Loop review is periodic, not continuous.
Most plants that don't run continuous monitoring conduct a loop tuning survey once every one to three years. Between surveys, individual loops can quietly degrade for months, sometimes years, unnoticed.
APROMONOnline PID/APC Loop Monitoring and Diagnostics Software for Industrial Plants
APROMON loop gradeboard · 0-100 controller grades, oscillation and valve-stiction alerts, spectral diagnostics
Overview
What APROMON Is, and the Problem It Solves
APROMON is online process control (PID/APC/MPC) and machine-condition quality and performance monitoring and diagnostics software from PiControl Solutions. Built on an AI-based algorithm, APROMON continuously monitors every PID control loop, advanced process controller (APC), and model predictive controller (MPC) in a plant, along with the control valves and measuring sensors those loops depend on, running automatically once connected to a DCS, PLC, or historian over OPC. See the full process control software range for how APROMON fits alongside PiControl's tuning and simulation products.
No engineer can manually review hundreds of PID loops every day. Loops degrade gradually — through equipment aging, feedstock changes, and process drift — until oscillation or poor control quality is quietly costing yield, energy, or throughput long before anyone notices on a trend screen. APROMON replaces manual loop review with a standing 0-100 grade on every loop, so engineers see which of hundreds of loops need attention today, and can send the worst of them to PID tuning consulting instead of guessing.
The problem: In a plant running hundreds or thousands of PID loops, no engineer can review every loop every day. Loops don't fail all at once — they degrade gradually, as equipment ages, feedstock changes, and process conditions drift, until a loop that was tuned correctly years ago is quietly oscillating, fighting a stuck valve, or being fed by a failing sensor. PID controllers make up more than 95% of the control loops in most plants, so a monitoring gap here touches nearly every loop the plant runs.
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Alarms react after the fact.
DCS and PLC alarms trigger on process deviation, not on loop performance. A poorly tuned or oscillating loop can run for months without ever tripping a hard alarm.
Manual review does not scale.
Spreadsheet-based loop checks that work for 20 loops break down at 200 or 2,000. No engineering team can eyeball every trend, every day, across the whole plant.
APROMON removes the structural problem: continuous automated grading, oscillation and valve diagnostics, and alerting and reporting that surface degrading loops the day they start drifting, not at the next scheduled audit. For plants that want loops fixed, not just diagnosed, PiControl's PID tuning consulting team re-tunes the loops APROMON flags.
Capabilities & Features
APROMON Capabilities & Features
APROMON's feature set is built for one outcome: engineers who know exactly which loops are losing money, before a scheduled audit would ever find them.
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01
Continuous PID/APC/MPC monitoring
Tracks every PID loop, advanced process controller, and model predictive controller in the plant around the clock.
Why it matters
Catches degradation the day it starts, instead of waiting for the next scheduled loop audit.
02
AI-based loop grading
Computes a 0-100 grade from more than 25 control-quality and statistical criteria for every PID loop, APC, and MPC.
Why it matters
Turns hundreds of loops into a ranked list, so engineers spend time on the loops that are actually losing money.
03
Oscillation detection
A spectral frequency distribution chart isolates oscillating loops and points toward their root cause.
Why it matters
Chronic oscillation is one of the most common — and most overlooked — sources of lost throughput and off-spec product.
04
Control valve diagnostics
Detects valve stiction, deadband, and other final-control-element problems from routine operating data.
Why it matters
Valve problems are a leading cause of loop oscillation; catching them early avoids re-tuning an otherwise healthy loop.
05
Measuring-sensor diagnostics
Flags noisy, drifting, or failing sensors feeding the control loop.
Why it matters
A bad measurement makes any tuning look bad; APROMON separates instrumentation problems from tuning problems.
06
Real-time and daily alerting
Configurable real-time alerts plus daily reports ranking the worst-performing loops in the plant.
Why it matters
Problems get caught the day they start, not weeks later during the next scheduled loop audit.
07
Fast OPC-based deployment
Connects to any DCS, PLC, or historian via OPC-DA/OPC-UA in about half a day, with a 70-80-page manual.
Why it matters
Plants get their first gradeboard the next day, without a multi-week installation project.
Who uses it
How Plant Teams Use APROMON
Operations
Control Room Operators and Process Engineers
Control room operators and process engineers use APROMON to see which of hundreds of loops need attention today, instead of checking trends one screen at a time. Daily gradeboard reports and real-time alerts turn loop review from a manual, best-effort task into a standing, automated one — and the worst loops can be routed straight to PiControl's PID tuning consulting team for a fix.
