EVENT SYNCHRONIZED REPORTING IN PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEMS

• US 20130085795A1
• Filed: 11/29/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Caldwell, John M., Felts, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-executable instructions for event synchronized reporting in an process control system are disclosed. Events may be synchronized by a synchronization parameter, whose instances of occurrence may be non-contiguous in time. Examples of synchronization parameters may include a work shift, a work group, an individual'"'"'s on-duty time, a logged-on period of an individual, the execution times of a process control entity, a batch run type, and a procedure or sub-unit of a batch run. Instances of occurrence of the synchronization parameter may be recorded into a process control event database. Event synchronized reports may contain at least one synchronization value based on both the instances of occurrence of the synchronization parameter as well as historical process control data. Data from various historian databases may be accessed from process control system tools and integrated into a single report.

Claims

1. A method of synchronizing work shift information in a process control system of a process control plant:

identifying at least one work group in the process control plant, the at least work group including at least one individual,

identifying at least one work shift in the process control plant scheduled for the at least one work group;

generating a work change control system event for each work change, each work change including a time stamp and corresponding to a change in the process control plant from;

a first identified work shift to a second identified work shift, or

a first identified work group to a second identified work group;

recording the work change control system event for the each work change in an event historian database of the process control system, and

generating an event synchronized report including at least one synchronized value based on the work change control system event and at least one entry corresponding to historical data for a process control entity of the process control system, the at least one entry obtained from a centralized database of the process control system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the centralized database is at least one of:

the event historian database, a continuous historian database, or a batch historian database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the work change control system event comprises generating, as the work change control system event, at least one of:

a start time of an identified work shift,

an end time of the identified work shift,

a start time of an identified work group,

an end time of the identified work group,

a start time of a work period of a specific individual,

an end time of the work period of the specific individual,

a start time of a logged-on period of the specific individual, or

an end time of the logged-on period of the specific individual.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the work change control system event comprises generating, as the work change control system event, at least one of:

the start time of the identified work shift,

the end time of the identified work shift,

the start time of the identified work group,

the end time of the identified work group,

the start time of a work period of the specific individual,

the end time of the work period of the specific individual,

the start time of a logged-on period of the specific individual,

the end time of the logged-on period of the specific individual,

a start time of an execution period of a specific process control entity in the process control system,

an end time of the execution period of the specific process control entity,

a start time of a batch run type in the process control system,

an end time of the batch run type,

a start time of a procedure or a specific batch run, or

an end time of the procedure of the specific batch run.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one work shift and identifying the at least one work group comprises identifying the at least one work shift and identifying the at least one work group via a user interface of the process control system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one work shift and identifying the at least one work group comprises obtaining an identification of the at least one work shift and an identification of the at least one work group from a different database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining a reporting time interval, and wherein generating the event synchronized report comprises generating an event synchronized report based on a work change control system event that at least partially occurred during the reporting time interval.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the event synchronized report including at least one synchronized value comprises generating the event synchronized report including at least one of:

an aggregate value, an average value, a percentage, or a total count.