Abstract: A system and method for the capture and storage of industrial process and operational machine data including operator input and environmental factors, the analysis thereof in order to identify elements of tribal knowledge therein, the storage of such elements of tribal knowledge for future reference and analysis and the deployment of such tribal knowledge, specifically in a manufacturing system.

Abstract: In a computerised system of control, management and optimisation for machine tools, operational data thereof is compared/matched with historical data in realtime. Historical and contemporary operation data of the same and/or other machines, including machines of other species is harvested and housed in a central data warehouse that is continuously updated. Operation data, and patterns thereof, of non-invasive attributes of the target machine(s) are compared/matched with the warehoused data by multi-variate analysis, thresholding and symbolic and non-symbolic pattern matching to generate control inputs and metrics for performance evaluation, performance upgrade such as of legacy machines and for status evaluation with regard to health(maintenance), risk/safety and environmental impacts thereof. Preferably, the power attributes of voltage, amperage, wattage and power factor together with compressed air and coolant flow rates are monitored. Methods of operating data processing/transformation are disclosed.