The International Society of Automation (ISA), formerly known as The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society, is a non-profit technical society for engineers, technicians, businesspeople, educators and students, who work, study or are interested in

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

and pursuits related to it, such as

instrumentation Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

. It was originally known as the Instrument Society of America. The society is more commonly known by its

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

, ISA, and the society's scope now includes many technical and engineering disciplines. ISA is one of the foremost professional organizations in the world for setting standards and educating industry professionals in automation. Instrumentation and automation are some of the key technologies involved in nearly all industrialized manufacturing. Modern industrial manufacturing is a complex interaction of numerous systems. Instrumentation provides regulation for these complex systems using many different measurement and control devices. Automation provides the programmable devices that permit greater flexibility in the operation of these complex manufacturing systems. In 2019, ISA announced the formation of the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance to promote the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards, which are the world’s only consensus-based cybersecurity standard for automation and control system applications.

Structure

The International Society of Automation is a non-profit member-driven organization, which is built on a backbone of volunteers. Volunteers, working together with the ISA's full-time staff of over 75, are key to the ongoing mission and success of the organization. The ISA has a strong leadership development program that develops volunteer leaders as they get involved with the organization's many different facets. ISA has several different ways that volunteers get involved from the section, division, and standards roots of the organization. ISA members are typically assigned an ISA Section (local chapter) which is related to their geographic location. Members can then join ISA Divisions which correspond to their individual technical interests. ISA Standards Committees are open to both ISA members and non-members to become involved with. In addition to the member-driven aspects of the ISA, the organization itself is divided into departments headed by a director. These departments are: * Education, Training & Publications * Marketing & Graphics * Membership * IT * Sales * Standards * Finance * Customer/Member Service

History

ISA was officially established as the Instrument Society of America on 28 April 1945, in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania. The society grew out of the desire of 18 local instrument societies to form a national organization. It was the brainchild of Richard Rimbach of the Instruments Publishing Company. Rimbach is recognized as the founder of ISA. Industrial instruments, which became widely used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, continued to play an ever-greater role in the expansion of technology after the war. Individuals like Rimbach and others involved in industry saw a need for the sharing of information about instruments on a national basis, as well as for standards and uniformity. The Instrument Society of America addressed that need. Albert F. Sperry, chairman of Panelit Corporation, became ISA's first president in 1946. In that same year, the Society held its first conference and exhibit in Pittsburgh. The first standard, RP 5.1 Instrument Flow Plan Symbols, followed in 1949, and the first journal was published in 1954. In the years following, ISA continued to expand its products and services, increasing the size and scope of the ISA conference and exhibition, developing symposia, offering professional development and training, adding technical Divisions, and even producing films about measurement and control. Membership grew from 900 in 1946 to 6,900 in 1953, and as of 2019, ISA members number approximately 32,000 from over 100 countries. In 1980, ISA moved its headquarters to

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...

(RTP),

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

, and a training center was established in nearby

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

. In 1997, the headquarters and training center were consolidated in a new building in RTP, where the society's day-to-day activities are managed by a professional staff of approximately 75. Recognizing the fact that ISA's technical scope had grown beyond instruments and that its reach went beyond "America", in the fall of 2000 the ISA Council of Society Delegates approved a legal name change to ISA—The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society. Today, ISA's corporate branding strategy focuses exclusively on the letters, though ISA's official, legal name remains the same. In recent years, ISA has assumed a more global orientation, hiring multilingual staff and a director of global operations, chartering new sections in several countries outside the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, issuing publications in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, and in 2002 ISA elected its first president from outside North America. On October 2, 2007, the Council of Society Delegates deliberated a proposal to change the society's legal name to "International Society of Automation". A majority vote favored the action. However, since the 2/3 majority required for a bylaws change was not achieved, the proposal was not adopted. On October 13, 2008, the Council of Society Delegates deliberated a proposal to change the society's legal name to "International Society of Automation". The majority vote favored the action and the proposal was adopted.

