Alarm Management

The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

WP 33A91A01-01E-A
 Alarm Management - The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

Sections

Introduction 3

Seven Key Steps for Alarm Management 4

Alarm Rationalization: Finding the Bad Actors 5

Alarm By Condition 6

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 Alarm Management - The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

Introduction Most alarm problems exist because the above

Maintaining a safe and stable plant is the objective of criteria are not met. Understanding this definition is
everyone involved in the manufacturing process. As key to implementing a successful alarm management
Peter Drucker once said, “A well-managed plant is system. Alarm rationalization is a process of
silent and boring,” but it actually takes a lot of work optimizing the alarm system for safe operation by
and effort to ensure this is the case. reducing the number of alarms, reviewing their priority,
and validating their alarm limits. By undertaking such
Alarm management in the plant is not just another steps, we help reduce the workload of the operators
project that gets executed, but it is a philosophy, a and promote a safer working environment within
way of life just like safety. We don’t ever enter the the plant, and when a plant upset does occur, more
process area without wearing PPE, so why work in visibility is available on the alarms that really matter.
an environment where there is no strategy for alarm
handling? The alarm management system is one of As highlighted previously, alarm management is not
the most important aspects of the plant and, like just a project that has a start and end date: it’s a
everything else, it must be maintained to meet the continuous cycle. Once the alarm system has been
ever-changing needs of the plant. reviewed and improvements have been identified
we must check that controls are in place to ensure
In the early days of control systems, before the alarm system remains functional. The key is to
the Distributed Control System (DCS) became ensure that the system is continuously monitored
commonplace, configuration of alarms used to be and any changes are fully documented. It is essential
done through mechanical means with annunciators, that any initiatives regarding alarm management
light boxes, etc. Now with the advent of the DCS the have management support available, otherwise little
cost of making extra alarms available has significantly improvement will be made in reducing the alarm
reduced as it can be mostly done by software. counts and improving overall safety and improvement
However, the operator still becomes overwhelmed in the process.
with unnecessary alarms if the control system design
is not approached correctly.

To fully understand the purpose of the alarm

management system, we must look at the basic
meaning of what an alarm actually is.

• Anything that requires an operator to take an

action to maintain safety and integrity of the
process BEFORE AFTER

• An alarm is designed to prevent or mitigate

process upsets and disturbances

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 Alarm Management - The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

There are seven key steps for alarm management. them will make a big difference to the overall alarm
Rationalization is one of those critical steps. count. Reviewing the Top-10 list keeps it under
control. Yokogawa’s Exaquantum/ARA software can
1. Alarm Philosophy Creation
provide this list on a daily basis by email or, by using
The alarm philosophy document is critical and, without Yokogawa’s Exaplog alarm/event analysis tool, we can
it, there can be no way to way of implementing a manually extract the bad actors.
successful alarm management system. This document
4. Documentation/Rationalization
forms the basis of the overall design guidelines and
will record all the expected KPIs that will be used The most important step of the alarm rationalization
to measure the success of the alarm management process is to ensure that each change is documented
system. The alarm philosophy should also cover the and the alarm changes comply with the alarm
design of the interface to the operator so the graphics philosophy. Alarms can be eliminated completely by
are clear and upsets are easy to spot etc. re-engineering in the DCS or adopting suppression
techniques.
2. Alarm Performance Benchmarking
5. Audit/Enforcement
To measure the success of any alarm management
system, we must know how big the alarm problem is Once the rationalization is done, the hard work is not
that is currently being experienced. How many alarms over! Without proper change management controls in
are being generated per day, how many alarms does place the alarm system will slip back into its old ways.
the operator handle on an hourly basis, what are the Consider adopting a Management of Change (MOC)
deficiencies we currently have in the control system? approach to the alarm system to ensure all changes are
These are all valid questions and benchmarking is the tacked. Exaquantum/AMD can also help by identifying
starting point. Perhaps even performing a HAZOP-like changes to the alarm settings and, if required, the
study at this stage would be advantageous. optimal settings can be enforced automatically.

3. Bad Actors Resolution 6. Real Time Alarm Management

Most alarms in the control system come from For day-to-day operations, we should adopt alarm
relatively few sources and checking these and fixing management techniques that will support rather than
hinder the operator by providing Alarm Shelving,
state based alarming or other alarm suppression
DEFIN
L E technologies.
RO
7. Control & Maintain Performance
T
CON

MEASURE

Continued compliance to the alarm philosophy is

crucial by continuously monitoring the alarm KPIs and
IM P

making any required changes through a MOC type

procedure. Nominate an “alarm champion” that will
RO

VE oversee and manage day-to-day issues. Remember

ZE
A N A LY that alarm management is not a one step process.

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 Alarm Management - The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

Alarm Rationalization: TAGS # ALARMS

table on the left is an example of a
Finding the Bad Actors FI10 37069 plant before alarm rationalization
TI168 29204 was started.
A general approach of alarm management and the steps FI1218 24542

