Enabling layer
Models are useful when predictions change the decision.
Industrial systems often require action before every important value is directly measured, complete, or final. Models estimate what is missing and predict what the decision will cause.
Product property predictors
Predict final product behavior from materials, intermediate characteristics, process history, or subassembly measurements before final assembly or release. This is central when quality is determined too late for low-cost correction.
Process performance predictors
Estimate or forecast process outcomes from operating conditions, historian data, controls, and measured variables.
Soft sensors and virtual measurements
Infer values that are unavailable, delayed, expensive, or unreliable to measure directly. Virtual flow meters are one example, not the whole category.
Model stewardship
Useful industrial models need calibration, validation, monitoring, confidence calculations, and awareness of changing operating conditions.