Abstract: An industrial process analysis system is disclosed The system comprises a process data connection device for the acquisition of process data from process data source, an input system for receiving at least one search instruction, an indexing system for indexing the process data to create a set of indexed process data a data processing device for processing the at least one search instruction to create a search parameter set and comparing distances of members of the search parameter set with corresponding members of the indexed process data to obtain a similarity value; and an output device to display results based on the similarity value.