- by Todd Stauffer
- Friday, August 18, 2017
- Alarm Management
Alarm Management and the Great American Solar Eclipse
Throughout history, total solar eclipses have been a significant event. In primitive societies, eclipses were viewed with fear or as important omens. In the US, the upcoming “Great American Solar Eclipse” is creating much excitement. From buying “official” eclipse-viewing glasses, to paying $1500 or more…
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- 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, 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
- Thursday, August 01, 2013
- Alarm Management
Alarm Rationalization: Alarm Objective Analysis (AOA)
Todd Stauffer, Director of Alarm Management at exida, takes you through a key part of the Alarm Rationalization process called Alarm Objective Analysis (AOA).
You will learn how to determine what alarms you need (and which one’s you don’t), how to eliminate nuisance alarms, and safely reduce the number…
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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
- 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, 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
- 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 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
- 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, 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
- Tuesday, February 17, 2015
- Alarm Management
Help Your Operators Defeat the Situation Awareness Demons!
Contrary to what you might have guessed, the “Defeat of the Situation Awareness Demons” is not a new video game on XBOX or Playstation. It is a set of eight (8) factors which undermine effective Situation Awareness. It can be applied to operators in process plants to characterize human…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
- Alarm Management
How do You Compare?
Industry Benchmark Survey on Alarms as Safeguards and Independent Protection Layers (IPLs)
exida recently conducted an industry benchmark survey on the practices for the use of alarms as safeguards and IPLs. With over 200 safety practitioners from around the world providing responses, you can use the survey findings to…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, November 02, 2017
- Alarm Management
Human Factors in Alarm Management
Question:
Which one of these layers of protection (operator response to alarm, relief valves, dikes, and safety instrumented systems) is not like the other?

Answer:
Operator response to alarm (Operator Intervention), because of the “Human” factor.
It is very difficult to calculate the probability…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, April 19, 2016
- Alarm Management
New Version of ISA-18.2 Alarm Management Standard Is Released (2016)
The new and updated version of the ISA-18.2 standard (ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016, Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries) has now been officially released. This supersedes the original edition (2009). The new version incorporates feedback from 6+ years in the "field" and includes some updates based on the IEC 62682…
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- by Todd Stauffer
- Friday, February 03, 2017
- Alarm Management
Nuisance Alarms and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
The purpose of an alarm is pretty straightforward - to draw the operator’s attention to an abnormal situation that requires action in order to prevent an undesired consequence. Alarms that don’t meet this principle often become nuisance alarms. A nuisance alarm is defined as:
“an alarm that annunciates excessively,…
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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
- Monday, August 25, 2014
- Alarm Management
Should DCS Alarms be shown on P&IDs?
Alarms were originally shown on Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams / Drawings (P&IDs) to document hardware requirements for installation in a (panelboard) control room. This was important because there was limited real estate in the control room for the alarms (displayed on Panalarms and light boxes) and there was a…
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- by Rick Smith
- Thursday, September 22, 2016
- Alarm Management
The Crossroads of Alarm Management and Process Safety
Recently I was reading The Manufacturing Operations Technology Viewpoints blog and came across an interest post on Alarm Management that cites exida’s Alarm Management cheat sheet. The blog post entitled The Crossroads of Alarm Management and Process Safety is a great summary for any one…
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- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Wednesday, March 05, 2014
- Certification
The Problem with the Expert
I recall the first time I was called an “expert.” I thought that sounded nice. I spotted a magazine article on safety and thought “I do not have to read that as I am an expert.” I quickly recovered. The real problem with being called an expert is that…
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