Abstract:
Information related to an operational condition of a machine in a process plant is generated, where the generated information is in a first data format. The information may be generated based on data in a second format. The second format may, for example, correspond to a format used by a certain type or types of process entities, whereas the first format may, for example, correspond to a format used to process operational condition information of other types of process entities in the process plant. Providing operational condition data for various types of process entities in a common format may, for example, assist an operator in ascertaining the relative importance of the operational condition for various types of entities.

Description:
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE  
         [0001]    The present disclosure generally relates to process plant maintenance, control, and viewing applications and, more particularly, to the generation and use of information related to operational condition of process entities in a process plant.  
         DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART  
         [0002]    Process control systems, like those used in chemical, petroleum or other processes, typically include one or more centralized or decentralized process controllers communicatively coupled to at least one host or operator workstation and to one or more process control and instrumentation devices, such as field devices, via analog, digital or combined analog/digital buses. Field devices, which may be, for example valves, valve positioners, switches, transmitters, and sensors (e.g., temperature, pressure and flow rate sensors), perform functions within the process such as opening or closing valves and measuring process parameters. The process controller receives signals indicative of process measurements or process variables made by or associated with the field devices and/or other information pertaining to the field devices, uses this information to implement a control routine and then generates control signals which are sent over one or more of the buses to the field devices to control the operation of the process. Information from the field devices and the controller is typically made available to one or more applications executed by an operator workstation to enable an operator to perform desired functions with respect to the process, such as viewing the current state of the process, modifying the operation of the process, etc.  
           [0003]    While a typical process plant has many process control and instrumentation devices, such as valves, transmitters, sensors, etc. connected to one or more process controllers which execute software that controls these devices during the operation of the process, there are many other supporting devices which are also necessary for or related to process plant operation. These additional devices include, for example, power supply equipment, power generation and distribution equipment, rotating equipment such as turbines, etc., which are located at numerous places in a typical plant. While this additional equipment does not necessarily create or use process variables and, in many instances, is not controlled or even coupled to a process controller for the purpose of affecting the process operation, this equipment is nevertheless important to and ultimately necessary for proper operation of the process and the process plant. In the past however, process controllers were not necessarily aware of these other devices or the process controllers simply assumed that these devices were operating properly when performing process control.  
           [0004]    With regard to rotating equipment (e.g., machines that comprise rotating elements, such as bearings, shafts, gears, etc.), a piece of machinery will exhibit reasonable levels of vibration which are characteristic of its normal operation. Based upon knowledge of the rotational speed of individual machine elements, machine maintenance personnel can monitor the machine&#39;s vibration level at certain characteristic frequencies to acquire an indication of the overall condition of the machine. As the mechanical integrity of a machine element begins to degrade, the vibration level associated with that element changes from its normal characteristic level, indicating to the machine maintenance personnel that corrective action will soon be necessary. By implementing a machine monitoring program, the machine&#39;s vibration levels can be measured on a regular schedule, and early detection of abnormal machine operation is possible. With such early warning, repair of the machine may be scheduled well before a machine breakdown and the associated work stoppage occurs. In this manner, machine “down-time” may be scheduled well in advance so as to minimize the impact on manufacturing operations.  
           [0005]    A typical machine monitoring program may include dozens or even hundreds of rotating machines. For each of these machines, vibration spectra are typically collected at a number of locations on the machine. Specific spectral features in the measured data may include harmonic families or difference families, which are associated with certain types of machinery faults. From this collected data, an analyst determines which machines are operating with a fault condition. For the machines that are in fact operating with a fault condition, the type of fault, its location, and its severity may be determined. The severity may be represented as a value from a severity index, where the severity index provides a quantitative indication of a deviation from a normal operating condition.  
           [0006]    Many process plants have other computers associated therewith which execute applications related to business functions or maintenance functions. For example, some plants include computers which execute applications associated with ordering raw materials, replacement parts or devices for the plant, applications related to forecasting sales and production needs, etc. Likewise, many process plants, and especially those which use smart field devices, include applications which are used to help monitor and maintain the devices within the plant regardless of whether these devices are process control and instrumentation devices or are other types of devices. For example, the Asset Management Solutions (AMS) application sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. enables communication with and stores data pertaining to field devices to ascertain and track the operating state of the field devices. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,214 entitled “Integrated Communication Network for use in a Field Device Management System.” In some instances, the AMS application may be used to communicate with devices to change parameters within the device, to cause the device to run applications on itself, such as self calibration routines or self diagnostic routines, to obtain information about the status or health of the device, etc. This information may be stored and used by a maintenance person to monitor and maintain these devices.  
           [0007]    Maintenance personnel who are primarily responsible for assuring that the actual equipment within the process is operating efficiently and for repairing and replacing malfunctioning equipment, use tools such as maintenance interfaces, the AMS application discussed above, as well and many other diagnostic tools which provide information about operating states of the devices within the process. Maintenance persons also schedule maintenance activities which may require shut down of portions of the plant. For many newer types of process devices and equipment, generally called smart field devices, the devices themselves may include detection and diagnostic tools which automatically sense problems with the operation of the device and automatically report these problems to a maintenance person via a standard maintenance interface. For example, the AMS software reports device status and diagnostic information to the maintenance person and provides communication and other tools that enable the maintenance person to determine what is happening in devices and to access device information provided by devices.  
