INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND SIGNAL PROCESSING Int. J. Adapt. Control Signal Process. 2003; 17: 635–662 (DOI: 10.1002/acs.770) Process and controller performance monitoring: overview with industrial applications K. A. Hoo 1,n,y , M. J. Piovoso 2 , P. D. Schnelle 3 and D. A. Rowan 3 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA 2 School of Graduate Professional Studies, Penn State University, Malvern, PA 19355, USA 3 DuPont Engineering Technology, The DuPont Company, Wilmington, DE 19898, USA SUMMARY Complex processes depend on regulatory control systems to operate. Changes made to the sensor system and the process itself as well as the natural degradation over time of the equipment may cause some controllers’ and process performance to suffer. Since there are hundreds of controllers in most complex processes, it is virtually impossible to monitor their performance manually. This work reviews the state-of- the-art in controller performance monitoring including both feedforward and feedback control. The experiences of the DuPont Company in the deployment of a system for performance monitoring are presented. Information as to how such a monitoring system is implemented in the operation of a chemical process and examples of its operation are included. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: compliance metrics; chemical processes; real-time monitoring; controller performance 1. INTRODUCTION Most modern industrial plants have hundreds and even thousands of automatic control loops. These loops can be simple proportional-integral-derivative (PID) or more sophisticated model- based linear and non-linear control loops. It has been reported that as many as 60% of all industrial controllers have performance problems [1]. Having an automated means of detecting when a loop is not performing well and then diagnosing the root cause is essential because they play a vital role in product quality, safety and ultimately economics. Some of the obstacles that prevent this automatic assessment, from being a part of the day-to- day maintenance program include a lack of: user-friendly interface, readily understandable report generation, diagnosis information in text form, a single composite index ranking the loop performance and reliable computational software tools. In addition, education of the operations staff is essential to make full use of some of the currently available time and frequency methodologies. Accepted June 2003 Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. y E-mail: Karlene.Hoo@coe.ttu.edu n Correspondence to: K. A. Hoo, Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA