- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, December 08, 2020
- Alarm Management
Alarm Management Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The March / April 2020 issue of Intech contains an excellent article by Nick Sands and Donald Dunn, the co-chairs for the ISA-18 committee.
The article reviews some of the most frequently asked questions on alarm management:
- What is alarm management?
- Which alarm management standard do…
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- by Casimir-Alvin Musa
- Thursday, November 05, 2020
- Alarm Management
Why should I use an Alarm Deadband?
As many of you will know, one of the most common form of nuisance to operators working industrial controls are repeating or chattering alarms. On a typical plant, repeating alarms may account for around 50% of the alarm annunciations. They are a problem because the operator will have to…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, October 06, 2020
- Alarm Management
Alarm System Auditing and Enforcement – The Why and the How
One of the more important tasks in the alarm management lifecycle is auditing of the alarm system configuration. Auditing preserves your investment in rationalization, checks for changes that bypassed the MOC process, and helps you to maintain the integrity of the alarm system. Oh, and it also required per…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, September 03, 2020
- Alarm Management
Safety Alarms and Why ISA-84.91.03 is Needed
On July 27, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued a Factual Update on their investigation into a release of water containing a toxic gas (hydrogen sulfide) and subsequent fatal injuries sustained at the Aghorn Operating Waterflood Station. While it is typically not a good idea to comment on investigations…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, April 14, 2020
- Alarm Management
Which Measure (Rationalized or Annunciated) is More Important?
Get your priorities (distribution) straight
A very common question is posed during alarm management training. Does the recommended alarm priority distribution of ~5% / ~15% / ~80% for high / medium / low priority alarms apply to the rationalized alarm priority distribution (as configured in the control system) or to the annunciatedalarm priority distribution…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, March 24, 2020
- Alarm Management
Bow Ties Part II: Do Bow Ties have a place in Alarm Management?
As discussed in Part I, bow tie diagrams provide an easy-to-understand visual representation of risk management information (hazards, potential consequences, barriers, degradation factors and controls). In this article we examine the applicability of bow ties to alarm management.
According to the CCPS book “Bow Ties in Risk Management”,…
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- by Casimir-Alvin Musa
- Thursday, March 12, 2020
- Alarm Management
Alarm Philosophy Development – Going to Great Lengths
Creating an alarm philosophy document is often the entry point into the ISA-18.2/IEC 62682 alarm management lifecycle. Many tasked with developing one are discouraged by its length and the barriers it creates. When it comes to using the philosophy document, a common concern is that if the…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, January 21, 2020
- Alarm Management
Alarm Response Procedures: More than Just a Good Idea
From an operations point of view, one of the significant parts of the ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 alarm management standards is the endorsement of alarm response procedures. An alarm response procedure, otherwise known as “Alarm Help” or “Alarm Response Manual”, is defined as guidance for response to an alarm (e.g., operator…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, December 19, 2019
- Alarm Management
CSB Cites Lack of Alarm Management as Contributing Factors to Blowout in Oklahoma
US Chemical Safety Board cites lack of Alarm Philosophy, Alarm Rationalization, and State-Based Alarming as Contributing Factors to Blowout in Oklahoma
On January 22, 2018, a blowout and rig fire at the Pryor Trust gas well killed five workers, who were inside the…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, December 03, 2019
- Alarm Management
Delivering Situation Awareness During an Alarm Flood: Throw Your Operators a Lifeline
Alarm floods are periods of alarm activity during which the alarm rate is greater than the operator can effectively manage (e.g., when the operator receives ≥10 alarms in 10 minutes). During a flood situation awareness is compromised and alarms are likely to be missed. In the eleven minutes prior to the explosion…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, November 14, 2019
- Alarm Management
Evaluating Alarm System Performance in a Multi-Operator Control Room
Situation: There are three operator consoles (positions) in the same control room. There is one general alarm horn that goes off whenever a new alarm comes in from any one of the three consoles. The horn draws the attention of each of the three operators.
Question: How are the…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, July 18, 2019
- Alarm Management
When is an Alarm not an Alarm?
The ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 standards define an alarm as an “audible and/or visible means of indicating to the operator an equipment malfunction, process deviation, or abnormal condition requiring a timely response”. One of the reasons why alarm systems are out of control (alarm overload, nuisance alarms)…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, April 25, 2019
- Alarm Management
Don’t Let Your Safe Operating Limits Leave You S-O-L (Out of Luck)
As the name implies, the purpose of Safe Operating Limits (SOL) is to define the limits beyond which a process will not intentionally be operated and at which troubleshooting ceases, replaced by pre-determined actions to bring the process to a safe state. Pretty important information. I am sure this is…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, October 25, 2018
- Alarm Management
Bad Actor Knockdown: The “Whac-A-Mole” of Alarm Management?
As discussed in What do Nuisance Alarms, the 80-20 Rule, and Mental Models Have in Common?, there are typically a handful of alarm points (10 to 20) that create the majority of notifications (50-80%) to the operator (referencing the 80-20 rule). These nuisance alarms are affectionately called “bad…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, August 09, 2018
- Alarm Management
Alarm Shelving - Relieve the Symptoms of Nuisance Alarms and Create a Peaceful Control Room
In an ideal world, every alarm in a process control system would indicate a malfunction or abnormal condition that required operator action. In the real world, alarms that are irrelevant or annunciate excessively—otherwise known as nuisance alarms—can pop up occasionally to quite frequently. They pose a risk to the…
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