A method of operating an intelligent programmable logic controller (110E, 110F) over a plurality of scan cycles, the method comprising: 1.1 creating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, a process image area in a volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller; 1.2 updating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, the process image area (225, 220) during each scan cycle with contents comprising data associated with a production unit included in the automation system (105A-C); 1.3 storing, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, the contents of the process image area during each scan cycle on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller; and 1.4 annotating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, the contents of the process image area with automation system context information to generate contextualized data with contextualization in accordance with a semantic modeling standard, wherein the automation system context information comprises one or more of an indication of a device that generated the data, a structural description of an automation system comprising the intelligent programmable logic controller, a system working mode indicator, information about a product that was produced when the contents of the process image area were generated; 1.5 applying, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, one or more data analytics algorithms to the contextualized data to yield inferred data, wherein the one or more data analytics algorithms are specified via a model deployed during runtime; 1.6 updating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller during runtime, the one or more data analytic algorithms and providing explicit access to the model; and 1.7 performing, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, a root cause analysis using the inferred data. 1.1 creating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, a process image area in a volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller; 1.2 updating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, the process image area (225, 220) during each scan cycle with contents comprising data associated with a production unit included in the automation system (105A-C); 1.3 storing, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, the contents of the process image area during each scan cycle on a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the intelligent programmable logic controller; and 1.4 annotating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, the contents of the process image area with automation system context information to generate contextualized data with contextualization in accordance with a semantic modeling standard, wherein the automation system context information comprises one or more of an indication of a device that generated the data, a structural description of an automation system comprising the intelligent programmable logic controller, a system working mode indicator, information about a product that was produced when the contents of the process image area were generated; 1.5 applying, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, one or more data analytics algorithms to the contextualized data to yield inferred data, wherein the one or more data analytics algorithms are specified via a model deployed during runtime; 1.6 updating, by the intelligent programmable logic controller during runtime, the one or more data analytic algorithms and providing explicit access to the model; and 1.7 performing, by the intelligent programmable logic controller, a root cause analysis using the inferred data.