Alarm systems in industrial and manufacturing facilities are integral to maintaining a safe working environment, protecting assets, enhancing operational efficiency, ensuring compliance, and monitoring environmental conditions. Their multifaceted role underscores their importance in modern industrial operations. Having an efficient alarm management system has many business benefits, including lowering operational costs through fewer incidents.
Alarm systems are instrumental in alerting an industrial facility of process safety and preventing incidents, but these systems are often not effective due to alarm overload, alarm fatigue, and the subsequent inadequate response to alarms. Operators in an industrial setting often face an overwhelming number of alarms, with multiple alarms triggering at the same time, an occurrence known as alarm flooding. This not only makes it difficult to identify which alarm requires immediate attention, but also leads to critical alarms being missed. Paired with poor decision making, this can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Using multiple technologies without a consolidated alarm management system and database further complicates incident tracking and response, exacerbating the challenges associated with alarm management.
Implementing solutions
Recognising these challenges, the effective management of alarm systems can be achieved by implementing the latest software, such as the ProcessVue Alarm Management Suite – a comprehensive solution designed to enhance operational intelligence and improve decision making in control rooms.
The suite consists of three components. The Sequencer is responsible for the collection of alarm messages and event information from multiple disparate systems, and consolidating the information into a single database. Collectors are available for most industrial control systems.
The Analyser provides comprehensive and rich off-the-shelf functionality for alarm analysis, including alarm flood analysis, fleeting and chattering alarm analysis, operator response analysis, stale alarm analysis, time in alarm analysis, and KPI summary reports on compliance with the various international alarm standards.
The Guardian integrates a master alarm database and Management of Change functionality into a single application, facilitating alarm rationalisation and documentation in a fully collaborative environment.
Other features include customisable dashboards, automated reporting, holistic real-time views, incident investigation reports, and the notification of critical alarms. When compared to other systems that are available on the market, the ProcessVue Alarm Management Suite stands head and shoulders above the rest. The ProcessVue Alarm Management Suite is designed to meet the requirements of several industries, including oil and gas, power generation, pharmaceutical, and general manufacturing operations.
Compliance with global standards
By adopting these alarm management solutions, industrial operators can further ensure safe operations and useful alarm alerts. The ProcessVue Alarm Management Suite is designed to align with internationally recognised standards such as ISA 18.2 and EEMUA 191, which are critical for establishing best practice in alarm management.
The ISA 18.2 standard has transformed alarm management since its introduction, emphasising a structured approach through the alarm management lifecycle, which includes stages such as alarm philosophy development, rationalisation, and performance monitoring. By adhering to this standard, organisations can systematically evaluate their alarm systems, ensuring that alarms are justified, prioritised and effectively managed throughout their lifecycle. This structured methodology not only enhances operator response to alarms, but also reduces the potential for alarm fatigue and overload.
Similarly, EEMUA 191 provides guidelines for alarm systems in industrial environments, focusing on the importance of reducing nuisance alarms and improving overall system performance. Compliance with EEMUA 191 ensures that alarms are meaningful and actionable, contributing to better decision making and operational safety.
Benefits of ProcessVue
The benefits of implementing ProcessVue extend beyond compliance. By prioritising critical alarms, operators can focus on the alarms that matter most, enhancing overall safety protocols within their facilities.
Having a centralised database, operators are further able to review alarm history, analysing alarm patterns over time to identify trends. Understanding these trends enables organisations to address underlying issues proactively, and makes it easier to conduct root causes when incidents occur. The comparison of current alarm performance against historical data allows operators to measure improvements and identify areas needing further enhancement.
Investing in a structured alarm management system like ProcessVue offers numerous business benefits. An enhanced focus on critical alarms leads to better safety outcomes, streamlined processes result in fewer interruptions in production, efficient alarm management translates into lower operational costs, and fewer incidents contribute to better environmental stewardship.
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