Manufacturing Standards Summary – September 2025 (Part 3 of 4)

Looking back at September 2025, the Manufacturing Engineering sector marked a month of significant advancements in technology, quality management, and digital integration. Five pivotal standards were published, addressing core manufacturing areas such as welding process calibration, sensor data quality, and OPC Unified Architecture (UA) interoperability. This retrospective overview distills the month's key developments, providing valuable context and guidance for industry professionals, quality managers, and compliance officers seeking to ensure ongoing compliance and stay abreast of the technological evolution within manufacturing engineering.

Monthly Overview: September 2025

September 2025 witnessed heightened standardization activity in Manufacturing Engineering, driven by the sector’s ongoing digital transformation and increasing focus on quality, data interoperability, and process assurance. This month's standards collectively reflect the sector’s shift toward smart manufacturing, industrial automation, and the imperative for robust calibration and data integrity frameworks. Notably, three major updates to the OPC UA suite of standards serve as clear indicators of the industry’s movement toward more open, secure, and interoperable industrial communications. Simultaneously, new guidance on sensor data quality and welding equipment calibration underscores the enduring importance of reliable, validated processes alongside digital innovation.

Compared to the usual publication cycle, September 2025 was marked by a higher concentration of digital integration and data quality themes, aligning with global trends in industrial IoT adoption, Industry 4.0 readiness, and lifecycle data management. Together, these publications set a strong foundation for future compliance and technological development in modern manufacturing environments.

Standards Published This Month

ISO 17662:2025 – Welding – Calibration, Verification and Validation of Equipment Used for Welding, Including Ancillary Activities

Full Standard Title: Welding – Calibration, verification and validation of equipment used for welding, including ancillary activities

ISO 17662:2025 establishes requirements for the calibration, verification, and validation of equipment used in welding processes and allied activities. The scope targets the control of critical process variables during fabrication, as well as the properties of equipment impacting product safety and fitness-for-purpose where outputs cannot be easily confirmed through inspection or testing. This standard is particularly focused on ensuring that key quality and safety attributes are maintained through systematic equipment assurance, addressing both production and on-site use.

Key requirements include:

• Defining calibration and verification intervals and documentation for welding-related equipment
• Outlining validation procedures for equipment involved in production (not for finished product testing)
• Mapping process variables to the requirements of the ISO 15609 series (Welding Procedure Specifications)
• Providing guidance for acceptance testing and managing third-party involvement in calibration activities

Target Audience: Manufacturers and fabricators using welding and allied processes, especially those in safety-critical industries, quality managers, and auditors overseeing production compliance.

This edition reflects recent technical updates, including revised clauses on stud welding and the inclusion of brazing/soldering requirements. It situates calibration and validation protocols within the broader context of ISO 9001 and related quality frameworks, serving as a cornerstone for demonstrating process control and equipment traceability in manufacturing.

Key highlights:

• Comprehensive coverage of calibration/validation for welding and allied equipment
• Updated requirements for stud welding and brazing/soldering processes
• Direct link to ISO 9001 compliance and audit readiness

Access the full standard:View ISO 17662:2025 on iTeh Standards

ISO 8000-220:2025 – Data Quality – Part 220: Sensor Data: Quality Measurement

Full Standard Title: Data quality – Part 220: Sensor data: Quality measurement

As manufacturing environments increasingly utilize sensor networks and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices, ISO 8000-220:2025 addresses the urgent need for robust measurement of sensor data quality. Complementing the broader ISO 8000 series, this standard specifies quantitative measures for assessing the core quality dimensions (accuracy, completeness, consistency, precision, timeliness) of discrete, digital sensor data used in industrial and process applications.

It incorporates:

• Systematic metrics for accuracy, precision (both measurement and representational), completeness, consistency, and timeliness
• Guidance on identifying and quantifying data anomalies (e.g., drift, spikes, noise)
• Requirements for integrating quality measurement into information systems and data flows
• Exclusions for analogue/image/audio data and data quality improvement methods (focusing strictly on measurement)

Who Should Comply: Organizations managing industrial automation, smart manufacturing systems, predictive maintenance, and any process reliant on real-time or historical sensor data.

