ABB Meet the Experts Alarm Management.pdf

Alarm Management

1. Alarm Management Meet the Experts – Sept. 20/21., 2011

2. Alarm Management
Outline
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Typical Problems
ƒ
Financial Impact
ƒ
Industry Guidelines
ƒ
ABB Fingerprint
ƒ
Typical Findings
ƒ
Recommendations

3. Alarm Management
How is your alarm system performing?
Do you recognize any of these behaviors?
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Operators acknowledge / silence alarms without looking at or
acting on them?
ƒ
Incidents or near-incidents where operators missed alarms?
ƒ
Too many alarms without well-defined actions?
ƒ
Alarms disabled / suppressed for long periods without review?
Do you measure?
ƒ
Number of alarms / hour?
ƒ
Number of alarms disabled / suppressed?
ƒ
Time to silence / acknowledge?
How stressed are your operators?
Do you have a documented alarm philosophy?
ƒ
Have you described roles and responsibilities?
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How do you review and modify alarm settings?

4. Alarm Management
Example:Texaco Milford Haven 1994
ƒ
Explosion injured 26 people and
caused damage of around $70
million
ƒ
Key factors included:
ƒ
There were too many alarms
and they were poorly
prioritized
ƒ
In the last 11 minutes before
the explosion, the operators
had to recognize,
acknowledge and act on 275
alarms

5. Alarm Management
Outline
ƒ
Typical Problems
ƒ
Financial Impact
ƒ
Industry Guidelines
ƒ
ABB Fingerprint
ƒ
Typical Findings
ƒ
Recommendations

6. Alarm Management
Financial Impact
ƒ
normal
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Process
Optimization
(important)
ƒ
disturbed
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Production
(very important)
ƒ
upset
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Equipment
Damage
(urgent)
ƒ
shutdown
ƒ
Safety &
Environmental
(critical)
•
material expenses
•
containment loss
•
excess energy
•
more wear & tear
•
equipment damage
ƒ
critical alarms
ƒ
nuisance alarms
ƒ
standing alarms
ƒ
missed alarms
•
injuries/deaths
•
environmental
violations
•
poor control
•
energy waste
ƒ
plant state
ƒ
operator
priority
ƒ
performance target

7. Alarm Management
Benefits
ƒ
Avoid unintended shutdowns from missing alarms or
responding too slowly to alarms
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Lower equipment repair costs and increased operational
efficiency and/or production rates.
ƒ
Increase operator availability and effectiveness with reduction
in average alarm and event rate
ƒ
If initial rate is 25/hour/operator and each consumes an
average of 45 seconds, then workload can be reduced
almost 1 hour per 12 hour shift if rate is reduced by 25%.
ƒ
Reduce Minor and Major Incidents from better alarm
management

8. Alarm Management
Outline
ƒ
Typical Problems
ƒ
Financial Impact
ƒ
Industry Guidelines
ƒ
ABB Fingerprint
ƒ
Typical Findings
ƒ
Recommendations

9. Alarm Management
Guidelines and Standards
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Engineering Equipment and Materials Users’ Association
(EEMUA) has published guideline
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EEMUA 191: Alarm Systems - A Guide to Design,
Management and Procurement
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International Society of Automation (ISA) has published
standard
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ISA-18.2: Management of Alarm Systems for the
Process Industries

10. Alarm Management
Definition of an Alarm System
EEMUA 191
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Purpose of an alarm system is to direct the operator's
attention towards plant conditions requiring timely
assessment or action
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Each alarm should
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alert, inform and guide
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be useful and relevant to the operator
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have a defined response
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Adequate time should be allowed for the operator to carry out his defined response

11. Alarm Management
System Management Guidelines
Define responsibilities ƒ
Design
ƒ
Management
ƒ
Operation
Define procedures and
standards
ƒ
Design
ƒ
Implementation
ƒ
management
ƒ
operation
Alarm Philosophy document
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Define what to alarm
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Standards for alarm annunciation and
messages
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How the operator will interact with
alarms
Alarm System Design document
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Define purpose
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Priority
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Operator response for each alarm
Define standards for configuration

12. Alarm Management
System Management Guidelines
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Define methods to address nuisance alarms and standing
alarms
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Define alarm priorities based on impact and reaction time
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Provide alarm system training for operators, engineers and
technicians
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Define procedures for management of changes to the
alarm system
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Create reports, records and tools for monitoring alarm
system performance

13. Alarm Management
EEMUA 191 Recommended priorities
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The use of three priority bands within any one type of
display is ergonomically effective
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High – Medium – Low ( + sometimes critical)
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Written rules on priority assignment required.
< 1000 $ < 10000 $ > 10000 $
> 10 Min. Low Low Medium
3 to 10 Min. Low Medium High
< 3 Min Medium High High
Example:
impact
reaction time

