A data collection system in an industrial environment includes a data collector coupled to a plurality of input channels, wherein at least one is connected to a vibration detection facility for detecting a noise pattern from a first industrial machine of a plurality of industrial machines; a data storage structured to store a plurality of noise patterns from the plurality of industrial machines in a library; a data acquisition circuit structured to interpret a plurality of detection values from the collected data; and a data analysis circuit structured to analyze the collected data to determine if the noise pattern from the first industrial machine matches a noise pattern of a second industrial machine stored in the library, wherein if it matches an alarm condition is set to indicate the first industrial machine is experiencing a condition characteristic of the machine performance category of the second industrial machine.