           [0008]    In the past, maintenance persons were provided with a wide variety of diagnostic information from the various entities within the process plant. For instance, monitoring and/or diagnostic information related to smart field devices typically were provided to maintenance persons via one or more formats and user interfaces. Similarly, monitoring/diagnostic information related to power generation and distribution equipment were provided to maintenance persons via another set of formats and user interfaces. Further, monitoring/diagnostic information related to rotating equipment were provided to maintenance persons via yet another set of formats and user interfaces. Because monitoring/diagnostic information for the various types of process entities were provided in multiple formats and via multiple user interfaces, typically led to a sub-optimal use of this information.  
           [0009]    In a typical process plant, very different applications may be used to perform the different functions within a plant, e.g., process control operations, maintenance operations and business operations and are separated. The different applications used for these different tasks are typically not integrated and, thus, do not share data or information. In fact, many plants only include some, but not all, of these different types of applications. Furthermore, even if all of the applications are located within a plant, because different personnel use these different applications and analysis tools and because these tools are generally located at different hardware locations within the plant, there is little if any flow of information from one functional area of the plant to another, even when this information may be useful to other functions within the plant. For example, a tool, such as a rotating equipment data analysis tool, may be used by a maintenance person to detect a poorly functioning power generator or piece of rotating equipment (based on non-process variable type data). This tool may detect a problem and alert the maintenance person that the device needs to be calibrated, repaired or replaced. However, the process control operator (either a human or a software expert) does not have the benefit of this information, even though the poorly operating device may be causing a problem that is affecting a loop or some other component which is being monitored by the process control operation. Likewise, the business person is not aware of this fact, even though the malfunctioning device may be critical to and may be preventing optimization of the plant in a manner that the business person may desire. Because the process control expert is unaware of a device problem which may be ultimately causing poor performance of a loop or unit in the process control system and because the process control operator or expert assumes that this equipment is operating perfectly, the process control expert may misdiagnose the problem it detects within the process control loop or may try to apply a tool, such as a loop tuner, which could never actually correct the problem. Likewise, the business person may make a business decision to run the plant in a manner that will not achieve the desired business effects (such as optimizing profits) because of the malfunctioning device.  
           [0010]    Due to the abundance of data analysis and other detection and diagnostic tools available in the process control environment, there is much information about the health and performance of devices available to a maintenance person which could be helpful to other maintenance persons, a process operator, business persons, etc. However, in the past, the information generated or collected in one functional area of a process plant was not used at all, or not used very well in other functional areas which led to an overall sub-optimal use of the assets within process plants.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0011]    The example systems described herein may be used to generate information related to an operational condition of a machine in a process plant, where the generated information is in a first data format. The information may be generated based on data in a second format. The second format may, for example, correspond to a format used by a certain type or types of process entities, whereas the first format may, for example, correspond to a format used to process operational condition information of other types of process entities in the process plant. Providing operational condition data for various types of process entities in a common format may, for example, assist an operator in ascertaining the relative importance of the operational condition for various types of entities.  
           [0012]    In one embodiment, a method is provided in which a first value associated with a monitored machine is received. The first value may be from a range of values in a first index, where the first index is indicative of varying degrees of deviation from an acceptable operational state of the monitored machine. As one example, the first index may be a deviation severity index related to vibration information associated with rotating machines.  
           [0013]    Then, a second value is generated based on the first value, where the second value is from a range of values in a second index. The second index may be indicative of varying degrees of relative health of a process entity adapted for use in process plants. As one example, the second index may be a health index related to the relative health of process entities in a process plant.  
           [0014]    Next, a notification associated with the monitored machine may be generated, where the notification includes the second value. In one example, the notification may be in the form of an alert. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]    The features and advantages of the techniques described herein will be best appreciated upon reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example process plant;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2 is a data and information flow diagram with respect to the process plant of FIG. 1;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example machine vibration monitoring system;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the example computer of FIG. 3;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 5 is a diagram of information and data flow in a portion of a process plant;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method that may be implemented by a portion of a process plant; and  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method for generating a health index value based on a severity value.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0023]    Process Plant  
         [0024]    Referring now to FIG. 1, an example process plant  10  includes a number of business and other computer systems interconnected with a number of control and maintenance systems by one or more communication networks. The process plant  10  includes one or more process control systems  12  and  14 . The process control system  12  may be a traditional process control system such as a PROVOX or RS3 system or any other DCS which includes an operator interface  12 A coupled to a controller  12 B and to input/output (I/O) cards  12 C which, in turn, are coupled to various field devices such as analog and Highway Addressable Remote Transmitter (HART) field devices  15 . The process control system  14 , which may be a distributed process control system, includes one or more operator interfaces  14 A coupled to one or more distributed controllers  14 B via a bus, such as an Ethernet bus. The controllers  14 B may be, for example, DeltaV™ controllers sold by Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc. of Austin, Tex. or any other desired type of controllers. The controllers  14 B are connected via I/O devices to one or more field devices  16 , such as for example, HART or Fieldbus field devices or any other smart or non-smart field devices including, for example, those that use any of the PROFIBUS®, WORLDFIP®, Device-Net®, AS-Interface and CAN protocols. As is known, the field devices  16  may provide analog or digital information to the controllers  14 B related to process variables as well as to other device information. The operator interfaces  14 A may store and execute tools available to the process control operator for controlling the operation of the process including, for example, control optimizers, diagnostic experts, neural networks, tuners, etc.  
