An Adaptive Learning Approach to Multivariate Time Forecasting in Industrial Processes

ABSTRACT Industrial processes generate a massive amount of monitoring data that can be exploited to uncover hidden time losses in the system. This can be used to enhance the accuracy of maintenance policies and increase the effectiveness of the equipment. In this work, we propose a method for one‐step probabilistic multivariate forecasting of time variables involved in a production process. The method is based on an Input‐Output Hidden Markov Model (IO‐HMM), in which the parameters of interest are the state transition probabilities and the parameters of the observations' joint density. The ultimate goal of the method is to predict operational process times in the near future, which enables the identification of hidden losses and the location of improvement areas in the process. The input stream in the IO‐HMM model includes past values of the response variables and other process features, such as calendar variables, that can have an impact on the model's parameters. The discrete part of the IO‐HMM models the operational mode of the process. The state transition probabilities are supposed to change over time and are updated using Bayesian principles. The continuous part of the IO‐HMM models the joint density of the response variables. The estimate of the continuous model parameters is recursively computed through an adaptive algorithm that also admits a Bayesian interpretation. The adaptive algorithm allows for efficient updating of the current parameter estimates as soon as new information is available. We evaluate the method's performance using a real data set obtained from a company in a particular sector, and the results are compared with a collection of benchmark models.