Intelligent monitoring of material flow

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to intelligent monitoring of chemical products. Methods, apparatus, systems for monitoring and / or controlling material flow in a distributed chemical production environment to enhance material handling across supply chain operations are disclosed.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to intelligent monitoring of chemical products. Methods, devices, and systems are disclosed for monitoring and / or controlling material flows in a distributed chemical production environment to enhance material handling across supply chain operations. Background Art

[0002] Distributed chemical production environments are large-scale networks that produce thousands of chemical products. Managing the material or product flow, from supplying input materials to produce output materials, to providing the produced output materials for further downstream production, is challenging. Chemical environments in particular have high safety standards, and modern technologies can improve the reliability and safety of operations. However, utilizing modern technologies such as natural language processing or large language models in such safety-critical environments requires technology implementations that meet the established high standards. Summary of the invention

[0003] In one aspect, a method for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment is disclosed, the chemical production environment comprising a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment, the method comprising the steps of:

[0004] - retrieving operational tracking data associated with tracking of material flows from one or more data storage devices, and / or retrieving updated operational data;

[0005] - generating one or more alerts based on the operation tracking data and one or more alert rules, wherein at least one alert rule is related to one or more requests to provide one or more materials produced by the chemical production environment;

[0006] - generating one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction based on the generated one or more alerts, wherein the one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction are configured to trigger approval of one or more requests to provide one or more materials;

[0007] - providing approved one or more requests to trigger monitoring and / or control of the chemical production environment for providing the one or more materials.

[0008] In another aspect, an apparatus for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment is disclosed, the chemical production environment comprising a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment, the apparatus comprising:

[0009] - a retrieval engine configured to retrieve operational tracking data associated with tracking of material flows from one or more data storage devices, and / or retrieve updated operational data;

[0010] - an alert engine configured to generate one or more alerts based on the operation tracking data and one or more alert rules, wherein at least one alert rule is related to one or more requests to provide one or more materials produced by the chemical production environment;

[0011] - an operation engine configured to generate one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction based on the generated one or more alerts, wherein the one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction are configured to trigger approval of one or more requests to provide one or more materials;

[0012] - an output engine configured to provide the approved one or more requests to trigger monitoring and / or control of the chemical production environment for providing the one or more materials.

[0013] In another aspect, disclosed is a trigger generated according to the method disclosed herein or generated by the device disclosed herein for displaying monitoring and / or control instructions to an operator of the chemical production environment and / or to at least one of these distributed systems for tracking the flow of materials in the chemical production environment, and / or for the purpose of monitoring and / or controlling at least one of these distributed systems for tracking the flow of materials in the chemical production environment or a corresponding method of use.

[0014] In another aspect, a computer element having instructions is disclosed, which when executed by a computing device performs the steps according to the method disclosed herein or as provided by the device disclosed herein.

[0015] Any disclosure and embodiments described herein relate to the methods, apparatus, systems, uses, formulations and computer elements listed above and below, and vice versa. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any embodiment and example are equally applicable to all other embodiments and examples.

[0016] The embodiments of the present disclosure will be summarized below by embodiments and / or examples. It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments and / or examples. All terms and definitions used herein are broadly understood and have their general meanings.

[0017] The methods, apparatus, systems, uses and computer elements disclosed herein provide an efficient, safe and reliable way to process materials across the supply chain operations of a distributed chemical production environment. The use of alarm rules and operator approval allows operators to monitor and / or control the chemical production environment more reliably and efficiently.

[0018] In one embodiment, the operational tracking data is ingested according to a predefined data processing pipeline associated with data structures and / or processing rules.

[0019] In another embodiment, the operations tracking data is provided by a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment.

[0020] In another embodiment, the operational tracking data is associated with input materials entering the chemical production environment, production of materials in the chemical production environment, flow of materials within the chemical production environment, and / or output materials exiting the chemical production environment.

[0021] In another embodiment, the at least one alert rule is associated with an identified user of the one or more materials, wherein the identified user of the one or more materials is associated with one or more production facilities inside or outside the chemical production environment.

[0022] In another embodiment, the at least one alarm rule is associated with one or more production facilities within the chemical production environment, wherein the alarm rule is configured to trigger an alarm when at least one data point associated with providing the one or more materials within the chemical production environment is missing.

