Introducing Cause+

Cause+ is used to identify the possible causes of deviant key performance indicator (KPI) behaviour. It is an investigative tool, used to monitor the effect one process field has on another: the selected target KPI. A KPI influencing a process is identified, and then other fields that influence the action of that KPI are investigated in Cause+.

To do this, a scenario is created where one KPI is set as the target field to be investigated, and other fields influencing that target are monitored, and presented as a list of “most influencing” fields on the target. Multiple scenarios can be created, usually determined by the number of KPIs that influence a process, thus monitoring many different KPIs simultaneously.

Cause+ scenarios are built directly on your historical process data, harnessing the powerful knowledge discovery techniques and features of the Continuous Troubleshooter. Good process conditions are identified and used as a "fingerprint" for the process, describing the ideal behaviour. Should the target variable for the scenario deviate from the ideal process behaviour, possible causes are calculated and displayed. Each scenario contains a configured target variable with user specified limits. Should the target variable for a Cause+ scenario exceed its limits, an alarm is generated and the user is able to see, in real-time, the possible causes for the deviation as well as a message for the operator, that is user configured.

Cause+ in the Continuous Troubleshooter is thus used to determine offline causes of KPI deviation and to implement online monitoring. The fields that cause deviation of the target KPI are then subject to certain rules that are user created, which include a message shown online to instruct the process operator of the course of action to follow. This action plan of rules and appropriate messages can then be deployed as a .CausePlus file, and implemented into online HMI SCADA systems, in order to constantly monitor the KPIs and adjust the cause fields for target KPI deviation throughout the process.

Cause+ thus allows users to move "from data to action": configuring scenarios based on their data, to deploying and displaying scenarios directly in HMI SCADA environments.

To activate Cause+ from within the Continuous Troubleshooters, complete Steps 1 and 2 of the 7-step problem solving methodology: defining the problem and preparing the data, then open Cause+ from the Continuous Troubleshooter Action Menu.