Abstract: A process plant has a process control system and a plurality of production lines, each production line having a predetermined equipment configuration. The process control system further includes a controller for interfacing to each production line. The process control system has information pertaining to the equipment configuration of each production line stored in an equipment data base, the operations performed by each production line stored in an operations data base, and raw materials information of the process plant stored in a raw materials data base. A method for controlling the production of a product by a production line comprises the steps of building a formula based on the product to be produced. The formula data provides information relating to relative quantities of raw materials included in the product and the manner of combining the raw materials.