Projects within a Process Control Asset Management System

An asset management system for use in a process plant for accessing data associated with a set of devices within the process plant, comprising:

• a user interface for presenting content;
• a memory storing a set of device data for each of the set of devices;
• one or more processors interfacing with the set of devices, the user interface, and the memory, and configured to:
• receive, via a communication link from each of the set of devices, device data for the respective device,
• store the device data associated with the set of devices in the memory,
• receive, via the user interface, a project definition of a project within the process plant, the project definition including a list of devices associated with one or more projects within the plant;
• store the project definition within the memory;
• determine one or more project metrics using the device data for the devices within the project without including device data for devices not within the project;
• and
• presenting the one more or project metrics to a user via a user interface device.

A computer-implemented method of tracking device information for devices within a plant environment having a multiplicity of plant assets, where at least some of the plant assets are communicatively connected to operate in the plant during run-time to control a process, the method comprising:

• obtaining, at a computing device, a project definition for one or more projects within the plant, each of the project definitions including a list of plant assets associated with the project and which are not associated with the run-time system of the plant when the project is on-going;
• storing the project definition for each of the one or more projects within a computer readable memory;
• acquiring and storing in a database a set of device data for each of a multiplicity of plant assets in the plant, the device data for a particular plant asset defining device information for particular plant asset;
• accessing the device data as stored in the database for each of the plant assets that is not associated with any on-going project and thus for each plant asset associated with the run-time system;
• determining one or more plant asset metrics using the accessed device data for the plant assets without including device data for plant assets within any of the on-going projects;
• and
• presenting the one more or plant asset metrics to a user via a user interface device.

An asset management system for use in a process plant for accessing data associated with a set of devices within the process plant, comprising:

• a user interface for presenting content;
• a memory storing a set of device data for each of the set of devices;
• one or more processors interfacing with the set of devices, the user interface, and the memory, and configured to:
• receive, via a communication link from each of the set of devices, device data for the respective device,
• store the device data associated with the set of devices in the memory,
• receive, via the user interface, a project definition of a project within the process plant, the project definition including a list of devices associated with the project within the plant;
• store the project definition within the memory;
• store an indication of whether the project is on-going or complete;
• and
• store and execute a further application that accesses the device data stored in the memory to perform a function, wherein the further application accesses the device information for all of the devices within the project definition without accessing the device information for the devices not within the project definition, or the further application accesses the device information for all of the devices not within the project definition without accessing the device information for the devices within the project definition, to perform the function.