Patent ID: 7269466

Claim:
An optimal operation controller of a plant comprising: a correlation analyzing unit for performing regression analysis to obtain a correlation between an operative parameter of a predetermined process and each of a plurality of operation elements based on an operation status of the plant to be controlled, storing the correlation in a correlation table, and computing operation efficiency for each operation element based on the operation status of the plant, wherein said correlation analyzing unit uses data collected from the plant during a prior implementation of the predetermined process to perform the regression analysis and compute the operation efficiencies of the operation elements; a categorization efficiency table for storing the operation efficiency of each operation element computed by the correlation analyzing unit in association with a highly correlative operative parameter of the predetermined process as determined by the regression analysis, wherein the categorization efficiency table further stores a relationship between the operation efficiency of each operation element and the overall efficiency of the predetermined process determined based on the data collected during the prior implementation; and an optimal pattern searching unit for performing a look-up of the categorization efficiency table based on data collected from the plant during a subsequent implementation of the predetermined process in order to output an instruction to control each of the operation elements during the subsequent implementation of the predetermined process without simulating or computing an operation efficiency.