Corporate Smart Manufacturing, ISA 95 L2 architect
Q. How long have you been involved with The Open Group?
Informally a few years, officially since May 2024. I started doing O-PAS™, a standard of The Open Group, end user presentations at the ARC Forum in Orlando in 2022.
Q. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I am an automation engineer in Cargill’s corporate Smart Manufacturing group. I started in the Cargill facility in Sas van Gent after I got my engineering degree in 1990. Since that time I was involved in ISA 95 levels 1 to 3.5. I recently “celebrated” my 33 year anniversary since I started working at Cargill.
Q. Why did your organization become a Member of The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum and what does/will your involvement look like?
Cargill has been researching the O-PAS standard since Exxon started publishing about the initial proof of concept. Shell helped us understand what was happening in the forum. Two years ago ,Cargill became a vocal supporter of IEC 61499 through an Universal Automation.org membership. In spring 2023, we did a TCO comparison study in our Manchester facility to confirm the initial business case and the results were positive. Early 2024, the major stakeholders in Cargill agreed that the O-PAS standard is one of the main innovation tracks in the process automation space. In April, it was decided to officially join the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF).
Q. How has/will membership in The Open Group benefit you, your organization, and the industry at large?
Cargill will learn quicker by sharing what we experience and learning from the experience from other members. We also want to help the other end users to have a broad voice of the customer in the forum.
Q. Why is it important for other organizations to join The Open Group?
If we use an open standard, we want to also contribute in some way. We also want to be able to access draft documents and talk to other end users.
Q. What are your hobbies?
Reading, indoor and outdoor rides on my bicycles.
Q. What book are you currently reading?
I am an avid reader but most reading is either reading standards or novels with a mixture of romance and fantasy. I am a big fan of sci fi books.
Q. What social networks do you belong to?
I am an active member of Cargill’s Pride Network.
Q. Any last thoughts?
I am looking forward to contribute to the success of the O-PAS standard.