[0023] In another embodiment, the at least one alarm rule is associated with one or more production facilities outside the chemical production environment, wherein the alarm rule is configured to trigger an alarm if one or more requests related to providing the one or more materials outside the chemical production environment are blocked.

[0024] In another embodiment, the one or more requests associated with providing the one or more materials outside the chemical production environment are blocked due to a change in the materials to be provided, a delay in providing the materials, an expiration of the materials to be provided, and / or a credit freeze associated with a user of the materials.

[0025] In another embodiment, one or more requests related to providing the one or more materials outside of the chemical production environment are issued upon approval by at least one identified user.

[0026] In another embodiment, generating the one or more user instructions includes generating a trigger to request approval of at least one identified user, wherein the identified user includes one or more preset user identifiers, and wherein the trigger signal is provided to the identified user based on the one or more preset user identifiers.

[0027] In another embodiment, generating the one or more user instructions includes generating a trigger to request operational data input provided by at least one identified user, wherein the identified user includes one or more preset user identifiers, and wherein the trigger signal is provided to the identified user based on the one or more preset user identifiers.

[0028] In another embodiment, the requested operational data input provided by at least one identified user is provided to one or more data storage devices accessible to retrieve data points related to providing the one or more materials within the chemical production environment.

[0029] In another embodiment, the operational data input relates to one or more production facilities within the chemical production environment. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] The present disclosure will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings:

[0031] Figure 1 Examples of intelligent platforms for monitoring and / or controlling material flows in distributed chemical environments are presented.

[0032] Figure 2 Example methods for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment including a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment are presented.

[0033] Figure 3 An example apparatus for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment including a distributed system for tracking material flow within the chemical production environment is presented.

[0034] Figure 4 Shows an example user interface including alert and approval screens. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] Figure 1 Examples of intelligent platforms for monitoring and / or controlling material flows in distributed chemical environments are presented.

[0036] The monitoring and / or control platform may include multiple computing layers, including: a system configured to monitor and / or track material flows in a distributed chemical production environment, an operational tracking data pipeline from different systems that monitor material flows in the distributed chemical production environment, a storage device for operational tracking data, a data processing layer configured to provide and / or perform data processing services, and a device monitoring layer configured to provide and / or perform services for monitoring and / or controlling material flows in the distributed chemical production environment. The monitoring and / or control platform may be implemented on a cloud infrastructure configured for distributed computing or cloud computing. "Cloud computing" may refer to a model for implementing on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage devices, applications, and services). When a cloud computing environment is distributed, the cloud computing environment may be distributed internationally within an organization and / or across multiple organizations. In this instance, the distributed cloud computing environment may include the following computing resources: (multiple) mobile devices, operating devices, applications, databases, data storage devices, and (multiple) servers. The cloud computing environment may be deployed as a public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid cloud. A private cloud can be owned by an organization and can only be used by members of the organization with appropriate access rights, making the data in the private cloud at least confidential. In contrast, data stored in a public cloud is available to anyone through the Internet. A hybrid cloud can be a combination of both private and public clouds and can make some of the data confidential while other data can be publicly available.

[0037] The system configured to monitor and / or track material flows in a distributed chemical production environment can be configured to monitor and / or track input material flows entering the distributed chemical production environment, material production in the distributed chemical production environment, material flows (such as material transportation and / or storage) in the distributed chemical production environment, and / or output material flows leaving the distributed chemical production environment. The system for input material tracking can be configured to monitor and / or track input material flows entering the distributed chemical production environment. The production system can be configured to monitor and / or track produced intermediate materials and / or output materials. The warehouse system can be configured to monitor and / or track stored input materials, intermediate materials, and / or output materials. The transportation system can be configured to monitor and / or track input material flows, intermediate material flows, and / or output material flows in the distributed chemical production environment. The transportation system can be configured to track output material flows leaving the distributed chemical production environment.

[0038] The system configured to monitor and / or track material flow can be configured to provide operation tracking data associated with the operation performed in association with the distributed chemical production environment. The operation tracking data can be related to the manufacture, storage and / or transportation of materials. The operation tracking data can be related to one or more data points provided by one or more sensors, (multiple) actors and / or (multiple) applications of one or more systems configured to monitor and / or track material flow. The operation tracking data can include unstructured data, such as text provided by a user through an end-user device or an application program monitoring operation associated with a system configured to monitor and / or track. The operation tracking data can include semi-structured data (such as machine-readable text data), which can be provided by an application program associated with a system configured to monitor and / or track. The operation tracking data can include structured data, such as measurement data from sensors or actors that monitor and / or control operations (such as manufacturing).

