Patent ID: 8874461

Claim:
A method of synchronizing work shift information in a process control system of a process control plant, the method comprising: executing, by a processor of a computing device in communicative connection with an event historian database of the process control system of the process plant, computer executable instructions stored on a memory of the computing device to: identify at least one work group in the process control plant, the at least work group including at least one individual; identify at least one work shift in the process control plant scheduled for the at least one work group; generate a work change control system event for each work change that has occurred, each work change including a time stamp, and each work change: i) being indicative of a change in the process control plant from a first work shift to a second work shift, and identifying the first work shift and the second work shift, or ii) being indicative of a change in the process control plant from a first work group to a second work group, and identifying the first work group and the second work group; and cause the work change control system event for the each work change to be recorded in the event historian database of the process control system, the event historian database configured to store one or more events that have occurred and that correspond to process data generated by executing a control strategy to control an operation of a process in the process control system, the process control system having one or more control modules in conjunction with one or more function blocks at one or more field devices that perform one or more physical functions in the process plant to execute the control strategy, and the work change control system event and the one or more events corresponding to the process data generated by executing the control strategy being subject to a same data access interface; and causing, by the computing device, an event synchronized report to be generated, the event synchronized report including at least one synchronized value based on the work change control system event and at least one entry corresponding to historical data, for a process control entity of the process control system, that transpired during an instance of occurrence of the at least one work group or the at least one work shift, and the at least one entry obtained from a centralized database of the process control system.