Patent ID: 7937164

Claim:
A system for facilitating detection of an abnormal operation of a process in a process plant, the system comprising: a data collection tool adapted to collect on-line process data from a process within the process plant, wherein the collected on-line process data is representative of an operation of the process when the process is on-line and wherein the collected on-line process data is generated from a plurality of process variables of the process including one or more independent process variables that affect a behavior of the process and one or more dependent process variables dependent upon at least one of the one or more independent process variables, wherein the one or more dependent process variables describe the behavior of the process, and wherein the collected on-line process data comprises a plurality of observations of a plurality of process variables and wherein the plurality of observations of a set of collected on-line process data comprises a first data space having a plurality of dimensions; an analysis tool comprising a multivariate statistical analysis engine adapted to generate a first representation of the operation of the process within a data space having fewer dimensions than the first data space based on a first set of the collected on-line process data generated from the plurality of process variables of the process, wherein the first representation of the operation of the process is adapted to be executed to generate a first outcome related to a dependent process variable, wherein the first outcome is a first loading value metric of the dependent process variable for the first set of collected on-line process data, and wherein the multivariate statistical analysis engine adapted to generate a second representation of the operation of the process within a data space having fewer dimensions than the first data space based on a second set of the collected on-line process data generated from the plurality of process variables of the process, wherein the second representation of the operation of the process is adapted to be executed to generate a second outcome related to the dependent process variable, wherein the second outcome is a second loading value metric of the dependent process variable for the second set of collected on-line process data; and a monitoring tool adapted to determine changes in the process based on a comparison of the first and second outcomes related to the dependent process variable.