[0039] Operation tracking data may be provided to (multiple) different types of storage devices, such as a local disk of an end-user device, a database, a data lake, a data warehouse, etc. The source storage device may include any type of storage device suitable for storing data persistently or non-persistently. Operation tracking data may be provided in a structured format, particularly in relation to data acquired and provided by a system configured to monitor and / or track material flows through applications, sensors and / or actors. Operation tracking data may be provided in a structured format with a defined data structure, such as a table that can be stored, retrieved and / or manipulated using one or more standardized database languages, such as SQL or SQL as a service. Operation tracking data may be provided in an unstructured format without a defined data structure or in a semi-structured format with a semi-defined data structure. Data conversion techniques, such as natural language processing, such as an embedding model configured to convert language or string data into numerical data, and pattern detection or clustering techniques, such as K-nearest neighbor algorithms, may be used to convert unstructured or semi-structured data into structured data.

[0040] The operation tracking data may be provided to (multiple) different types of storage devices of different types of systems configured to monitor and / or track material flows. The operation tracking data may be stored in a distributed manner on different storage devices of different systems configured to monitor and / or track material flows. The operation tracking data may be distributed on different storage devices. For large infrastructures (such as manufacturing sites or warehouses), distributed operating equipment (such as an operator's end-user equipment, different manufacturing equipment, different robots, etc.) are spread throughout the operating infrastructure, making it very challenging to analyze the operation tracking data of the distributed operating equipment. In addition, in the event of an error in the operating equipment, it is very cumbersome to perform maintenance or troubleshooting.

[0041] To implement an interactive monitoring and / or control system as disclosed herein, operation tracking data may be provided from a distributed source storage device to (multiple) intermediate storage devices. (Multiple) intermediate storage devices may include object storage devices, block storage devices, and / or file storage devices. Since object storage devices allow dynamic metadata processing associated with each data object, the intermediate storage device may be configured as an object storage device that stores operation tracking data in data objects, the operation tracking data including the data itself, indexes, and / or data directories or metadata.

[0042] Operation tracking data can be processed (e.g., manipulated and / or converted) according to one or more data templates. The data template can include predefined data structures and / or rules for processing (e.g., manipulating and / or converting) raw operation tracking data provided by a distributed system configured to monitor and / or track material flows. The data template can depend on the system configured to monitor and / or track material flows, the operation tracking data type, and / or the type of operation process tracked by the system configured to monitor and / or track material flows. The operation process can include supply chain management processes, such as procurement / purchase to payment for providing input materials, orders to cash for providing output materials, plans and inventories for the production and storage of materials, and on-site logistics and transportation management for moving materials within a distributed chemical production environment. The data template can be selected based on the system configured to monitor and / or track material flows, the operation tracking data type, and / or the type of operation process tracked by the system configured to monitor and / or track material flows. The data template can be retrieved from the template storage. The data template can be used to process (e.g., manipulate and / or convert) raw operation tracking data such as provided by a system configured to monitor and / or track material flows. The raw or processed operation tracking data can be further processed, for example, converted into a compressed and / or encoded data storage format (such as Apache Parquet) to enhance the performance of large-scale processing of complex data. The processed operation tracking data can be provided to (multiple) receiver storage devices, such as databases using different storage architectures configured for data marts, online analytical processing (OLAP), online transaction processing (OLTP), predictive analysis, etc. The selection of storage architectures (such as block storage devices, object storage devices, and / or file storage devices) can depend on the latency and performance required to monitor and / or control a distributed chemical production environment. For example, a storage architecture can be selected based on data size and / or data transactions processed per second. The operation tracking data stored in the data receiver can be used to monitor and / or control material flows in a distributed chemical production environment.

[0043] In order to be able to monitor and / or control the material flow in a distributed chemical production environment in a simple, reliable and robust manner, the methods, devices, systems and uses disclosed herein are based on triggering the provision of materials based on monitoring and / or control using manual interaction. The overall operator of the distributed chemical production environment can therefore interact with the operation in a simple and fast manner. This allows the operator to quickly access the state of the operation and trigger the execution of the action if it is considered necessary. In this way, the monitoring and / or control system of the prior art with limited operator interaction possibilities when analyzing and displaying data can enhance the monitoring and / or control of the distributed chemical production environment.

