Techniques for determining device-specific information such as commissioning data, location information, images, and other data descriptive of a process device installed in a plant include obtaining the device-specific information at a local device during the process device's commissioning. Based on this information, the local device determines the relative order of the process device within a process flow, and may determine a process element alignment map indicating the activation order of a plurality of process elements within the flow. A user may modify the map at the local device. The map is transmitted to a process control big data network for use in discovery and learning analytics. The device-specific information and/or the map may be utilized to generate, at the local device, representations/views of the process flow, which may include real-time operational data. A user may zoom in or out on these views for more or less detail.

The invention relates to a field device for connection to a programmable logic controller having hardware comprising a processing unit, a memory and a data interface for communication with the programmable logic controller. The field device is characterized in that it is configured to receive compatibility information from the programmable logic controller by means of the data interface, wherein a firmware having a plurality of functions for operating the field instrument is stored in the memory, wherein the processing unit is configured to release a subset of the functions of the firmware for execution in dependence on the compatibility information to produce a behavior of the field device which is adapted to the compatibility information of the programmable logic controller.

System configuration management using encapsulation and discovery is provided. The configuration management may include requesting, by a first electronic control unit comprising a processor, feature information associated with a second electronic control unit. The feature information may include data related to a set of features implemented by the second electronic control unit. The configuration management may also include loading, by the first electronic control unit, an internal control for a first feature of the set of features based on a determination that the first feature is not loaded on the first electronic control unit.