1. A method for monitoring an industrial process, said method comprising the steps of: obtaining sensor data corresponding to a plurality of product units being processed in accordance with the industrial process; forming a sample matrix of data representing at least two of the product units, wherein the sample matrix is formed from at least a portion of the sensor data; computing a plurality of singular vectors of the sample matrix; reducing the plurality of singular vectors to a principal set of singular vectors; computing principal components of sensor data corresponding to at least one additional product unit processed subsequent to the product units represented in the sample matrix; computing a predicted data vector for the additional product unit; calculating a residual data vector for the additional product unit using the predicted data vector for the additional product unit and a measured data vector corresponding to the additional product unit, the measured data vector comprising sensor data obtained for the additional product unit; calculating a scalar metric from the residual data vector for the additional product unit; and categorizing the additional product unit based on the value of the scalar metric mass spectrometer data, electrical sensor data, and RF sensor data.