Apparatus and method for determining an aggregate control connection status of a field device in a process control system

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one memory configured to store information identifying a plurality of elements in a process control system that uses a process value from a field device;
• and
• at least one processing device configured to:
• identify the plurality of elements;
• identify an aggregate control connection status of the field device by (i) determining whether one or more of the elements can use a manual value in place of the process value, (ii) determining whether one or more other elements in the plurality can use a user configured value, and (iii) evaluating a logic expression based on results of the determining in (i) and (ii);
• determine whether the field device is available to be taken offline based on the aggregate control connection status;
• and
• generate a notification based on the determination of whether the field device is available to be taken offline.

A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program, the computer program comprising computer readable program code for:

• identifying a plurality of elements in a process control system that uses a process value from a field device;
• identifying an aggregate control connection status of the field device by (i) determining whether one or more of the elements can use a manual value in place of the process value, (ii) determining whether one or more other elements in the plurality can use a user configured value, and (iii) evaluating a logic expression based on results of the determining in (i) and (ii);
• determining whether the field device is available to be taken offline based on the aggregate control connection status;
• and
• generating a notification based on the determination of whether the field device is available to be taken offline.