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Introduction
ISO 22745 is a standard that specifies a system of descriptive technology for representing, handling and exchanging master data.
This standard is being developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee (TC) 184, subcommittee (SC) 4, Industrial data.
ISO 22745 is intended to provide a concrete means of satisfying the general requirements laid out in ISO 8000-110.1 It provides tools to enable organizations to ensure that incoming and outgoing master data is of sufficient quality, and to improve the quality of their internal master data.
The standard includes data models, exchange formats, guidelines and procedures. The exchange formats are based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML).
At the core of ISO 22745 is the open technical dictionary (OTD), a collection of descriptions of concepts that can be used to code master data. A major purpose of an OTD is to provide a uniform, language-independent means of coding master data.
A key innovation of ISO 22745 is the separation of the dictionary from the identification guide (IG). Within ISO 22745, a "dictionary" is a flat collection of concepts that can be used to code master data. An IG provides a template and set of rules for describing master data using concepts from an OTD. This enables organizations with different data requirements to maintain their own IGs while still using the same OTD.
The initial release of ISO 22745 is nearing completion, with publication of a number of parts as ISO technical specifications (TS) expected for late 2008.
Master Data
ISO 8000-110 defines "master data" as:
Data held by an organization that describes the entities that are both independent and fundamental for that organization, and that it needs to reference in order to perform its transactions.
Typical kinds of master data contain information about:
* Persons and organizations. Examples include data about customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders.
* Goods and services. Examples include data about raw materials, products and services.
* Facilities and equipment. Examples include data about land, buildings and structures, leases, vehicles, manufacturing processes, and equipment.
Within ISO 22745, anything described by a master data record is called an "item." This includes individual physical objects (e.g., the vehicle with identification number "123456789ABC"), concepts to which belong many physical objects (e.g., 40...