A control method in a control system for an industrial plant comprising a plurality of automation components including a plurality of interrelated controllers, comprising: plugging a first controller to the control system, wherein the first controller is a hybrid model predictive controller; receiving control system configuration data from a database, wherein the configuration data comprises holistic state data of a second controller connected to the control system, wherein the holistic state data is stored in the database by the second controller and captures characteristics of the second controller; configuring operation of the first controller based at least in part on the configuration data received, wherein configuring operation of the first controller comprises performing an optimization search, wherein the optimization search is a branch and bound procedure and comprises determining an optimal control trajectory required to control a process or system by minimizing an objective function comprised in the holistic state data, wherein configuring operation of the first controller comprises: initializing an optimization search by determining feasible search results, constraints to the feasible search results, and an initial search result, finding a branching search result from the initial search results, wherein multiple potential search branches extend out from said branching search result, assigning each of the multiple search branches to one of the plurality of controllers having the ability to perform the optimization search down the respective search branch, wherein the branch optimization searches down the multiple search branches are performed simultaneously, and receiving search results for the search branches and selecting one of the search branches; and performing control operations based at least in part on the first controller configuration. plugging a first controller to the control system, wherein the first controller is a hybrid model predictive controller; receiving control system configuration data from a database, wherein the configuration data comprises holistic state data of a second controller connected to the control system, wherein the holistic state data is stored in the database by the second controller and captures characteristics of the second controller; configuring operation of the first controller based at least in part on the configuration data received, wherein configuring operation of the first controller comprises performing an optimization search, wherein the optimization search is a branch and bound procedure and comprises determining an optimal control trajectory required to control a process or system by minimizing an objective function comprised in the holistic state data, wherein configuring operation of the first controller comprises: initializing an optimization search by determining feasible search results, constraints to the feasible search results, and an initial search result, finding a branching search result from the initial search results, wherein multiple potential search branches extend out from said branching search result, assigning each of the multiple search branches to one of the plurality of controllers having the ability to perform the optimization search down the respective search branch, wherein the branch optimization searches down the multiple search branches are performed simultaneously, and receiving search results for the search branches and selecting one of the search branches; and initializing an optimization search by determining feasible search results, constraints to the feasible search results, and an initial search result, finding a branching search result from the initial search results, wherein multiple potential search branches extend out from said branching search result, assigning each of the multiple search branches to one of the plurality of controllers having the ability to perform the optimization search down the respective search branch, wherein the branch optimization searches down the multiple search branches are performed simultaneously, and receiving search results for the search branches and selecting one of the search branches; and performing control operations based at least in part on the first controller configuration.