1. A method for generating a reduced rule set for identifying a root cause of an aberration in an industrial process, comprising: (a) obtaining a rule base comprising a plurality of rules for the industrial process, each rule comprising a condition of at least one process signal of the industrial process and a fault which corresponds to a condition of at least one process signal; (b) identifying which process signals of the industrial process are available; (c) selectively removing a rule from the plurality of rules of the rule base to produce the reduced rule set, wherein the step of selectively removing a rule is based upon the step of identifying which process signals of the industrial are available.