Method for monitoring a corrugated board production plant

A method for monitoring operation of a corrugated board production plant, the production plant comprising (1) a plurality of functional units requiring predictive diagnostics for maintaining, repairing or replacing of the plurality of functional units, (2) one or more sensors structured to detect and acquire values of at least one operational parameter of said plurality of functional units, and (3) a central control unit structured to receive data from said one or more sensors relating to said at least one operational parameter and determining from said data and from learned and/or historicized data, any anomalous situation;

• the method comprising steps as follows:
• detecting by said one or more sensors said at least one operational parameter of at least one functional unit of the plurality of functional units forming a part of the production plant, said at least one operational parameter relating to operation of the at least one functional unit and being indicative of functioning of the at least one functional unit, and calculating by said central control unit a current value of at least a first statistical function of said operational parameter in a current temporal window, the current value of said first statistical function defining a first coordinate of a point of current operation of the functional unit;
• verifying by said central control unit whether the point of current operation is within a range of allowable values of the first statistical function, values contained in said range of allowable values corresponding to a correct operation of the at least one functional unit;
• if the point of current operation is outside the range of allowable values, determining by said central control unit a position of the point of current operation with respect to the range of allowable values and providing a statistical diagnosis of cause of deviation by querying a database based on coordinates of the point of current operation;
• wherein for at least some of the coordinates of the point of current operation that are outside the range of allowable values, the database contains a plurality of possible causes of the deviation of the point of current operation with respect to the range of allowable values, and, for each of said plurality of possible causes providing an indication on higher or lower probability of occurrence of one of said plurality of possible causes with respect to others of said plurality of possible causes, and based on said indication of higher or lower probability of occurrence of one of said plurality of possible causes, an indication is provided whether the at least one functional unit of said plurality of functional units of said corrugated board production plant requires maintenance, repair, or replacement intervention.