Fusion of maintenance and control data: A need for the process

A process control system deals with disperse information sources mostly related with operation and maintenance issues. For integration purposes, a data collection and distribution system based on the concept of cloud computing is proposed to collect data or information pertaining to the assets of a process plant from various sources or functional areas of the plant inc1uding, for example, the process control functional areas, the maintenance functional areas and the process performance monitoring functional areas. This data and information is manipulated in a coordinated manner by the cloud using XML for data exchange, and is redistributed to other applications where is used to perform overall better or more optimal control, maintenance and business activities. From maintenance point of view, the benefit is that information or data may be collected by maintenance functions pertaining to the health, variability, performance or utilization of an asset. The end user, i.e. operators and maintainers are also considered. A user interface becomes necessary in order to enable users to access and manipulate the data and optimize plant operation. Furthermore, applications, such as work order generation applications may automatically generate work orders, parts or supplies orders, etc. based on events occurring within the plant due to this integration of data and creation of new knowledge as a consequence of such process.