         [0025]    Still further, maintenance systems, such as computers executing the AMS application or any other device monitoring and communication applications may be connected to the process control systems  12  and  14  or to the individual devices therein to perform maintenance and monitoring activities. For example, a maintenance computer  18  may be connected to the controller  12 B and/or to the devices  15  via any desired communication lines or networks (including wireless or handheld device networks) to communicate with and, in some instances, reconfigure or perform other maintenance activities on the devices  15 . Similarly, maintenance applications such as the AMS application may be installed in and executed by one or more of the user interfaces  14 A associated with the distributed process control system  14  to perform maintenance and monitoring functions, including data collection related to the operating status of the devices  16 .  
         [0026]    The process plant  10  also includes various rotating equipment  20 , such as turbines, motors, etc. which are coupled to a maintenance computer  22  via some permanent or temporary communication link (such as a bus, a wireless communication system or hand held devices which are connected to the equipment  20  to take readings and are then removed). Additionally or alternatively, the maintenance computer  22  may be coupled to monitoring/diagnostic equipment that monitors the rotating equipment  20 . The maintenance computer  22  may store and execute known monitoring and diagnostic applications  23  provided by, for example, CSI or other any other known applications used to diagnose, monitor and optimize the operating state of the rotating equipment  20 . Maintenance personnel usually use the applications  23  to maintain and oversee the performance of rotating equipment  20  in the plant  10 , to determine problems with the rotating equipment  20  and to determine when and if the rotating equipment  20  must be repaired or replaced. Data related to the monitoring, diagnostics, and/or optimization of the rotating equipment may be stored in a database (not shown) coupled to the computer  22 .  
         [0027]    Similarly, a power generation and distribution system  24  having power generating and distribution equipment  25  associated with the plant  10  is connected via, for example, a bus, to another computer  26  which runs and oversees the operation of the power generating and distribution equipment  25  within the plant  10 . The computer  26  may execute known power control and diagnostics applications  27  such a as those provided by, for example, Liebert and ASCO or other companies to control and maintain the power generation and distribution equipment  25 .  
         [0028]    In the past, the various process control systems  12  and  14  and the power generating and maintenance systems  22  and  26  may not have been interconnected with each other in a manner that enabled them to share data generated in or collected by each of these systems in a useful manner. As a result, each of the different functions such as the process control functions, power generation functions and rotating equipment functions have operated on the assumption that the other equipment within the plant which may be affected by or have an affect on that particular function is operating perfectly which, of course, is almost never the case. However, because the functions are so different and the equipment and personnel used to oversee these functions are different, there typically has been little or no meaningful data sharing between the different functional systems within the plant  10 .  
         [0029]    To overcome this problem, a computer system  30  is provided which is communicatively connected to the computers or interfaces associated with the various functional systems within the plant  10 , including the process control functions  12  and  14 , the maintenance functions such as those implemented in the computers  18 ,  14 A,  22  and  26  and the business functions. In particular, the computer system  30  is communicatively connected to the traditional process control system  12  and to the maintenance interface  18  associated with that control system, is connected to the process control and/or maintenance interfaces  14 A of the distributed process control system  14 , is connected to the rotating equipment maintenance computer  22  and to the power generation and distribution computer  26 , all via a network  32 . The network  32  may use any desired or appropriate local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) protocol to provide communications.  
         [0030]    As illustrated in FIG. 1, the computer  30  is also connected via the same or a different network  32  to business system computers and maintenance planning computers  35  and  36 , which may execute, for example, enterprise resource planning (ERP), material resource planning (MRP), accounting, production and customer ordering systems, maintenance planning systems or any other desired business applications such as parts, supplies and raw materials ordering applications, production scheduling applications, etc. The computer  30  may also be connected via, for example, the network  32 , to a plant-wide LAN  37 , a corporate WAN  38  as well as to a computer system  40  that enables remote monitoring of or communication with the plant  10  from remote locations.  
         [0031]    In one embodiment, the communications over the bus  32  occur using the XML protocol. Here, data from each of the computers  12 A,  18 ,  14 A,  22 ,  26 ,  35 ,  36 , etc. is wrapped in an XML wrapper and is sent to an XML data server which may be implemented by, for example, the computer  30 . Because XML is a descriptive language, the server can process any type of data. At the server, if necessary, the data is encapsulated with a new XML wrapper, i.e., this data is mapped from one XML schema to one or more other XML schemas which are created for each of the receiving applications. Thus, each data originator can wrap its data using a schema understood or convenient for that device or application, and each receiving application can receive the data in a different schema used for or understood by the receiving application. The server is configured to map one schema to another schema depending on the source and destination(s) of the data. If desired, the server may also perform certain data processing functions or other functions based on the receipt of data. The mapping and processing function rules are set up and stored in the server prior to operation of the system described herein. In this manner, data may be sent from any one application to one or more other applications.  
