4. Conclusion

The ISA-88 and ISA-95 standards presented in this article are well known and widely applied in the industry. The ISA-106 standard being published at the time of writing should share this success, but its links with ISA-88 will need to be clarified.

The apparent lack of coherence and the sheer volume of all this documentation are regrettable, given the consensus-based approach to development, with no common guidelines and independent committees over a long period of time.

It is unlikely that these standards will adopt a design approach such as the one presented here, but they will continue to develop in the same spirit for as long as they remain of significant interest to manufacturers.

Recent revisions have not significantly altered their content. ISA-88 has ended up validating interpretations which are out of step...