Overview
ISO 16300-2:2019 - part of the ISO 16300 series on automation systems and integration - defines capability templates and rules for software unit cataloguing to support interoperability of manufacturing software. The standard specifies how to describe the capability of a Manufacturing Software Unit (MSU) so it can be mapped to the functional requirements of a target manufacturing application. It also describes how to develop and manage a software unit catalogue and how to map capability profiles into catalogue entries for consistent discovery, selection and reuse.
Key topics and requirements
- Capability templates and profiles: Defines a schema (templates) for representing an MSU’s capabilities and how to produce a capability profile (an instance of a template) for a specific software unit.
- Software unit catalogue structure: Requirements for collecting capability profiles that use the same template for a manufacturing activity, enabling consistent catalogue entries across providers.
- Mapping rules: Rules for mapping capability profiles and manufacturing domain data (MDD) into catalogue items so capabilities can be compared and composed.
- Software capability description dictionary: Guidance on maintaining uniquely identified domain data and capability elements to support unambiguous capability descriptions.
- Catalogue procedure: A documented procedure for software unit cataloguing including profiling, verification and management steps (see Clause 6 and Annex A for element templates).
- Interoperability focus: Emphasizes consistent profiling and avoidance of inconsistent templates across providers to enable reuse and automated search.
Applications and who should use it
ISO 16300-2 is practical for organizations seeking to improve software interoperability in industrial automation:
- MSU providers and software vendors - to publish standardized capability profiles and register catalogue entries that make their components discoverable and composable.
- System integrators and automation engineers - to match application requirements to candidate software units using consistent capability templates.
- Manufacturing IT, procurement and validation teams - to automate search, selection and verification of software units against application needs.
- Tool and platform developers - to implement catalogue repositories, capability template repositories and search/matching services.
Benefits include improved software reuse, predictable integration, easier automated discovery of candidate solutions, and clearer vendor-supplier interoperability contracts.
Related standards
- ISO 16300-1:2018 - framework for describing automation solutions in terms of capabilities
- ISO 16300-3 - verification and validation of interoperability among capability units
- ISO 16300-4 - search methodology for acquiring candidate capability units
- ISO 16100 series (Parts 1, 2, 3, 5, 6) - foundational manufacturing software capability profiling and interface/protocol templates
Keywords: ISO 16300-2:2019, automation systems, interoperability, capability templates, software unit catalogue, manufacturing software unit, capability profiling.