         [0032]    Generally speaking, the computer  30  stores and executes an asset utilization expert  50  that collects data and other information generated by the process control systems  12  and  14 , the maintenance systems  18 ,  22  and  26  and the business systems  35  and  36  as well as information generated by data analysis tools executed in each of these systems. The asset utilization expert  50  may be based on, for example, the OZ expert system currently provided by NEXUS. However, the asset utilization expert  50  may be any other desired type of expert system including, for example, any type of data mining system. Importantly, the asset utilization expert  50  operates as a data and information clearinghouse in the process plant  10  and is able to coordinate the distribution of data or information from one functional area, such as the maintenance area, to other functional areas, such as the process control or the business functional areas. The asset utilization expert  50  may also use the collected data to generate new information or data which can be distributed to one or more of the computer systems associated with the different functions within the plant  10 . Still further, the asset utilization expert  50  may execute or oversee the execution of other applications that use the collected data to generate new types of data to be used within the process plant  10 .  
         [0033]    In particular, the asset utilization expert  50  may include or execute index generation software  51  that creates indices associated with devices, like process control and instrumentation devices, power generation devices, rotating equipment, units, areas, etc, or that are associated with process control entities, like loops, etc. within the plant  10 . These indices can then be provided to the process control applications to help optimize process control and can be provided to the business software or business applications to provide the business persons more complete or understandable information associated with the operation of the plant  10 . The asset utilization expert  50  can also provide maintenance data (such as device status information) and business data (such as data associated with scheduled orders, timeframes, etc.) to a control expert  52  associated with, for example, the process control system  14  to help an operator perform control activities such as optimizing control. The control expert  52  may be implemented by, for example, the user interface  14 A or any other computer associated with the control system  14  or within the computer  30  if desired.  
         [0034]    In one embodiment, the control expert  52  may be, for example, the control expert described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/256,585, entitled “Diagnostics in a Process Control System,” filed on Feb. 22, 1999, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/499,445, entitled “Diagnostic Expert in a Process Control System,” filed on Feb. 7, 2000, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties for all purposes. However, these control experts may additionally incorporate and use data related to the status of devices or other hardware within the process plant  10  in the decision making performed by these control experts. In particular, in the past, the software control experts generally only used process variable data and some limited device status data to make decisions or recommendations to the process operator. With the communication provided by the asset utilization expert  50 , especially that related to device status information such as that provided by the computer systems  18 ,  14 A,  22  and  26  and the data analysis tools implemented thereon, the control expert  52  can receive and incorporate device status information such as health, performance, utilization and variability information into its decision making along with process variable information.  
         [0035]    Additionally, the asset utilization expert  50  can provide information pertaining to states of devices and the operation of the control activities within the plant  10  to the business systems  35  and  36  where, for example, a work order generation application or program  54  can automatically generate work orders and order parts based on detected problems within the plant  10  or where supplies can be ordered based on work being performed. Similarly, changes in the control system detected by the asset utilization expert  50  may cause the business systems  35  or  36  to run applications that perform scheduling and supply orders using, for example, the program  54 . In the same manner, changes in customer orders etc. can be entered into the business systems  35  or  36  and this data can be sent to the asset utilization expert  50  and sent to the control routines or control expert  52  to cause changes in the control to, for example, begin making the newly ordered products or to implement the changes made in the business systems  35  and  36 . Of course, if desired, each computer system connected to the bus  32  may have an application therein that functions to obtain the appropriate data from the other applications within the computer and to sending this data to, for example, the asset utilization expert  50 .  
         [0036]    Additionally, the asset utilization expert  50  can send information to one or more optimizers  55  within the plant  10 . For example, a control optimizer  55  can be located in the computer  14 A and can run one or more control optimization routines  55 A, 55 B, etc. Additionally or alternatively, optimizer routines  55  could be stored in and executed by the computer  30  or any other computer, and the data necessary therefore could be sent by the asset utilization expert  50 . If desired, the plant  10  may also include models  56  that model certain aspects of the plant  10  and these models  56  can be executed by the asset utilization expert  50  or a control or other expert such as the control expert  52  to perform modeling functions, the purpose of which will be described in more detail herein. Generally speaking, however, the models  56  can be used to determine device, area, unit, loop, etc. parameters, to detect faulty sensors or other faulty equipment, as part of optimizer routines  55 , to generate indices such as performance and utilization indices for use in the plant  10 , to perform performance or condition monitoring, as well as for many other uses. The models  56  may be models such as those created by and sold by MDC Technology located in Teeside, England or may be any other desired types of models. There are, of course, many other applications that can be provided within the plant  10  and that can use the data from the asset utilization expert  50  and the system described herein is not limited to the applications specifically mentioned herein. Overall, however, the asset utilization expert  50  helps to optimize the use of all of the assets within the plant  10  by enabling the sharing of data and coordination of assets between all of the functional areas of the plant  10 .  
