The high cost of model predictive control (MPC) technology has hampered its wide application in process industries beyond the refining/petrochemical industry. This work strives to increase the efficiency of MPC deployment. First, a semi-automatic MPC system is introduced. It consists of three modules: an MPC module, an online identification module and a control monitor module. The goal of the MPC technology is twofold: (1) to considerably reduce the cost of MPC commissioning and maintenance and (2) to increase control performance. System identification plays important roles in all the three parts of the MPC system. In the identification module, the so-called ASYM method of identification is used. It is demonstrated with an industrial application. In the control module, adaptive disturbance model identification is developed for improving control performance; in the monitor module, a method of model error detection method is developed. Industrial applications and simulations are used to demonstrate the ideas. Finally, we comment on some industrial needs on MPC research and development. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.