Patent ID: 8855968

Claim:
A method of evaluating operation of a continuous process plant, comprising: loading operational data for a continuous process plant, wherein the operational data comprises a plurality of data points, each of the data points in the plurality of data points representing a time period and a quantity processed during that time period; identifying a goal value; processing the operational data to identify cut-rate data points, the cut-rate data points representing time periods with a quantity processed that is less than the goal value; calculating a cut-rate lost opportunity, wherein the cut-rate lost opportunity corresponds to the sum of the difference between the goal value and the quantity processed for each of the cut-rate data points; calculating, by a computing device, a score for the continuous process plant, wherein the score corresponds to the quotient of the cut-rate lost opportunity divided by the goal value; processing the operational data to identify banked-opportunity data points, the banked-opportunity data points representing time periods with a quantity processed that is greater than the goal value; and calculating a banked opportunity, wherein the banked opportunity corresponds to the sum of the difference between the quantity processed and the goal value for each of the banked-opportunity data points.