Method and apparatus for performing a function in a plant using process performance monitoring with process equipment monitoring and control

A method of operating a process control system within a plant including the steps of:

• collecting equipment data related to the status of equipment within the plant;
• collecting process control data related to the status of process control activities within the plant;
• collecting process performance data related to the performance of the process;
• externally receiving the equipment data, the process control data and the process performance data at a computer system;
• causing the received equipment data, the received process control data and the received process performance data to be concurrently available to perform a further function within the plant;
• and
• using two or more of the received equipment data, the received process control data and the received process performance data to perform the further function within the plant.

A process control system comprising:

• multiple process control devices;
• one or more controllers;
• one or more user interfaces;
• one or more data collection routines implemented on processing devices that collect process control data related to the status of process control activities within the plant, equipment data related to the status of equipment within the plant and process performance data generated by process models related to the performance of the process;
• and
• a condition monitoring routine communicatively connected to the data collection routines to externally accept and process the process control data, the equipment data and the process performance data collected by the data collection routines, wherein the process control data, the equipment data and the process performance data are concurrently available to perform condition monitoring within the process control system;
• wherein the process control devices, controllers and user interfaces are communicatively connected via one or more communication networks and wherein the data collection routines are configured to transparently accept data from multiple different source types within the process control system.

A process control system comprising:

• multiple process control devices;
• one or more controllers;
• one or more user interfaces;
• a communication network that interconnects the one or more controllers and the one or more user interfaces;
• a database that stores equipment and process control strategy configuration information pertaining to the configuration of the process control system;
• one or more data collection routines implemented on processing devices that collect process control data related to the status of process control activities within the plant, equipment data related to the status of equipment within the plant and process performance data generated by process models related to the performance of the process;
• a condition monitoring routine communicatively connected to the one or more data collection routines to externally accept and process the process control data, the equipment data and the process performance data collected by the data collection routines, wherein the process control data, the equipment data and the process performance data are concurrently available to perform condition monitoring within the process control system;
• and
• a display routine that displays the equipment and process control strategy configuration information associated with the process control system as stored in the database along with condition monitoring information pertaining to or generated by the condition monitoring routine, via the one or more user interfaces.