Food Packaging: Standardization effort for packaging machinery begins to pay off
Known as PackML, the state model provides a common set of definitions for servo-driven packaging machinery states, such as Ready, Running, Holding and Aborted. It is patterned after the S88 state model for batch processing and provides the basis for a common language for supervisory control systems and other plant-floor integration efforts, according to Fred Putnam, chairman of the PackML team of OMAC (Open Modular Architecture Controls).
The state model is a roadmap for machine functions and the paths they follow. Manufacturers are free to omit various states—a printer could go directly from Off to Running, for example, skipping the Stopped, Starting and Ready states defined in the model—but the model clearly defines the various states, giving machines for multiple suppliers a common language.