         [0037]    Also, generally speaking, one or more user interface routines  58  can be stored in and executed by one or more of the computers within the plant  10 . For example, the computer  30 , the user interface  14 A, the business system computer  35  or any other computer may run a user interface routine  58 . Each user interface routine  58  can receive or subscribe to information from the asset utilization expert  50  and either the same or different sets of data may be sent to each of the user interface routines  58 . Any one of the user interface routines  58  can provide different types of information using different screens to different users. For example, one of the user interface routines  58  may provide a screen or set of screens to a control operator or to a business person to enable that person to set constraints or to choose optimization variables for use in a standard control routine or in a control optimizer routine. The user interface routine  58  may provide a control guidance tool that enables a user to view the indices created by the index generation software  51  in some coordinated manner. This operator guidance tool may also enable the operator or any other person to obtain information about the states of devices, control loops, units, etc. and to easily see the information related to the problems with these entities, as that information has been detected by other software within the process plant  10 . The user interface routine  58  may also provide performance monitoring screens using performance monitoring data provided by or generated by the tools  23  and  27 , the maintenance programs such as the AMS application or any other maintenance programs, or as generated by the models in conjunction with the asset utilization expert  50 . Of course, the user interface routine  58  may provide any user access to and enable the user to change preferences or other variables used in any or all functional areas of the plant  10 .  
         [0038]    Referring now to FIG. 2, a data flow diagram illustrating some of the data flow between the asset utilization expert  50  and other computer tools or applications within the process plant  10  is provided. In particular, the asset utilization expert  50  may receive information from numerous data collectors or data sources such as multiplexers, transmitters, sensors, hand held devices, control systems, radio frequency (RF) transceivers, on-line control systems, web servers, historians, control modules or other control applications within the process plant  10 , interfaces such as user interfaces and I/O interfaces as well as data servers such as buses (e.g., Fieldbus, HART and Ethernet buses), valves, transceivers, sensors, servers and controllers and other plant assets such as process instrumentation, rotating equipment, electrical equipment, power generation equipment, variable speed drivers, etc. This data can take on any desired form based on how the data is generated or used by other functional systems. Still further, this data may be sent to the asset utilization expert  50  using any desired or appropriate data communication protocol and communication hardware such as the XML protocol discussed above. Generally speaking, however, the plant  10  will be configured so that the asset utilization expert  50  automatically receives specific kinds of data from one or more of the data sources and so that the asset utilization expert  50  can take predetermined actions with respect to that data.  1391  Also, the asset utilization expert  50  receives information from (and may actually execute) data analysis tools such as maintenance data analysis tools, performance tracking tools, such as those associated with devices, as well as performance tracking tools for process control systems like that described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/256,585 and 09/499,445 identified above. The data analysis tools may also include, for example, a root cause application which detects root causes of certain types of problems, event detection such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,143, regulatory loop diagnostics such as that disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/303,869, filed May 3, 1999, (which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes) impulse lines plugging detection applications, such as that described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/257,896, filed Feb. 25, 1999, (which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes) device status applications, device configuration applications and maintenance applications, device storage, historian and information display tools, such as AMS, Explorer applications and audit trail applications. Still further, the expert  50  can receive data and any information from process control data analysis tools such as the advanced control expert  52 , model predictive control process routines such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/593,327 (filed Jun. 14, 2000) and Ser. No. 09/412,078 (filed Oct. 4, 1999), which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties for all purposes, tuning routines, fuzzy logic control routines and neural network control routines, as well as from virtual sensors such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,409, which may be provided within the process control system  10 .  
         [0039]    Still further, the asset utilization expert  50  may receive information from data analysis tools related to rotating equipment such as on-line vibration, RF wireless sensors and hand-held data collection units, oil analysis associated with rotating equipment, thermography, ultra-sonic systems and laser alignment and balancing systems, all of which may be related to detecting problems or the status of rotating equipment within the process plant  10 .  
         [0040]    Still further, the asset utilization expert  50  may receive data related to power management and power equipment and supplies such as the applications  23  and  27  of FIG. 1, which may include any desired power management and power equipment monitoring and analysis tools.  
         [0041]    In one embodiment, the asset utilization expert  50  executes or oversees the execution of mathematical software models  56  of some or all of the equipment within the plant  10 , such as device models, loops models, unit models, area models, etc., which are run by, for example, the computer  30  or any other desired computer within process plant  10 . The asset utilization expert  50  may use the data developed by or associated with these models for a number of reasons. Some of this data (or the models themselves) may be used to provide virtual sensors within the plant  10 . Some of this data, or the models themselves, may be used to implement predictive control or real time optimal control within the plant  10 . Some of the data generated by the models  56  may be used by the index generation routine  51  to generate indices which are used in other applications, such as business and process control applications. The use of the models  56  for these and other purposes will be described in more detail below.  
         [0042]    The asset utilization expert  50  receives data as it is generated or at certain periodic times over, for example, the bus  32  or other any communication network within the process plant  10 . Thereafter, periodically or as needed, the asset utilization expert  50  redistributes the data to other applications or uses that data to generate and provide other information useful in different aspects of the control or operation of the process plant  10  to other function systems within the plant  10 . In particular, the asset utilization expert  50  may supply data to cause the index generation routine  51  to create a series of composite indices such as a performance index, a utilization index, a health index and a variability index associated with one or more of the devices, units, loops, areas, or other entities within the process plant  10 . The generation and use of these indices will also be discussed in more detail herein.  
         [0043]    The asset utilization expert  50  may also provide data to and receive data from control routines  62  which may be located in process controllers or interfaces associated with those controllers, optimizers  55 , business applications  63 , maintenance applications  66 , etc.  
