Development of a system capable of managing a process by using an instruction when manufacturing a product has been called for. A process management system is provided that includes an input unit that inputs process design data about a plurality of processes for manufacturing a product, an acquisition unit that acquires identification information of an instruction read by each of a plurality of readers, each provided for a corresponding one of the plurality of processes, in response to occurrence of an operation for the corresponding process, and a process management unit that performs management of the processes for manufacturing the product using the acquired identification information and based on the process design data.

Information representing an operating state of each of a plurality of robots, etc. operating under different operation conditions are retrieved and outputted. A retrieval system (1) includes; an acquisition means (24) for acquiring, from a plurality of machines (25) being used under respectively different operation conditions, information representing an operating state of each of the plurality of machines; an accumulation means (13) for accumulating information representing a plurality of operating states thus acquired; and a search means (12) for accepting search criteria for searching the information accumulated in the accumulation means (13), retrieving information representing an operating state agreeing with the search criteria from the accumulation means (13), and outputting a search result.

Information representing an operating state of each of a plurality of robots, etc. operating under different operation conditions are retrieved and outputted. A retrieval system (1) includes; an acquisition means (24) for acquiring, from a plurality of machines (25) being used under respectively different operation conditions, information representing an operating state of each of the plurality of machines; an accumulation means (13) for accumulating information representing a plurality of operating states thus acquired; and a search means (12) for accepting search criteria for searching the information accumulated in the accumulation means (13), retrieving information representing an operating state agreeing with the search criteria from the accumulation means (13), and outputting a search result.

A computer-implemented method (500) for monitoring a food processing system (100), arranged to produce a food product (102), using a data processing apparatus (112) is provided. The method comprises receiving (502) process traceability data (200) related to the food product (102), wherein the process traceability data (200) comprises information about which food processing units (104a-e) that were involved in processing the food product (102) as well as during which time slots the food processing units were involved for processing the food product (102), receiving (504) process event data (202) related to the food processing units of the food production system (100), wherein the process event data (202) comprises information about state changes of the food production units that occurred during processing of the food product (102) as well as points of time when the state changes occurred, receiving (506) settings (204) of the processing units (104a-e) associated with different states, determining (508) the settings used for the food production units (104a-e) during different time slots by combining the process event data (202) and the settings of the processing units (204) associated with the different states, and determining (510) the settings of the food production units (104a-e) used for processing the food product (102) by combining the process traceability data (200) and the settings used for the food production units during the different time slots, and providing (512) the settings of the food production units (104a-e) used for processing the food product (102).