Patent ID: 7218974

Claim:
A method for optimizing an industrial process, comprising: collecting data from a plurality of sensor elements, wherein each sensor element collects data from a portion of the industrial process; filtering the collected data by: computing the mean and standard deviation of the collected data and separating the collected data into a collection of spurious data and a collection of filtered data based upon whether the collected data is a preselected multiple of the standard deviation above or a preselected multiple of the standard deviation below, respectively, the computed mean; or separating the collected data into a collection of spurious data and a collection of filtered data based upon whether the collected data repeats itself within a given time threshold; or separating the collected data into a collection of spurious data and a collection of filtered data based upon whether the collected data is below a preselected threshold; generating at least one recommendation for optimizing the industrial process based upon the collection of filtered data; and presenting the at least one recommendation generated to an administrator of the industrial process.