         [0044]    Furthermore, a control expert  65  (which may include a predictive process controller), which in the past simply assumed that the devices it was controlling either worked properly or not at all, can receive information from the asset utilization expert  50  related to the status or health of the devices it is controlling, such as the utilization, variability, health or performance indices mentioned above or other information related to the operating status of devices, loops, etc. which can be taken into account when trying to control a process. The predictive controller  65 , as well as the optimizers  55  may provide additional information and data to user interface routines  58 . The predictive controller  65  or optimizer  55  may use the status information pertaining to actual current status of the devices in the network, as well as take into account goals and future needs such as those identified by business solution software provided from the asset utilization expert  50  as defined by, for example, business applications  63 , to optimize control based on predictions within the control system.  
         [0045]    Still further, the asset utilization expert  50  may provide data to and receive data from enterprise resource planning tools such as those typically used in business solutions or business computers  35  and  36 . These applications may include production planning tools which control production planning, material resource planning, the work order generation tool  54  which automatically generates part orders, work orders, or supply orders for use in the business applications, etc. Of course, the part order, work order and supply order generation may be completed automatically based on information from the asset utilization expert  50 , which decreases the time required to recognize that an asset needs to be fixed as well as the time is takes to receive the parts necessary to provide corrective action with respect to maintenance issues.  
         [0046]    The asset utilization expert  50  may also provide information to the maintenance system applications  66 , which not only alert maintenance people to problems immediately, but also take corrective measures such as ordering parts, etc. which will be needed to correct a problem. Still further, new models  68  may be generated using types of information that are available to the asset utilization expert  50  but that were previously unavailable to any single system. Of course, it will be understood from FIG. 2 that the asset utilization expert  50  not only receives information or data from the data models and the analysis tools but, also receives information from enterprise resource tools, maintenance tools and process control tools.  
         [0047]    Moreover, one or more coordinated user interface routines  58  may communicate with the asset utilization expert  50  as well as any other applications within the plant  10  to provide help and visualization to operators, maintenance persons, business persons, etc. The operators and other users may use the coordinated user interface routines  58  to perform or to implement predictive control, change settings of the plant  10 , view help within the plant  10 , or perform any other activities related to the information provided by the asset utilization expert  50 . As discussed above, the user interface routines  58  may include an operator guidance tool that receives information from the predictive controller  65  as well as information related to the indices, which can be used by an operator or other user to help perform many functions such as viewing the status of a process or devices within the process, to guide the predictive controller  65  or to perform predictive or optimized control. Still further, the user interface routines  58  may be used to view data or to obtain data from any of the tools in the other parts of the process plant  10  via, for example, the asset utilization expert  50 . For example, managers may want to know what is happening in the process or may need high level information related to the process plant  10  to make strategic plans.  
         [0048]    Monitoring Rotating Equipment  
         [0049]    As discussed above, information related to problems or status of rotating equipment in a process plant may be provided to the asset utilization expert  50  by data analysis tools. These data analysis tools may include, for example, tools that monitor the vibration exhibited by the rotating equipment. The information provided by the data analysis tools may be in the form, for example, of a measure of severity of the machine&#39;s vibration.  
         [0050]    Several methods for determining a measure of severity of a machine&#39;s vibration are known. For example, one well-known method involves comparing a measure of overall vibration to a chart which defines acceptable overall vibration levels for rotating machines. For example, the Rathbone chart provides an allowable level of overall vibration that a machine can exhibit by ranking the machine&#39;s operating condition from extremely smooth to very rough in nine incremental steps.  
         [0051]    Another known method of determining fault severity based upon a machine&#39;s vibration spectrum involves the calculation of values that represent the amount of energy present in certain regions, or bands, of the vibration spectrum. Several of these analysis parameter bands may be specified, each with an associated alarm limit to which a calculated parameter value can be compared. The machine&#39;s fault severity can be characterized by examining the deviation of the calculated values from their associated alarm limit, with a severity value in the range of A-D assigned for each band.  
         [0052]    Other known methods of determining fault severity based on vibration information include detecting that a machine&#39;s vibration level has exceeded a limit level, and then determining into which of several categories of severity the vibration level falls (e.g., “slight”, “moderate”, “serious”, or “extreme”).  
         [0053]    Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,420, entitled “Determining Machine Operating Conditioning Based on Severity of Vibration Spectra Deviation From an Acceptable State,” issued Feb. 23, 1999, describes embodiments of methods for determining fault severity based on vibration information, and is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes. In at least some of these embodiments, a deviation severity value for a machine may be determined based on the amplitudes of peaks within the machine&#39;s vibration spectrum. This deviation severity value may help characterize the severity of the machine&#39;s deviation from an acceptable state so that faults associated with one or more machines may be ranked.  
         [0054]    [0054]FIG. 3 illustrates an example machine vibration monitoring system  100 . The machine vibration monitoring system  100  may be used to measure and analyze the vibration level of a machine  110 , such as an AC induction motor. By monitoring the machine&#39;s vibration spectra, the operational condition of the machine may be deduced. The system  100  includes a device, such as the portable vibration analyzer  112  that collects, stores, and/or analyzes vibration data from one or more machines, and a computer  114  which stores and analyzes vibration data, such as data which has been downloaded from the portable vibration analyzer  112 .  
