Abstract: A monitoring system for monitoring processing equipment includes a controller which emits control signals to control the processing equipment. A computer is coupled to the controller. The computer records the control signals emitted by the controller and records status signals received from sensors mounted on the processing equipment. The computer represents the processing equipment as a number of individual cyclical units. Each cyclical unit has an identical sequence of operations during every cycle. The computer also records, for each cycle of every unit, information corresponding to whether the unit has started and completed the cycle.