Workshop Manual: From Reactor Alarm to Root Cause

A chemical reactor shut down. Alarms went off, and the batch was ruined. In this worksheet you will find out why, using only clicks and plain English sentences. You do not need to know any code.

How to use this worksheet. Do the steps in order. Each step has one picture. The red boxes in the picture show exactly what to click or type. Your screen may be light instead of dark. The buttons are in the same places.

Part 0. Load the sample plant

You need TDengine IDMP installed and open in your browser.

If you don’t have it yet, install TDengine All-in-One and sign in.

1. Move your mouse over your profile circle in the top-right corner. Click Admin Console.

• Hover the circle with your initials, then click Admin Console.

2. On the left, click Sample Data. Look under Sample Scenarios Loaded for the card Chemical Reactor Batch Analysis and Anomaly Monitoring. A green dot means it is loaded. If you see it, go to Part 1.

• The Chemical Reactor card with a green dot. It is already loaded.

3. If the card is not under “Sample Scenarios Loaded”, scroll down to Select a scenario. Find the Chemical Reactor Batch Analysis card. Click its ⋮ (three dots), then click Load. Wait until it moves up to “Sample Scenarios Loaded”.

• This picture shows the menu on a different card. Do the same on the Chemical Reactor card.

Part 1. Find the machines

1. Click Explorer at the top. In the list on the left, click the small arrows to open A Chemical Group, then Thionyl Chloride Plant, then Utility Center. You will use the four machines in red boxes.

• Long names get cut off. Hover over a name to see all of it.

Part 2. Make five charts by typing a sentence

You will make one chart for each row in the table below. You don’t build charts by hand. You type a sentence in plain English (natural language), and IDMP builds the chart for you. First, do the water meter together, step by step.

1. In the left list, click Production Line Water Meter W01. At the top, click Panels. At the bottom of the page is a box that says “Tell me what panel you want and I’ll build it for you.”

• The natural-language box is at the bottom, next to the Ask AI button. If you don’t see it, click the AI button in the toolbar so it turns green.

2. Click in the box and type: Instantaneous consumption for 5 July 2026, line graph. Click Ask AI.

• Type the sentence, then click Ask AI.

3. Wait 10–30 seconds. Your new chart appears as the first card. Click the small save icon under it, on the right.

• Your new chart is first. Its title may be worded a little differently. That is fine.

4. A green message says Updated successfully. The chart is saved.

• Saved.

5. Check it: click the AI button so it turns grey. You now see only saved charts, and yours is there. Click AI again so it turns green and the box comes back.

• AI button off = your saved charts. AI button on = the natural-language box.

6. Now repeat steps 1–5 for the other four rows. Each time, click the machine in the left list first, then Panels, then type its sentence.

Don’t forget to click the save icon every time. A chart you don’t save disappears.

Part 3. Put all five charts on one dashboard

1. In the left list, click A Chemical Group. At the top, click Dashboards. Then click the + button.

• Use the plus (+) button only. The other buttons on that row edit or group dashboards.

2. A box asks for the dashboard type. Click Standard.

• Pick Standard.

3. On the right, in Name, type My Cooling Failure Dashboard. On the left, click Library and tick Include Children. Move your mouse over one of your charts and click the green + that appears. Do this for all five charts you saved.

• Your five charts have “5 July 2026” or “2026-07-05” in their titles. Scroll the list to find them all.

4. Click the save icon at the top left. Then click the very first icon on that row (its tooltip says Back) to leave editing.

• Save first, then leave editing.

5. Set the time. Click the time box at the top right. Find your time zone in the table below. Type the From and To times exactly as shown, then click Apply Time Range.

• “Current Time Zone” shows your computer’s time zone. This example is America/Los_Angeles (Pacific).

6. Your dashboard now shows the day of the accident. It should look like this.

• Vibration, pressure, and temperature jump up at the same time, and purity drops. The chart order on your screen may be different.

Part 4. Make an analysis by typing a sentence

Now tell IDMP to warn you when the pump shakes too much. Again, you just type a sentence.

1. In the left list, click Circulating Water Pump P-201. At the top, click RT Analyses. Click the box on the right that says “Tell me the RT analysis you want and I’ll create it for you”. Type Tell me when vibration amplitude rises above 3 and press Enter.

• The sentence goes in the box at the top right. Press Enter on your keyboard.

2. Wait about 20 seconds. A form opens, already filled in. Scroll down to Start Trigger and Stop Trigger. Start should say vibration above 3. Stop should say vibration at or below 3. Click Save.

• Start = vibration goes above 3. Stop = vibration goes back down to 3 or less. The words in the form may differ a little, and the name may differ too.

3. You are back on the list. Your new alarm is there, and its status says Running. It is now watching the pump.

• Your alarm, running. The other row came with the sample.

4. At the top, click Events. Your new alarm only reacts to new readings, so it has not caught anything yet. The sample already recorded the accident for you. Click the event that starts on 4 or 5 July 2026.

• The date shown depends on your time zone. In Pacific time it starts 07/04/2026 at 23:27. You may see only this one row.

Part 5. Look inside the event

An event is an event frame: a named stretch of time with a start and an end. The chart opens with only vibration amplitude. Add three more attributes, so there are four. The report uses those four to narrow down what happened.

1. The event page opens. At the top right, click the Add to Analysis Workbench icon (the middle of the three icons). A new browser tab opens.

• The middle icon at the top right opens the event in the Analysis Workbench.

2. Navigate to the Pump P-201 and Add the following attributes:
   • Operating Current on Circulating Water Pump P-201
   • Bearing Temperature on Circulating Water Pump P-201
   • Instantaneous Consumption on Production Line Water Meter W01

3. At the top right, set the time range to 07/04/2026 15:27:00 to 07/04/2026 18:27:00. The four lines should run from the left edge of the chart to the right edge, with no empty gap. Vibration climbs from about 2 to about 9, current from about 45 A to about 70 A, bearing temperature from about 50 °C to about 68 °C, and water flow drops.

• The time range is 3:27 PM to 6:27 PM on 4 July. The lines meet both sides of the chart. Current, bearing temperature, and water flow are on the lanes below this one.

4. At the top of the workbench, click the Panel Insights icon (the last icon in the toolbar row). A Data Insights panel opens on the right. Wait about 30 seconds. The report uses the four attributes to narrow down what happened: vibration, current, and bearing temperature rise together, and water flow drops at the same time.

• The report names all four attributes. Scroll down for the part where water flow drops while the pump signals rise.
• Use this feature to narrow down what is happening and ask follow-up questions.

Part 6. Try RCA at an individual event and ask AI what happened

1. The event page opens. At the top right, click the root cause icon (the first of the three icons).

• The event: vibration went to 3 or more. Click the highlighted icon.

2. Wait about 30 seconds. An RCA Analysis report appears on the right. Read it.

• The AI report. Your wording will be different each time.

Answer:

1. What does the AI say happened to the pump?
2. Does the AI mention the cooling water or the reactor? Why not? (Hint: this event only belongs to the pump.)
3. Look back at your dashboard from Part 3. What can you see there that the AI could not?

Part 7. Your conclusion

Things to ask AI after your RCA report(Ask me anything)

1. What went wrong first:
2. What that did to the pump (P-201):

What to take away

An alarm on one machine shows you a symptom. To find the cause, put the related machines on one timeline and look at what moved together. You did that in four moves: find the machines, make charts with a sentence, put them on one dashboard, and set an alarm with a sentence. You can do the same on your own plant.