[0044] Figure 2 Example methods for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment including a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment are presented.

[0045] One or more receiver identities of one or more data sources having stored operational data may be provided to access, for example, Figure 1 Operation tracking data stored as described in the context of . Operation tracking data associated with tracking of material flows can be retrieved from one or more receiver storage devices, and / or updated operation data can be retrieved. The operation tracking data can include time series data providing operation tracking data points at (multiple) time intervals. For example, after initial processing of the operation tracking data provided by a distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows, a data template including a data structure and / or processing rules can be applied to the (semi-)continuously ingested data provided by the distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows. This can include a pipeline of data transformations, such as feature extraction, transformation (such as cleaning), index creation and / or directory generation. The operation tracking data can be provided from a database associated with the distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows, for example, via batch extract-transform-load (ETL) such as SQL queries or replication. The operation tracking data can be provided from an IoT device associated with the distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows, for example, via a streaming mechanism. The operation tracking data can be provided from an application associated with the distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows, for example, via streaming (such as logs generated when the application is running). The operation tracking data may be provided, for example, via an upload mechanism, from local storage device(s) associated with the distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows. The processed operation tracking data may be stored on receiver (e.g., object) storage devices, including data objects, indexes, and directories. Figure 1The operation tracking data may be ingested by a predefined data processing pipeline associated with data structures and / or processing rules described in the context of the chemical production environment. The operation tracking data may be provided by a distributed system for tracking material flows in a chemical production environment. The operation tracking data may be associated with input materials entering the chemical production environment, material production in the chemical production environment, material flows within the chemical production environment, and / or output materials leaving the chemical production environment.

[0046] Aggregate tracking data may be generated by aggregating operation tracking data over time and / or by a distributed system for tracking material flows. Operation tracking data (e.g., processed and stored in an object storage device) may be provided for further analysis. For example, aggregate tracking data may be generated by aggregating operation tracking data over time and / or by a distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows. For example, operation tracking data may be aggregated by plant, storage facility, material type, etc. Operation tracking data may be aggregated into one or more aggregation types related to material flows and / or one or more stages of one or more operational processes. Examples include requests for providing output materials (orders), quantities of stored materials (inventory), materials stored on a single day (inventory), etc. Examples of aggregated tracking data include requests for output materials (e.g., unfulfilled rush orders) in a time-dependent manner (e.g., within time framed into time intervals), the total amount of materials stored by the distributed chemical production environment (e.g., non-flowing inventory, total inventory quantity TIQ), the total number of days of materials stored by the distributed chemical production environment (e.g., inventory days valuation, DIV), the time required to execute sub-stages of an operational process (e.g., from receipt of a request to provision of output materials), missing data points (e.g., inter-company or customer-related data fields, etc.).

[0047] Aggregate tracking data may be provided to an operator monitoring and / or controlling a distributed chemical production environment. Aggregate tracking data may be provided for display to an operator. Aggregate tracking data may be provided to an operator on an interactive display. The interactive display may provide different data views and filtering options. Aggregate tracking data may be provided for triggering alarms based on predefined or dynamically adjustable alarm rules. Alarms may be represented by one or more thresholds and / or ranges defined for each aggregation type. Depending on the action to be triggered by the alarm, an alarm may be associated with one or more alarm types. Alarms may be provided to an operator monitoring and / or controlling a distributed chemical production environment. Alarms may be provided to a user of a distributed system for monitoring and / or tracking material flows.

[0048] One or more alerts may be generated based on aggregated tracking data and one or more alert rules, wherein at least one alert rule is associated with one or more requests to provide one or more materials produced by a chemical production environment. One or more alert rules may be associated with users of one or more materials. Users of one or more materials may be associated with one or more production facilities inside or outside the chemical production environment. One or more alert rules may be associated with one or more production facilities within the chemical production environment. One or more alert rules may be configured to trigger an alert when at least one data point associated with providing one or more materials is missing. For example, in an inter-company environment where multiple entities provide one or more products as intermediate materials or input materials, providing such materials between entities may require certain inter-company data, such as attribute data, location data, quality data, pricing data, etc., before such materials can be provided. If one or more material data points for providing one or more materials between entities are missing, an alert may be triggered according to an alert rule associated with providing materials between entities in a company.