required to implement a successful alarm management

AIC910 10879 The alarm counts for the first three
FIC11 6984
strategy was addressed in Part 1. Now, we explore the tags in this list were exceptionally
FI11 6858
concept of alarm rationalization. As discussed earlier, SIC101 6119 high and were all found to be
the best starting point is to look at how big of an alarm FI180 6037 caused by an input open (IOP)
LI13B 5920
problem we actually have. We can also use this as a error, which in most cases is
I-L13HH 5629
baseline to track progress for the future. The first item to related to a communication issue
address is our “bad actors.” That is, the alarms that are in the field, a hardware issue with the transmitter itself,
causing the most issues within the process. Eliminating or possibly an incorrect alarm threshold setting.
the top ten of these alarms will make a big improvement
In this case, all of the concerned transmitters were
in the overall alarm count in a short period of time. The
connected to a faulty fieldbus segment. Replacing a
bad actors can be obtained easily by using Yokogawa’s
fieldbus component cleared the problem and suddenly
alarm/event analysis software tool, Exaplog, or its alarm
there were no more alarms. This immediately made a
reporting and analysis software, ExaquantumARA.
big impact on the alarm count.
These tools should be run and the results reviewed on a
regular basis. In Exaplog, a report can be manually run The following table can be used as a general reference
when needed, and in ARA, a report can be generated for help in troubleshooting different alarm types in a
automatically and sent via email. The bad actor list in the Yokogawa CENTUM system.

Type Description Possible Cause

Output open detected Block mode of data destination is out of service (O/S)
OOP Output OpenAlarm
Failure of I/O Module
Input open detected Block mode of data destination is out of service (O/S)
BAD Input ErrorAlarm(IOP is activated)
Failure of I/O Module
Alarm threshold is unsuitable Failure of transmitter
IOP Input Open Alarm
Breaking of wire Range over
IOP- Low-Limit Input Open Alarm
Failure of detection terminal
HH Input High-high Limit Alarm Alarm threshold is unsuitable
LL Input Low-low Limit Alarm Alarm hysteresis is unsuitable
HI Input High Limit Alarm Manipulation is unsuitable
LO Input Low Limit Alarm
Alarm threshold is unsuitable PID parameter is unsuitable
DV+ Deviation Alarm (positive direction)
Alarm hysteresis is unsuitable Manipulation is unsuitable
DV- Deviation Alarm (negative direction)
Deviation check filter is unsuitable
Alarm threshold is unsuitable PID parameter is unsuitable
VEL+ Input Velocity Alarm (positive direction)
Alarm hysteresis is unsuitable Manipulation is unsuitable
VEL- Input Velocity Alarm (negative direction)
Failure of detection terminal/transmitter
MHI Output High Limit Alarm Alarm threshold is unsuitable PID parameter is unsuitable
MLO Output Low Limit Alarm Alarm hysteresis is unsuitable Manual manipulation is unsuitable
Connected I/O function block is out of service (O/S)
CNF Bad Connection Status Alarm
Mis-engineering
CERR Calculation Error Alarm Calculation Error (Division by Zero etc)
PERR Unexpected Answerback Alarm Failure of field instrumentation
ANS+ Answerback Error Failure of field equipment
ANS- Answerback Error
AUT Auto Mode
MAN Manual Mode
CAS Cascade Mode Manipulation should be automated
SV Set point Variable
MV Manipulate Variable

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 Alarm Management - The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

It is always best to remember that just because the Running a report for the bad actors and displaying the
alarm count is high for a particular tag, there may be a condition is recommended as it can be filtered for the
logical explanation for it, and the tag should not just be different conditions, plant areas and even down to an
suppressed because it’s a nuisance to the operators. individual unit.
This first stage of alarm rationalization is called
“Fundamental Nuisance Alarm Reduction” (FNAR).

Alarm by Condition
By calendar month
This report displays the distribution of alarms by condition for each unit
14000

12000

10000
Alarm Rate

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
Unit 102 Unit 103 Unit 202 Unit 203 Unit 301 Unit 302 Unit 303 Unit 401 Unit 402 Unit 403 default
Area 100 Area 200 Area 300 Area 400 default

HENKERR CNF ANS- MLO MHI OOP IOP- ANS+ IOP

CERR HH PERR DV+ VEL- LL HI LO ALM

Calendar Month Area Unit Condition Alarm Rate

Area 100 Unit 103 ALM 13196
Area 400 Unit 401 ALM 9560
Area 400 Unit 402 ALM 2631
Area 400 Unit 402 IOP 2129
Area 300 Unit 301 IOP 2076
Area 300 Unit 303 IOP 2068
Area 300 Unit 301 IOP- 294
Area 400 Unit 403 IOP 280
Area 300 Unit 302 ALM 276
Area 100 Unit 102 ALM 237
default default LO 196

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 Alarm Management - The strategy and process of striving for a well-managed operation

After looking at the bad actors we can also look at the the daily activities is a work process well worth the
“chattering alarms.” The EEMUA#191 alarm standard effort. Otherwise, your effort will be wasted and soon
specifies that a chattering alarm is a tag that goes those alarms will be coming back again!
into alarm and normal again more than five times in
Chris Bamber, Yokogawa Middle East & Africa B.S.C.(c)
a 60-second period. In most cases, these chattering
alarms could be caused by incorrect alarm limits. As
part of the rationalization, the chattering alarms should
be looked at closely and the limits reviewed accordingly.

Familiarization with the EEMUA#191 guideline and the

ISA18.2 standard are important to understanding alarm
rationalization and alarm management and the key
performance indicators. The EEMUA#191 guideline is a
detailed specification of alarm management and goes
down to the detail of providing guidance of how DCS
mimic displays should look and what type of furniture
to use in the control room to make the operators more
comfortable during their shifts. All Yokogawa alarm
management based products were initially based on
the EEMUA#191 guideline and are being applied to
the ISA18.2 standard. In the ideal world, EEMUA#191
recommends no more than one alarm per operator
every 10 minutes. That would be quite an achievement
and is a rare occurrence. A big difference can be made
with the bad actors list; to identify them, and eliminate
them. Making the review of the bad actors list part of

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