         [0055]    An analysis performed by the portable vibration analyzer  112  and/or the computer  14  in such a system  100  may include transforming the machine&#39;s vibration data into vibration frequency spectra, defining a vibration amplitude limit above which the machine&#39;s vibration level is considered abnormal, determining whether the machine&#39;s vibration level has exceeded the defined limits, and generating a qualitative value which can characterize the severity of an abnormal vibration condition. This qualitative value may, for example, permit an operator to make an informed decision about the priority to assign to the problem with the machine  110 . The qualitative value may be, for example, the deviation severity value described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,420. The qualitative value may also be determined according to other methods, such as the known methods of determining measures of fault severity described above.  
         [0056]    [0056]FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the computer  114  of FIG. 3. The computer  114  may comprise a processor  120  coupled to a memory  124 , a user interface  128 , and a display unit  132 . The memory  124  may comprise volatile memory, such as read-only-memory (RAM), and may also comprise non-volatile memory, such as a hard-disk drive, a floppy disk drive, read-only memory, FLASH memory, etc. Data representing a machine&#39;s test vibration spectrum may be made available to the processor  120  via, for example, a data interface  144 , or the data may reside in memory  124  where it is readable by the processor  120 . Alternatively, the test vibration spectrum data may be downloaded to the processor  120  or the memory  124  via, for example, a data retrieval device  136 , such as a disk or tape drive, and a data storage device  140 , such as a magnetic disk or tape. Additionally, the test vibration spectrum data may be downloaded via, for example, the data interface  144  or a network interface  148 .  
         [0057]    When the test vibration spectrum data have been made available to the processor  120 , the processor  120  may execute a process, such as one of the processes describe in U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,420 that generates one or more deviation severity values. The processor  120  may execute the process steps according to software stored in the memory  124 .  
         [0058]    Referring again to FIG. 1, the computer  114  may be coupled to the computer  22 . Alternatively, the computer  22  may comprise the computer  114 . The computer  22  may receive or generate deviation severity values corresponding to the rotating equipment  20 . Then, these severity values may be stored in the database (not shown) coupled to computer  22 . Table  1  is one example of possible severity values that may be stored in the database.  
                   TABLE 1                       Deviation Severity Value   Severity Description                   −1   No Status        0   Normal        1-19   Alert       20-39   Alarm       40-69   Extreme       70-99   Catastrophic                  
 
         [0059]    As can be seen in Table 1, a severity value of 0 indicates that the monitored machine&#39;s vibration appears normal, whereas severity values from 1-99 indicate an abnormal condition with varying degrees of severity. Specifically, a value of 1 indicates an abnormal condition with the lowest severity (an alert) and a value of 99 indicates an abnormal condition with the most severity (a catastrophic condition). Additionally, a value of −1 indicates that no status is available for the monitored machine. This may indicate, for example, that communication with the computer  114  and/or the vibration analyzer  112  (FIG. 3) is not occurring.  
         [0060]    Health Index  
         [0061]    As described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the asset utilization expert  50 , which may be implemented by, for example, computer  30 , collects data and other information generated by the process control systems  12  and  14 , the maintenance systems  18 ,  22  and  26  and the business systems  35  and  36  as well as information generated by data analysis tools executed in each of these systems.  
         [0062]    Also as described above, the asset utilization expert  50  may include or execute index generation software  51  that creates indices associated with devices, like process control and instrumentation devices, power generation devices, rotating equipment, units, areas, etc, or that are associated with process control entities, like loops, etc. within the plant  10 . These indices can then be provided to the process control applications to help optimize process control and can be provided to the business software or business applications to provide the business persons more complete or understandable information associated with the operation of the plant  10 .  
         [0063]    U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/085,439, filed on Feb. 28, 2002, and entitled “Creation and Display of Indices Within a Process Plant,” which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes, describes examples of several indices that may be generated by the index generation software  51 . These indices may be used to quantify various characteristics about individual entities, in a process plant such as devices, equipment, etc., or characteristics about logical or physical groupings of individual entities. For example, a performance index may indicate the relative performance of a device, unit, area, etc. within a plant. Additionally, a variability index may indicate how much a parameter, signal, etc. vanes as compared to how much it is expected to vary. Also, a utilization index may indicate the utilization of individual devices, units, loops, etc. Further, a health index may indicate the health of certain devices, or other entities in the process plant  10 .  
         [0064]    Table 2 is one example of values that may compose a health index used by the various computer systems in the process plant  10 .  
                   TABLE 2                       Health Index Value   Description                    0   No Communication        1-19   Failed       20-79   Needs Maintenance       80-99   Advisory       100   Normal                  
 
         [0065]    As can be seen in Table 2, a health index value of 100 indicates that the operating condition of the corresponding entity or group of entities is normal, whereas health index values from 1-99 indicate varying degrees of sub-optimal conditions. Specifically, a value of 1 indicates a worst condition (failed) and a value of 99 indicates an abnormal condition with the lowest priority (advisory). Additionally, a value of 0 indicates that communication with the corresponding entity or group of entities has failed.  
         [0066]    Determining Health Indices for Rotating Equipment  
         [0067]    [0067]FIG. 5 is a diagram of information and data flow in a portion of a process plant such as the process plant  10  of FIG. 1. A rotating equipment data server  204  may be coupled to one or more vibration analyzers  112  described with reference to FIG. 3. Additionally, or alternatively, the rotating equipment data server  204  may be coupled to one or more computers  114  described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. Further, the rotating equipment data server  204  may comprise a computer  114 .  