[0049] One or more alarm rules may be associated with one or more production facilities outside a chemical production environment. One or more alarm rules may be configured to trigger an alarm if one or more requests associated with providing one or more materials are blocked. One or more requests associated with providing one or more materials may be blocked due to changes in the materials to be provided, delays in providing the materials, overdue materials to be provided, and / or credit freezes associated with the user of the materials. For example, in the case of an order, the material may be blocked from being provided to the user of the material due to user attributes associated with the ordered materials (such as security data associated with the user's requirements for safe handling of the materials), an overrun of the user's credit limit, or other attributes of the user. If the user to whom the material is to be provided does not meet certain requirements, an alarm may be triggered according to an alarm rule associated with providing the material to the user. An alarm rule may block a user or an order placed by a user.

[0050] One or more user instructions for human-computer interaction may be generated based on the generated one or more alarms. One or more user instructions for human-computer interaction may be configured to trigger approval of one or more requests for providing one or more materials based on the generated one or more alarms. One or more requests related to providing one or more materials may be issued after approval by at least one identified user through human-computer interaction. One or more user instructions may include generating at least one trigger to request approval from at least one identified user. The identified user may include one or more preset user identifiers. A trigger signal may be sent to the identified user based on one or more preset user identifiers. For example, a blocking alarm related to a user to be provided with materials may be issued by the identified user. One or more user instructions may include generating a trigger to request operation data input provided by at least one identified user. The identified user may include one or more preset user identifiers. A trigger signal may be sent to the identified user based on one or more preset user identifiers. The requested operation data input provided by at least one identified user may be provided to one or more receiver storage devices. The requested operation data input may be related to one or more production facilities within a chemical production environment. For example, inter-company data before such provision, such as attribute data, location data, quality data, pricing data, etc. Inter-company data may be provided and approved through human-computer interaction.

[0051] Approved one or more requests may be provided, for example, in response to human-computer interaction, to trigger monitoring and / or control of a chemical production environment for providing one or more materials.

[0052] Figure 3 An example apparatus for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment including a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment is presented.

[0053] The device is configured to monitor and / or control a chemical production environment, in particular to perform Figure 2 The steps described in the context of a chemical production environment including a distributed system for tracking material flows in the chemical production environment. The device may include a user interface communicatively coupled to the computing device. The user interface may be configured for human-computer interaction. (Multiple) user instructions may be provided by an operator of the distributed chemical production environment, as described above (e.g., in Figure 2The computing device may include: a retrieval engine configured to retrieve operational tracking data associated with tracking of material flows from one or more receiver storage devices, and / or retrieve updated operational data; an aggregation engine configured to aggregate tracking data by aggregating the operational tracking data over time and / or through a distributed system for tracking material flows; an alert engine configured to generate one or more alerts based on the aggregated tracking data and one or more alert rules; an operation engine configured to generate one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction; and / or an output engine configured to provide one or more approved requests that trigger the provision of one or more materials.

[0054] Figure 4 Shows an example user interface including alert and approval screens.

[0055] exist Figure 4 In the example of, the input screen depicted at the top of the user interface shows an alert based on the blocking of the user to be provided with materials and an alert based on missing inter-company data. When one of the panes is clicked, the resolution of the alert can be triggered. In the example of blocking, a process of requesting the designated user to approve the unblocking of the order of the user to be provided with materials can be triggered. After human-computer interaction, the designated user can approve or release the order. In the example of missing inter-company data, a process of requesting the designated user to provide the missing inter-company data can be triggered. After human-computer interaction, the designated user can provide such data and can approve the storage of the provided data as operational data. In this way, the aggregation of operational tracking data and the generated alerts can attract the attention of the operator and allow more efficient and reliable monitoring and / or control of the chemical production environment.

[0056] The disclosure has also been described in conjunction with various preferred embodiments and examples. However, other variations may be understood and effected by those skilled in the art and those practicing the claimed invention from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the claims.

[0057] Any steps presented herein may be performed in any order. The methods disclosed herein are not limited to a particular order of these steps. It is also not required that different steps be performed somewhere or at a certain computing node in the distributed system, i.e., each step may be performed using different devices / data processing at different computing nodes.

[0058] As used herein, "determining" also includes "initiating or causing determination", "generating" also includes "initiating and / or causing generation", and "providing" also includes "initiating or causing determination, generation, selecting, sending and / or receiving". "Initiating or causing performance of an action" includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform a corresponding action.