Membership

ISA membership is organized into particular grades: Honorary, Fellow, Senior Member, Member, and Student Member. Honorary membership is conferred only upon those individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to the profession, and does not require payment of dues. Professional members pay dues of $100 per year, and student dues are $10 annually. Members in certain countries with lower per capita

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

(relative to US & Europe) may pay dues at a reduced rate, and a grade of "virtual member", with very limited benefits is available for annual dues of $5 to students in certain circumstances. After 25 years of membership and satisfaction of an age requirement, members are eligible to become Life Members and exempt from dues payment. The benefits of ISA membership include, among other things, affiliation with an ISA section (see below), a subscription to the ISA's bimonthly flagship magazine ''InTech'', discounts on ISA's products, events and services, and the privilege of viewing ISA standards, recommended practices, and technical papers at no extra charge. In 2012, ISA introduced a free membership program called an Automation Community Member.

Sections and districts

Local ISA chapters are known as ISA Sections. A "regular" section consists of at least 30 members (not including student members). Sections are commonly organized around a specific geographic area, e.g.

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Section,

Connecticut Valley The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Isl ...

Section, Greater

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

Section,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Section etc. There are nearly 170 chartered sections in around 30 countries in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. Sections are separately incorporated, according to the laws of the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

or other political subdivision in which they are located. They are not units of ISA, although their bylaws may not conflict with ISA's. As of 2012, there are 146 sections. Many sections sponsor training courses, conduct periodic trade shows, and act as a resource to the local industrial community. Reflecting their primacy in ISA's early days, sections retain pre-eminent governance authority, as ISA's legislative body, the Council of Society Delegates, is composed of section representatives (delegates) who hold voting power equal to the size of their membership. ISA also has nearly 200 student sections, in locations all over the world, principally where the economy has a substantial

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

component, and instrumentation and industrial automation are vital academic programs. Some student sections have found it difficult to remain active, as it is necessary to continually replace graduates with newer students, and membership is consequently very fluid. Sections are located within districts, of which there are 14, and which comprise large geographic areas of the world. Each one is headed by a vice president. Districts 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9, and 11 are in the US (although District 7 also includes

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, and District 3 includes

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

). Districts 10 and 13 are in

. District 4 is South America (including the

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Section). District 12 is

and the

, and District 14 is the

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Paci ...

sphere. ISA formerly had geographic subdivisions known as "regions", which were part of the short lived "ISA International" (1988–1996). At varying intervals following the disestablishment of ISA International, the European Region became District 12, the India Region became District 14, and the South America Region became District

Technical divisions

ISA's 16 technical divisions, established for the purpose of increased information exchange within tightly focused segments of the fields of instrumentation, systems, and automation are organized under the Automation & Technology or Industries & Sciences Departments, depending upon the nature of the division. The ISA Technical Divisions are : * Aerospace / Test Measurement Division * Analysis Division * Automatic Controls and Robotics Division * Automation Project Management and Delivery Division * Building Automation Systems Division * Chemical and Petroleum Industries Division * Construction and Design Division * Education and Research Division * Food and Pharmaceutical Industries Division * Mining and Metals Industries Division * Power Industry Division * Process Measurement and Control Division * Pulp and Paper Industry Division * Safety and Security Division * Smart Manufacturing and IIoT Division * Water and Wastewater Industries Division

Standards

ISA standards play a major role in the work of instrumentation and automation professionals. Many ISA standards have been recognized by the

American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The orga ...

(

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...

). Many ISA standards have also been adopted as international standards by the

International Electrotechnical Commission The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and ...

(IEC). ISA standards cover a wide range of concepts of importance to instrumentation and automation professionals. ISA has standards committees for symbols and nomenclature used within the industry, safety standards for equipment in non-hazardous and hazardous environments, communications standards to permit interoperable equipment availability from several manufacturers, and additional committees for standards on many more technical issues of importance to the industry. An example of one significant ISA standard is the ANSI/ISA-50.02 ''Fieldbus Standard for Use in Industrial Control Systems'', which is a product of the ISA-50 Signal Compatibility of Electrical Instruments committee. Another significant ISA standard family is the batch processing standards of ANSI/ISA-88.00.01 ''Models and Terminology'', ANSI/ISA-88.00.02 ''Data Structures and Guidelines for Languages'', and ANSI/ISA-88.00.03 ''General and Site Recipe Models and Representation'', which are products of the ISA-88 Batch Control committee. Other standards developed by ISA include: ISA100.11a is for testing and certification of wireless products and systems. This standard was approved by the

(IEC) as a publicly available specification, or PAS in September 2011. ISA95 is an international standard for developing an automated interface between enterprise and control systems. As of 2012, the Society has over 162 published standards, recommended practices, and technical reports.