The standard is vital for professionals charged with ensuring reliable, decision-ready data—supporting improvements in operational efficiency, product quality, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation initiatives.

Key highlights:

• Defines measurable, objective quality criteria for sensor data streams
• Enhances the foundation for digital transformation and IIoT integration
• Supports traceability and trust in automated data-driven decision-making

Access the full standard:View ISO 8000-220:2025 on iTeh Standards

prEN IEC 62541-3:2024 – OPC Unified Architecture – Part 3: Address Space Model

Full Standard Title: OPC Unified Architecture – Part 3: Address Space Model

A cornerstone in industrial interoperability, prEN IEC 62541-3:2024 provides the meta-model upon which all OPC UA information models are built. The Address Space Model standard structures how industrial devices, systems, and data sources are described, accessed, and navigated within an OPC UA environment. The fourth edition introduces various significant technical revisions reflecting evolving requirements in digital manufacturing integration and industrial communication.

Key requirements and updates include:

• Enhanced modelling elements enabling Interfaces and AddIns
• Improvements to access control, security, and browser restrictions
• Expanded event and notification mechanisms (e.g., View NodeClass rework)
• Deprecation of legacy naming rules, facilitating more robust future-proofing
• New ReferenceTypes for higher semantic fidelity

Target Users: Systems integrators, automation engineers, software developers, and organizations deploying or operating OPC UA-based systems in manufacturing, process, or industrial sectors.

This edition signals a maturing OPC UA ecosystem, progressively supporting complex, scalable, and secure industrial solutions. It lays the groundwork for information modeling and digital twins by defining abstract structures that can be adapted to diverse manufacturing needs.

Key highlights:

• Fourth edition featuring meta-model changes and expanded node types
• Crucial for modeling complex manufacturing processes for interoperability
• Strengthens security and semantic structure in digital integration

Access the full standard:View prEN IEC 62541-3:2024 on iTeh Standards

prEN IEC 62541-5:2024 – OPC Unified Architecture – Part 5: Information Model

Full Standard Title: OPC Unified Architecture – Part 5: Information Model

This standard specifies the core information model for the OPC Unified Architecture (UA), outlining the set of objects, types, variables, and methods that form the foundational building blocks for industrial information exchange. As part of the OPC UA suite, Part 5 details the semantic organization of data and control elements—enabling seamless integration, discoverability, and interoperability across disparate automation and manufacturing applications.

Scope and features include:

• Standard objects and types (such as servers, diagnostic information, and event models)
• Definitions for standard attributes, methods, and relationships
• Consistent rules for model extension, ensuring backward and forward compatibility
• Structural templates for vendor-specific or application-specific information models

Applicability: Automation system vendors, IT-OT integration specialists, and plant operators seeking to realize the potential of vendor-neutral, plug-and-play architectures across production environments.

This part supports harmonization of device- and system-level data, simplifying digital transformation, system integration, and analytics in highly automated or smart factory settings.

Key highlights:

• Unified semantic framework for OPC UA data and control integration
• Facilitates scalable, vendor-agnostic manufacturing solutions
• Essential for both device implementers and enterprise integration

Access the full standard:View prEN IEC 62541-5:2024 on iTeh Standards

prEN IEC 62541-6:2024 – OPC Unified Architecture – Part 6: Mappings

Full Standard Title: OPC Unified Architecture – Part 6: Mappings

Serving as the glue between the OPC UA abstract models and the physical network implementations, prEN IEC 62541-6:2024 maps the OPC UA security model, abstract service definitions, and data structures onto concrete network protocols and data encodings. This technical revision delivers important enhancements to interoperability, security, and scalability for modern manufacturing networks.

Key updates in this edition include:

• Support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) in UA Secure Conversation (improved security)
• JSON mapping enhancements for unions, decimal type encoding, and node representations
• Additions to media types assigned by IANA, new requirements for user/issuer certificates
• Rules for handling DateTime precision, string truncation, and JSON representations of NodeId

Intended Audience: IT architects, industrial automation engineers, cybersecurity personnel, and system integrators responsible for secure, reliable design and operation of digitalized manufacturing communication systems.

