We help our customers develop an alarm philosophy document that outlines the principles and guidelines for alarm management. This document should define the purpose of alarms, alarm priorities, and the overall strategy for effective alarm handling.
Conduct alarm rationalization to review and justify each alarm in the system. Evaluate the necessity of each alarm, its setpoint, and its priority. Remove unnecessary or redundant alarms to reduce operator workload and prevent alarm flooding.
Assign priorities to alarms based on their criticality and impact on the process. High-priority alarms should require immediate attention, while lower-priority alarms may provide information for future investigation.
Optimize alarm setpoints and deadbands to reduce the likelihood of frequent and unnecessary alarms. Ensure that alarms are set at values that genuinely indicate abnormal process conditions.
Implement dynamic alarm suppression to prevent the simultaneous activation of multiple alarms for a single event. This helps avoid overwhelming operators with redundant information during abnormal situations.
Provide the capability for operators to temporarily shelve or suppress non-critical alarms during specific situations. This allows operators to focus on resolving the most important issues without being distracted by less critical alarms.
Implement a system for operators to acknowledge alarms, indicating that they are aware of the situation. Unacknowledged alarms should be easily distinguishable, helping operators prioritize their responses.
Generate reports and logs for alarm events, including timestamps, operator actions, and any system responses. This information is valuable for post-event analysis, continuous improvement, and regulatory compliance.
Train operators on the alarm management system and provide documentation on alarm handling procedures. Operators should be familiar with the alarm philosophy and know how to respond to different alarm scenarios.
Periodically review and update the alarm management system to adapt to changes in the process or identify opportunities for improvement. Regularly revisit the alarm rationalization process to maintain an effective alarm system.
Design the HMI to effectively display alarms, ensuring that operators can quickly identify the status, severity, and relevant information associated with each alarm.
Ensure that the alarm management system aligns with industry standards such as ISA-18.2, which provides guidelines for the management of alarm systems in the process industries.