Cyber Security Standards for Industrial Control Systems

The International Society of Automation also produces the ISA99 standard which is one of the important Cyber security standards. The Cyber security standards page is within the scope of Wikipedia:WikiProject Computing, the article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. The ISA99 page has a link to the International Society of Automation page. The cyber security of private industries and governmental installations dependent on the reliable functioning of an

Industrial control system An industrial control system (ICS) is an electronic control system and associated instrumentation used for industrial process control. Control systems can range in size from a few modular panel-mounted controllers to large interconnected and in ...

is a highly debated subject, that has considerable importance for the security of the

critical infrastructure Critical infrastructure (or critical national infrastructure (CNI) in the UK) is a term used by governments to describe assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy – the infrastructure. Most commonly associated w ...

of any country. For example: International Society of Automation cyber security standards are mentioned on the United States Computer Emergency Response Team website. The ISA has formed the ISA Security Compliance Institute to promote and designate cyber-secure products and practices for industrial automation suppliers and operational sites.

Standards committees

ISA standards are developed using a consensus-based model employing volunteer standards committees of automation professionals from across industries. The ANSI standards development model is used with standards committees having the characteristics of Openness, Lack of Dominance, Balance, Consensus and a Right of Appeal. All ISA standards processes are overseen by the ISA Standards & Practices Board. As of 2012, there are more than 3500 participating individuals on ISA standards committees, from over 40 countries, and representing more than 2000 companies and organizations.

Conferences, symposia and shows

Division symposia

ISA also holds both industry and technology-specific symposia on a wide variety of topics.

Local section events

ISA Sections will often host their own local trade shows called Section Expos, member events, and/or sponsored training in their individual geographic areas.

Publishing

Periodicals

ISA's technical magazine is one of the benefits of ISA membership. ''InTech'' circulation includes all 31,000 ISA members, as well as several thousand other recipients, who are classified as "qualified" subscribers. Total circulation is about 60,000 in print and a further 40,000 through the web-based digital edition. The quarterly publication ''ISA Transactions'', published by Elsevier, is a referred journal of scholarly material, for which the intended audience is research and development personnel from academy and industry in the field of process instrumentation, systems, and automation. ISA formerly published ''Industrial Computing'', of the now-inactive Industrial Computing Society as well as ''Motion Control'', a magazine devoted to professionals in this discipline. Although the print version was discontinued in 2001, it continued online for a period of time.

Books

ISA publishes and distributes books which offer thorough coverage of the world of automation. ISA books are organized by the technical categories which are generally considered as defining automation: * Basic continuous control * Basic discrete, sequencing and manufacturing control * Advanced control * Reliability, safety, and electrical * Integration and software * Deployment and maintenance * Work structure

Standards

The ISA publishes its standards, recommended practices and technical reports in a variety of formats. These include printed hardcopy, downloadable PDF, web-based viewable, CDROM/DVD and network licenses.

Training, certification and education

Training

ISA training products include classroom-based training, mobile training courses, in-plant training, online courses, and printed course materials. The ISA also provides in-house training for a number of large corporations in the oil/gas and chemical industries.

Technical papers archive

The ISA has an online, searchable collection of technical papers which are available to ISA members and to digital library subscribers. As of 2012, the library has over 3000 technical papers.

Certification programs

ISA manages two certification programs, Certified Automation Professional (CAP), and Certified

Control Systems A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial c ...

Technician (CCST). Each of these is designed to be an objective, third-party assessment and confirmation of an individual's professional abilities and technical skills. Each certification is granted based on a combination of formal education/training, professional experience, and performance on a written examination. The CCST program was established in the early 1990s and because of an obvious industry need, rapidly gained credibility. There are now approximately 4,000 ISA certified technicians worldwide. The CAP program, launched in 2004, is still in the process of becoming established within the industrial community and gaining recognition. As of 2012, there are over 500 certified CAPs worldwide. The ISA used to have a third certification program called Certified Industrial Maintenance Mechanic (CIMM) which was established in 2004. In 2010, the CIMM program was transferred to the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals. The SMRP renamed the CIMM certification to the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT).

References

{{authority control International organizations based in the United States Organizations based in North Carolina Engineering organizations Standards organizations in the United States Industrial automation