A control system, a safety system, etc., within a process plant may each use one or more state machine function blocks that can be easily integrated into a function block diagram programming environment. Such a state machine function block may include one or more inputs, which may or may not cause a state machine implemented by the state machine function block to change states. The state machine function block may also include a plurality of outputs. Output configuration data associated with the function block may indicate values of the outputs of the function block for each of the states of the state machine. The state machine function block may use this output configuration data to determine its outputs when in a particular state.