         [0068]    Additionally, the rotating equipment data server  204  is coupled to a rotating equipment database  208 . Referring to FIGS. 1, 3, and  4 , the rotating equipment data server  204  may receive information related to the operational status of rotating equipment  22  from the computer(s)  114 , and may store this information in the rotating equipment database  208 . Additionally or alternatively, the rotating equipment data server  204  may receive vibration data from the vibration analyzer(s)  112 , and may generate information related to the operational status of rotating equipment  22 . Similarly, this generated information may be stored in the rotating equipment database  208 . The information related to the operational status of rotating equipment  22  may include deviation severity values as described above. Referring to FIG. 1, the rotating equipment data server  204  may be implemented by, or communicatively coupled to, the computer  22 .  
         [0069]    The rotating equipment data server  204  is communicatively coupled to a data collection system  212 . The data collection system  212  may store some or all of the data it collects in a database  216 . Referring to FIG. 1, the data collection system  212  may be implemented by the computer system  30 . The data collection system  212  may be a component of the asset utilization expert  50 . The rotating equipment data server  204  and the data collection system  212  may communicate data to each other via a bus or a network such as a LAN, a WAN, the Internet, etc. Such data communication may be implemented using, for example, the XML protocol or any other suitable protocol.  
         [0070]    Generally speaking, the rotating equipment data server  204  generates health index values associated with various rotating equipment and then transmits those health index values to the data collection system  212 . The data collection system  212  may then make the health index values associated with the various rotating equipment available to other various other applications, such as user interfaces, maintenance systems, asset managements systems, control systems, models, diagnostic systems, business systems, etc.  
         [0071]    [0071]FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method  250  that may be implemented by a portion of a process plant such as the portion illustrated in FIG. 5, and will be described with reference to FIG. 5. At block  254 , the data collection system  212  requests operational status information associated with one or more rotating equipment entities. The data collections system  212  may request the operational status information periodically, in response to some triggering event, etc.  1711  For ease of explanation, the remaining description will assume that the request (block  254 ) is related to only one rotating equipment entity. It is to be understood, however, that the flow of FIG. 6 may apply to instances in which operation status information related to multiple rotating equipment entities have been requested.  
         [0072]    At block  258 , the rotating equipment data server  204  retrieves operational status information related to the rotating equipment entity from the rotating equipment database  208 . The information stored in the database associated with the entity includes a deviation severity value, as discussed above, for that entity.  1731  At block  262 , the rotating equipment data server  204  generates a health index value based on the deviation severity value retrieved from the rotating equipment database  208 . The health index value may be generated using a variety of techniques such as generating the health index value based on one or more equations, using a look up table, etc.  
         [0073]    [0073]FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method  300  for generating a health index value based on a deviation severity value. In particular, the method  300  provides a technique for converting a deviation severity value from the example deviation severity values of Table 1 into a health index value from the example health index values of Table 2.  
         [0074]    At block  304 , it is determined whether the severity value equals −1. As an alternative, it could be determined whether the severity value is less than zero. If the severity value is −1, the flow proceeds to block  308 . If the severity value is not −1, the flow proceeds to block  312 .  
         [0075]    At block  308 , the health index is determined to be 0. At block  312 , the health index is determined as 100 minus the severity value.  
         [0076]    One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize many variations to the flow of FIG. 7. For example, blocks may be combined with other blocks or eliminated. Additionally, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the flow of FIG. 7 may be implemented as a look-up table.  
         [0077]    Further, the flow of FIG. 7 assumes that the example deviation severity values of Table 1 and the example health index values of Table 2 are used. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that if other types of qualitative measures are used, the flow of FIG. 7 can be modified.  
         [0078]    Referring again to FIG. 6, at block  266 , the rotating equipment data server  204  may generate a notification that includes the health index value generated at block  262  and an indication of the rotating equipment entity with which the health index value is associated. The message may also include other information such as the severity value, a recommended action, a category associated with the health index value (e.g., “No Communication,” “Failed,” “Needs Maintenance,” “Advisory,” “Normal”), etc. The notification generated at block  266  may be in the format of a device alert according to a protocol such as the Fieldbus protocol or the HART protocol.  
         [0079]    At block  270 , the rotating equipment data server  204  transmits the notification generated at block  266  to the data collection system  212 . The notification may be transmitted via, for example, the XML protocol or any other suitable protocol.  1811  One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize many variations to the flow of FIG. 6. For example, blocks may be combined with other blocks or eliminated. Additionally, the health index value need not be generated (block  262 ) upon receiving a request for information from the data collection system  212 . As one alternative, the health index value may be generated ahead of time and stored in the rotating equipment database  208 .  
         [0080]    Each of the methods described herein may be implemented, for example, via a processor configured via a software program. The program may be embodied in software stored on a tangible medium such as CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), or a memory associated with, and/or coupled to, the processor, but persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that the entire program or parts thereof could alternatively be executed by a device other than a processor, and/or embodied in firmware and/or dedicated hardware in a well known manner.  
         [0081]    While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative constructions, certain illustrative embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and are described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the disclosure to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.