[0059] In the claims and the description, the word "comprising" or "including" or similar expressions do not exclude other elements or steps and should not be interpreted as being limited to the listed elements or steps. The indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous embodiment or that further elements may be included.

[0060] Providing within the scope of the present disclosure may include any interface configured to provide data. This may include an application programming interface, a human-machine interface (such as a display), and / or a software module interface. Providing may include transmitting data or submitting data to an interface, particularly for display to a user or use by a receiving entity.

[0061] Any disclosure and embodiments described herein relate to the methods, systems, devices, apparatus, chemicals, materials, services, uses, computer program elements listed above, and vice versa. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any embodiment and example are also applicable to all other embodiments and examples, and vice versa.

[0062] All terms and definitions used herein are to be interpreted broadly and have their ordinary meanings.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment, the chemical production environment comprising a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment, the method comprising the following steps: - retrieving operational tracking data associated with tracking of material flows from one or more data storage devices, and / or retrieving updated operational data; - generating one or more alerts based on the operation tracking data and one or more alert rules, wherein at least one alert rule is related to one or more requests to provide one or more materials produced by the chemical production environment; - generating one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction based on the generated one or more alerts, wherein the one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction are configured to trigger approval of one or more requests to provide one or more materials; - providing approved one or more requests to trigger monitoring and / or control of a chemical production environment used to provide the one or more materials.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein: The operational tracking data is ingested according to a predefined data processing pipeline associated with data structures and / or processing rules.

3. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The operational tracking data is provided by a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment.

4. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The operational tracking data is associated with input materials entering the chemical production environment, production of materials in the chemical production environment, flow of materials within the chemical production environment, and / or output materials exiting the chemical production environment.

5. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The at least one alert rule is associated with an identified user of the one or more materials, wherein the identified user of the one or more materials is associated with one or more production facilities within or outside the chemical production environment.

6. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The at least one alarm rule is associated with one or more production facilities within the chemical production environment, wherein the alarm rule is configured to trigger an alarm when at least one data point associated with providing the one or more materials within the chemical production environment is missing.

7. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The at least one alarm rule is associated with one or more production facilities outside the chemical production environment, wherein the alarm rule is configured to trigger an alarm when one or more requests related to providing the one or more materials outside the chemical production environment are blocked.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein: One or more requests associated with providing the one or more materials outside the chemical production environment are blocked due to a change in the materials to be provided, a delay in providing the materials, an expiration of the materials to be provided, and / or a credit freeze associated with a user of the materials.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein: One or more requests related to providing the one or more materials outside of the chemical production environment are issued upon approval by at least one identified user.

10. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: Generating the one or more user instructions includes generating a trigger to request approval of at least one identified user, wherein the identified user includes one or more preset user identifiers, wherein the trigger signal is provided to the identified user based on the one or more preset user identifiers.

11. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein: Generating the one or more user instructions includes generating a trigger to request operation data input by at least one identified user, wherein the identified user includes one or more preset user identifiers, and wherein the trigger signal is provided to the identified user based on the one or more preset user identifiers.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein: The requested operational data input provided by at least one identified user is provided to one or more data storage devices accessible to retrieve data points related to providing the one or more materials within the chemical production environment.

13. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: The operational data input is associated with one or more production facilities within the chemical production environment.

14. An apparatus for monitoring and / or controlling a chemical production environment, the chemical production environment comprising a distributed system for tracking material flow in the chemical production environment, the apparatus comprising: - a retrieval engine configured to retrieve operational tracking data associated with tracking of material flows from one or more data storage devices, and / or retrieve updated operational data; - an alert engine configured to generate one or more alerts based on the operation tracking data and one or more alert rules, wherein at least one alert rule is related to one or more requests to provide one or more materials produced by the chemical production environment; - an operation engine configured to generate one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction based on the generated one or more alerts, wherein the one or more user instructions for human-computer interaction are configured to trigger approval of one or more requests to provide one or more materials; - an output engine configured to provide the approved one or more requests to trigger monitoring and / or control of a chemical production environment for providing the one or more materials.

15. A trigger generated by the method described in any one of claims 1 to 13 or generated by the device described in claim 14 is used to display monitoring and / or control instructions to the operator of the chemical production environment and / or to at least one of these distributed systems for tracking the flow of materials in the chemical production environment, and / or is used to monitor and / or control at least one of these distributed systems for tracking the flow of materials in the chemical production environment.

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