Methods and apparatus to manage process control status rollups

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9557735-B2
Application number	US-63523609-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2009
Priority date	Dec 10, 2009
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus to manage process control status rollups are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving process control information from at least one process control device included within a process control system, determining at least one issue associated with a portion of the received process control information, receiving a selection of a status type, determining if the at least one issue is associated with the selected status type, and displaying a process control status rollup associated with the selected status type and including the at least one issue.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to manage process control status rollups, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of a portion of a graphical representation of a process control system, wherein the selected portion of the graphical representation includes visual representations of components of a portion of the process control system, the selected portion of the graphical representation including at least one of tags or identifiers assigned to the components, the at least one of the tags or identifiers displayed in proximity to the components;
identifying the at least one of the tags or identifiers displayed in the selected portion of the graphical representation based on an analysis of the selected portion of the graphical representation;
identifying the components visually represented in the selected portion of the graphical representation based on the identified at least one of the tags or the identifiers;
receiving process control information indicative of issues within the process control system;
identifying a portion of the issues associated with the components visually represented in the selected portion of the graphical representation;
determining, via an issue detector, at least one of a priority or a severity for ones of the portion of the issues;
calculating, via a rollup processor, a numerical status factor based on a compilation of at least one of a number, the severity, the priority, or a status type of the ones of the portion of the issues and at least a second different one of the number, the severity, the priority, or the status type of the ones of the portion of the issues; and
displaying a process control status rollup generated to correspond to the selected portion of the graphical representation, the process control status rollup providing information indicative of the portion of the issues, the information including the status factor.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of a particular status type;
identifying a subset of the issues associated with the particular status type, the subset of the issues associated with the particular status type identified from the portion of the issues, wherein the status type includes at least one of an alarm, a message, a simulation, a field device issue, an abnormal condition, a knowledge available condition, a field device maintenance condition, a field device status condition, an improve control condition, an altered alarm, an action request, an altered field device, a control bypass, a process control routine with an improper mode, a process control routine with an issue, an alarm with an issue, or a user defined condition; and
displaying the subset of the issues associated with the particular status type within the process control status rollup.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 , further comprising:
determining a priority for at least one of the issues, the priority associated with the particular status type; and
displaying a priority indicator corresponding to the determined priority for the at least one of the issues.

4. A method as defined in claim 2 , further comprising:
prior to receiving the particular status type, determining different status types associated with different ones of the issues in the portion of the issues associated with the components;
counting a number of issues of the portion of the issues associated with each of the different status types; and
displaying in the process control status rollup at least one of the portion of the issues, the different status types associated with the different ones of the issues in the portion of the issues, or the number of issues of the portion of the issues associated with each of the different status types.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 , further comprising:
calculating the status factor for each of the different status types based on the subset of the issues associated with the particular status type; and
calculating a process factor based on the status factor.

6. A method as defined in claim 5 , wherein the status factor is at least one of a summary, a safety summary, an availability summary, or a reliability summary of the subset of the issues associated with the particular status type.

7. A method as defined in claim 5 , wherein the process factor is at least one of a summary, a safety summary, an availability summary, or a reliability summary of the status factor.

8. A method as defined in claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of a sub-status type included within the particular status type;
determining if at least one of the issues from the subset of the issues associated with the particular status type is associated with the sub-status type; and
displaying the at least one of the issues in the process control status rollup associated with the sub-status type.

9. A method as defined in claim 2 , further comprising upon receiving the selection of the status type, displaying at least one of the issues from the subset of the issues associated with the particular status type in the portion of the graphical representation by highlighting at least part of the portion of the graphical representation that is associated with the at least one of the issues.

10. A method as defined in claim 2 , further comprising calculating the status factor based on at least one of the issues associated with the particular status type.

11. A method as defined in claim 2 , further comprising:
prior to receiving the selection of the status type, receiving a selection of a process control component type;
determining if at least one of the issues is associated with the selected process control component type; and
displaying the at least one of the issues in a second process control status rollup associated with the selected process control component type.

12. A method as defined in claim 11 , wherein the process control component type includes at least one of a field device, a process control component, a process control unit of equipment, a type of field device, an area of field devices, a process control area, at least one area of control of an operator, a batch area, at least one field device associated with a batch process, or a display area.

13. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of a time;
determining at least one issue associated with the process control system that occurred at the selected time;
receiving a selection of a particular status type;
determining if the at least one issue at the selected time is associated with the particular status type; and
displaying the at least one issue associated with the particular status type and indicating the at least one issue occurred at the selected time.

14. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
determining at least one of a description of at least one of the issues, a device status description associated with the at least one of the issues, a frequency of the at least one of the issues, a date of occurrence of the at least one of the issues, a time of occurrence of the at least one of the issues, an operating mode of the at least one of the issues, an operator description of the at least one of the issues, a location of the at least one of the issues, a first identifier of the identifiers associated with the at least one of the issues, or at least one mitigation action for the at least one of the issues; and
displaying at least one of the description of the at least one of the issues, the device status description associated with the at least one of the issues, the frequency of the at least one of the issues, the date of occurrence of

Assignees

• Firkins Molly Marie
• Gilbert Stephen C
• Scott Cindy
• Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc

Inventors

• Firkins Molly Marie
• Gilbert Stephen C
• Scott Cindy

Classifications

• G05B23/0272

  Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user · CPC title

• G05B2219/31472

  Graphical display of process · CPC title

• G05B19/418 Primary

  Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM] · CPC title

• G05B23/027 Primary

  Alarm generation, e.g. communication protocol; Forms of alarm · CPC title

• G05B2219/32128

  Gui graphical user interface · CPC title