements 

Supplier requirements include: 

• Representing the set of capabilities provided by a software component used in a software unit 
• Verifying software component capability as a part of a required software unit capability 
• Cataloguing a software unit in terms of its capability for interoperability in an automation application system to support wide distribution 

ISO 16300-4  also addresses software interoperability services, which include: 

• Access to the description of a software capability to enable interoperability assessment 
• Enabling the search and location of candidate software units and components, preferably automatically, using search engines 
• Representing the dependencies between software components for an automation application hosted on a particular system platform 

Software capability is first defined as a set of functions and services with a set of criteria for evaluating the performance of a capability provider. It is then expressed and represented as facts about the software, how and what it can do. ISO 16300-4 deals with manufacturing software capability profiling for interoperability, was developed with the aim of providing a standardized method to describe the capabilities of manufacturing software in terms of the MSU capability profile and the software component is included in the MSU.