Embodiments are directed to computer methods and systems that build and deploy a pattern model to detect an operating event in an online plant process. To build the pattern model, the methods and systems define a signature of the operating event, such that the defined signature contains a time series pattern for a KPI associated with the operating event. The methods and systems deploy the pattern model to automatically monitor, during online execution of the plant process, trends in movement of the KPI as a time series. The methods and systems determine, in real-time, a distance score between a range of the monitored time series and the time series pattern contained in the defined signature. The methods and systems automatically detect the operating event in the online industrial process based on the determined distance score, and alter parameters of the process (e.g., valves, actuators, etc.) to prevent the operating event.