1. A method for substantially optimizing plant operations within a manufacturing environment, comprising: separating the manufacturing environment into two or more individual modules, wherein each individual module contains a fundamental principles-based model, and wherein said two or more individual modules represent the manufacturing environment; independently parameterizing each individual module upon said module reaching steady state; wherein inter-module data flow is provided to at least one of the individual modules during parameterization; and wherein an output of the parameterization comprises an individual, calibrated steady-state model of each individual module; deriving a reduced order model from each parameterized module; assembling the reduced order models to provide a facility reduced order model; determining improved operating condition targets from the facility reduced order model; and changing one or more operating conditions within the manufacturing environment based on the improved operating condition targets.