1. A template-based supervisory process control and manufacturing information application development facility, including a computer system comprising a physical computer-readable medium, the physical computer-readable medium comprising: an application object template library, stored on the physical computer-readable medium, including a set of previously defined application object templates; and a configuration utility, comprising computer-executable instructions stored on the computer-readable medium, facilitating specifying instances of the set of previously defined application object templates to be included in a supervisory process control and manufacturing information application, and wherein application objects are instantiated from selected ones of the set of previously defined application object templates and are thereafter hosted in a runtime environment by an application engine object; and wherein the set of previously defined application object templates includes a device integration application object template for creating device integration application object instances, hosted in the runtime environment by the application engine object, for communicating with process control system components, wherein the application object template library comprises a set of generic application object templates and wherein the configuration utility further comprises an object template customization interface for deriving a customized child application object template from a selected one of the set of generic application object templates.