Distributed industrial performance monitoring and analytics platform

A system for monitoring and controlling operation of a process plant to control a process, comprising:

• one or more distributed data engines associated with process control devices configured to perform at least one physical function to control the operation of a process;
• one or more processors configured to:
• (a) execute a data analytics module bound to a continuous data stream having contents that are generated (i) in real-time by a data source included in the process plant while it is operating to control the process, and (ii) as a result of the operations to control the process, wherein the data analytics module is an on-line data analytics module compiled from an on-line data diagram displayed on a user interface and wherein the on-line data diagram is a transformation of an off-line data analytics diagram from which an off-line data analytics module created by a user via a data analytics user interface application was compiled;
• (b) execute a diagram transformer module configured to transform the off-line data analytics module into the on-line data analytics module by transforming the off-line data diagram into the on-line data diagram in response to a user indication to transform the off-line data diagram into the on-line data diagram, wherein transforming the off-line data diagram into the on-line data diagram comprises (i) automatically replacing an off-line data loading block of the off-line data diagram with an on-line data loading block of the on-line data diagram and (ii) automatically removing one or more unnecessary input blocks used in the off-line data diagram to provide input to a model block to create a model of a portion of the operation of the process plant;
• (c) execute an output module configured to send an analytics output signal to the one or more distributed data engines associated with the process control devices to change one or more operating parameters of the process plant based upon the on-line data analytics module, wherein the analytics output signal includes an output from a set of data blocks;
• and
• (d) electronically control, based upon the analytics output signal, the one or more distributed date engines to execute the change in the respective operating parameters of the process plant;
• wherein the user interface configured to display:
• (a) the data analytics module by displaying one or more graphical representations of information indicative of a continuous output generated in real-time by the data analytics module operating in real-time on the continuous data stream, the continuous output including a continuous update of one or more predicted values;
• and
• (b) the diagram transformer module by displaying the on-line data diagram including one or more of (i) the on-line data loading block, (ii) the set of data blocks interconnected by which data is transferred between data blocks, and (iii) a data block that causes a real-time output of the set of data blocks to be displayed by the data analytics module via the user interface.