- Daily reports ranking bad PID loops needing re-tuning
- Real-time alerts on loops beginning to oscillate or drift
- Spectral frequency diagnostics for root-cause investigation
- Prioritization by economic loss, so engineers fix the worst loops first
- Loop performance monitoring across every industry PiControl serves
Maintenance & management
Maintenance Teams and Plant Managers
Maintenance teams use APROMON's control valve and measuring-sensor diagnostics to separate mechanical problems from tuning problems, turning reactive troubleshooting into a proactive work-order list. Plant managers use the plant-wide grade summary and management email reports to track control performance the same way they track other KPIs.
- Control valve stiction and final-control-element diagnostics for proactive maintenance
- Measuring-sensor performance diagnostics
- Configurable management email reports summarizing plant-wide control performance
- Recurring savings typically in the range of $200K to $2 million per year from improved loop performance
For the software plants use to fix the loops APROMON flags, see the full process control software range.
Software suite
APROMON and the PiControl Process Control Software Suite
APROMON is the diagnostic layer of PiControl's process control software suite: it finds the loops that need work, and the products below fix them.
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PITOPS - for Closed-Loop PID Tuning and APC Design
When APROMON flags a degrading loop, engineers use PITOPS for closed-loop system identification and PID/APC tuning to re-tune it correctly the first time, instead of guessing at new gains.
SUPERTUNE - for Continuous Online PID Auto-Tuning
For loops APROMON shows drifting repeatedly under changing conditions, SUPERTUNE online PID auto-tuning runs fully automatic, auto-adaptive re-tuning inside the DCS or PLC.
PiLogger - for High-Speed Trend Capture
When a flagged loop needs deeper investigation, PiLogger high-speed data logging captures PV, setpoint, and controller-output trends at sub-second resolution for root-cause analysis of the oscillation APROMON detected.
Industries
APROMON at work in your industry
Plants across every sector PiControl serves run APROMON to catch degrading loops early — each industry runs different processes, but the same oscillation, valve, and sensor problems erode performance everywhere.
APROMON also monitors loops across petrochemicals, power, pharma, cement, LNG, and university training programs.
View all industries →FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About APROMON
Loop coverage, deployment time, controller grading, and how to get a demo.
APROMON is online PID/APC/MPC loop monitoring and diagnostics software from PiControl Solutions. It continuously monitors PID control loops, advanced process controllers, model predictive controllers, control valves, and measuring sensors in real time, using an AI-based algorithm to detect oscillation, valve stiction, sensor problems, and tuning degradation before they erode plant performance.
APROMON monitors PID control loops, PLC/DCS-based advanced process controllers (APC), model predictive controllers (MPC), final control elements such as control valves, and measuring sensors, grading each loop on a 0-100 scale across more than 25 control-quality and statistical criteria.
APROMON scales from 10 to 5,000 PID loops using a direct OPC connection to any OPC server, or via Excel for smaller deployments.
Installation takes about half a day in the plant control room on any DCS or PLC using OPC-DA or OPC-UA, and the first loop reports are typically available the next day. The user manual runs 70-80 pages, compared with hundreds or thousands of pages for competing tools.
APROMON calculates a 0-100 grade for every PID loop, APC, and MPC from more than 25 control-quality and statistical criteria, then ranks loops so engineers can prioritize the loops causing the most economic loss first instead of reviewing every loop manually.
Yes. APROMON connects to any DCS, PLC, or historian using standard OPC-DA or OPC-UA communication, so no proprietary hardware or middleware is required.
APROMON is monitoring and diagnostics software: it watches loops continuously and flags which ones are degrading. PITOPS is closed-loop system identification and PID/APC tuning software engineers use to fix the loops APROMON flags, and SUPERTUNE is continuous online PID auto-tuning software that re-tunes flagged loops automatically. Plants often run all three together: APROMON to find problems, PITOPS or SUPERTUNE to fix them.
Request a free APROMON demo and a PiControl engineer will show the loop gradeboard, oscillation and valve-stiction detection, and alerting and reporting features against data relevant to your plant.
Get started
Request an APROMON Demo
See APROMON grade a live set of loops in real time and watch it flag an oscillating loop or a sticking valve. A PiControl engineer will demonstrate the gradeboard, diagnostics, and alerting against data relevant to your plant, and scope a deployment for your DCS or PLC.