Systems and methods that include selecting a physical model and a procedural model associated with an industrial plant, projecting a cross-product of the physical model and the procedural model into a unit-operation association set using a projection matrix, the unit-operation association set associating units representing equipment in the industrial plant and operations representing processes performed in the industrial plant, and establishing internal and external adjacency sets within structures, the internal adjacency set identifying connections between inputs and outputs of individual units and operations, the external adjacency set identifying connections between outputs of some units and operation and inputs of other units and operations. These systems and methods may also include generating a hyperstructure representing the industrial plant using the association and adjacency sets.