On-line monitoring and diagnostics of a process using multivariate statistical analysis

A system for monitoring and diagnosing on-line multivariate process variable data in a process plant, wherein the multivariate process data comprises a plurality of process variables each having a plurality of observations, the system comprising:

• a data collection tool adapted to collect on-line process data from a process control system within the process plant when the process is on-line, wherein the collected on-line process data comprises a plurality of observations of a plurality of process variables and wherein the plurality of observations of a set of collected on-line process data comprises a first data space having a plurality of dimensions;
• a first analysis tool comprising a multivariate statistical analysis engine adapted to represent the operation of the process based on the set of collected on-line process data comprising a measure of the operation of the process when the process is on-line within a second data space having fewer dimensions than the first data space;
• a second analysis tool comprising a univariate analysis engine adapted to represent the operation of the process as a multivariate projection of the set of collected on-line process data by a univariate variable for each of the process variables, wherein the univariate variable unifies the process variables, and the univariate analysis engine is adapted to monitor the set of collected on-line process data with the univariate variable;
• and
• a display tool adapted to generate a visualization comprising a first plot of a result generated by the multivariate statistical representation of the operation of the process and a second plot of a result generated by the univariate representation of the operation of the process.