By bridging abstract information models to software and networking stack implementations, this standard is pivotal for realizing practical, interoperable, and secure industrial communication infrastructures.

Key highlights:

• Technical upgrades to security (ECC), encoding (JSON, decimals), and certificate management
• Ensures compatibility across diverse platforms and applications
• Vital for secure and reliable IIoT and Industry 4.0 deployments

Access the full standard:View prEN IEC 62541-6:2024 on iTeh Standards

Common Themes and Industry Trends

Reflecting on the cluster of standards published this month reveals several prominent themes shaping manufacturing engineering:

• Digital Transformation and Data Interoperability: The updated OPC UA standards reinforce the evolution toward digitalized, interconnected production environments. Organizations are prioritizing open architectures, unified data models, and scalable communications to support flexible, future-proof operations.
• Emphasis on Data and Process Quality: ISO 8000-220:2025 and ISO 17662:2025 demonstrate renewed focus on data reliability—not only in sensor-generated values but also in physical process execution (welding). Standards are becoming increasingly prescriptive in measurement, validation, and documentation practices.
• Security and Compliance: Technical enhancements for encryption, certificate management, and structured information movement within the OPC UA suite signal the sector’s recognition of security and trust as foundational to successful digital engineering and automation.
• Lifecycle Management and Auditability: Both digital and physical process standards address the need for traceability, audit readiness, and lifecycle oversight from equipment calibration to sensor data verification and system implementation.

Emerging focus areas, particularly in industrial IoT and automated quality assurance, are evidenced by these new requirements—echoing broader trends in Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing adoption.

Compliance and Implementation Considerations

For organizations, timely alignment with these standards is integral to risk management, regulatory acceptance, and long-term competitiveness. Key steps to achieve compliance include:

1. Conduct a Gap Analysis: Evaluate current processes, systems, and documentation against the new requirements—especially for calibration protocols, data quality measurement, and OPC UA integration support.
2. Prioritize Critical Systems: Begin with processes and data streams most crucial for safety, compliance, or business value (e.g., welding equipment in safety-critical fabrication or sensor networks tied to process control).
3. Adopt and Map OPC UA Standards: For new or evolving digital infrastructures, ensure system and software providers comply with Parts 3, 5, and 6. This may require updating supplier contracts, procurement requirements, or developing skills in-house.
4. Update Quality Management Systems: Integrate ISO 17662:2025 and ISO 8000-220:2025 guidelines into QMS documentation, training, and audit preparation routines.
5. Set Realistic Timelines: Implementation may require phased rollouts, especially in large or complex environments. Factor in training, supplier coordination, system upgrades, and internal audit cycles.
6. Leverage Accessible Resources: Utilize online platforms (e.g., iTeh Standards), industry forums, and vendor training sessions to stay informed and troubleshoot challenges.

Proactive planning and prioritized action help minimize disruption, optimize resource allocation, and build competitive resilience.

Conclusion: Key Takeaways from September 2025

The September 2025 publication cycle stands out for its decisive advances in digital and physical process assurance for the manufacturing engineering sector. The standards summarized here—spanning welding calibration, sensor data quality, and a triad of updated OPC UA core standards—jointly elevate the baseline for quality, integration, and trust in modern manufacturing.

Why this matters:

• The convergence of process assurance (ISO 17662), data quality (ISO 8000-220), and digital infrastructure (OPC UA) requirements is enabling organizations to realize fully integrated, insight-driven, and compliant operations.
• Early adopters gain not only regulatory confidence but also operational efficiency, system scalability, and readiness for new business models tied to Industry 4.0, IIoT, and digital twin paradigms.

Recommendations for Professionals:

• Review your organization’s exposure to these new requirements
• Update training, procedures, and procurement specifications where gaps are identified
• Engage with your quality, IT, and engineering teams to ensure standards-based alignment across both physical and digital manufacturing domains

Next steps: Explore the full standards via iTeh Standards for in-depth requirements and practical tools. Staying up to date with these foundational documents is essential for advancing operational excellence, ensuring compliance, and positioning your business for ongoing innovation in manufacturing engineering.