14. Alarm Management
Industry Findings vs. Guidelines
Other 900
35
180
25/40/35
5
Power 2000
65
350
25/40/35
8
PetroChem
1500
100
180
25/40/35
9Oil & Gas
1200
50
220
25/40/35
6
EEMUA
144
9
10
80/15/5
1
Average Alarms
per Day
Average Standing
Alarms
Peak Alarms
per 10 Minutes
Average Alarms/
10 Minute Interval
Distribution % (Low/Med/High)
Source: Matrikon

15. Alarm Management
Outline
ƒ
Typical Problems
ƒ
Financial Impact
ƒ
Industry Guidelines
ƒ
ABB Fingerprint
ƒ
Typical Findings
ƒ
Recommendations

16. Optimization Services
Methodology
ƒ
Diagnose
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Measure and Benchmark
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Detailed Improvement Plan
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Document Goals, KPI’s
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Implement
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Improve Performance
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Apply corrective actions
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Sustain
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Maintain Performance
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Continued Improvement
Proactive Solutions – not Reactive ƒ
Six Sigma Similarities
Service
Increased
Performance
1.Diagnose
2.Implement
3.Sustain

17. Alarm Management
Lifecycle
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Alarm Design Strategy
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Culture Change
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Alarm Rationalization
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Alarm Management
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Training
1. Where are we now? ƒ
Assess the Current Position
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Typically a short focussed assessment
by experienced consultant engineer
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Assessed against benchmarks and
targets
2. Where do we want to be?
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Identify the Change Program
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Goal Setting (KPIs, Project success
criteria)
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Identify deficiencies and corrective
actions
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Planning/Budgeting
3. How successful were we?
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On-Going Alarm Management
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owned by operations/ maintenance
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Audit and Measurement programme
Engineering Services

18. Alarm Management
Fingerprint –The first step
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Goal: reduce alarms that are not useful to the operator,
clarify alarms that are important

19. Alarm Management
Fingerprint
Alarm System Performance
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Calculate alarm statistics
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Compare to EEMUA guidelines
Alarm System Management
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Evaluate alarm system documentation
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Evaluate methods and procedures for configuring,
operating, and managing alarm system
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Compare to EEMUA guidelines
Recommendations for improvements

20. Alarm Management
Fingerprint Steps
Interviews
ƒ
Operators, Supervisors, Process Engineers,
Technicians
Review of procedures and instructions
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Documentation
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Methods
Measurement of Alarm System Performance
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Alarm Rates in steady state and upset conditions
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Frequency of alarms - nuisance alarms
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Standing and Shelved alarms
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Prioritization

21. Alarm Management
Fingerprint
ƒ
Findings and
recommendation
described in the
report

22. Alarm Management
Outline
ƒ
Typical Problems
ƒ
Financial Impact
ƒ
Industry Guidelines
ƒ
ABB Fingerprint
ƒ
Typical Findings
ƒ
Recommendations

23. Alarm Management
Alarm Rate vs. EEMUA Guideline
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Calculate alarm rates for each 10 minute period
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Compare to EEMUA guideline of 1 alarm per 10 minute
period

24. Alarm Management
Alarm Rate vs. EEMUA Guideline -Burst Rate
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Calculate burst alarm rates for each 10 minute period
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Compare to EEMUA burst rate guideline of 10 alarms per
10 minute period
08-AUG 8:22 318 / 20 min or 15.9/min
19-SEP 11:00 681 / 20 min or 34.1/min
20-OCT 00:40 719 / 20 min or 36.0/min
09-DEC 07:45 61 / 2 min or 30.5/min
22-JAN 12:10 410 / 20 min or 20.5/min
750 incidents of 10/min in 6 months

25. Alarm Management
Alarm Frequency Analysis
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A small number of tags are often responsible for a large
percentage of the total alarms.
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Top 10 represent 66% of alarms
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Top 20 represent 76% of alarms

26. Alarm System Performance Reporting
Tags sorted
by no. of
events
Alarm priority
distribution

27. Alarm Management
Standing and Shelved Alarms
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Shelved Alarm: An alarm that has been temporarily
disabled until an underlying problem can be corrected.
Such alarms should only be shelved for a period of time,
not permanently disabled.
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Standing Alarm: An alarm that has remained in an active
alarm state for a significant period of time (e.g. 4 to 8 hrs)

28. Alarm Management
Alarm System Management Findings
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Alarm Philosophy documentation does not exist
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Alarm Design documentation does not exist
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Alarms defined when control system was
commissioned
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Almost all tags configured as alarms
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Alarm priority classes seldom utilized
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Changes to alarm system are undocumented
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No methods to monitor alarm system performance

29. Alarm Management
Summary of Findings
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Limited alarm system documentation
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High alarm rates
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Too many nuisance alarms going into and out of alarm
state
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Too many alarms configured
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Too many standing alarms
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Equipment that is out of service
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Bad quality instruments needing maintenance

30. Alarm Management
Outline
ƒ
Typical Problems
ƒ
Financial Impact
ƒ
Industry Guidelines
ƒ
ABB Fingerprint
ƒ
Typical Findings
ƒ
Recommendations

31. Alarm Management
How to Eliminate Nuisance Alarms
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Reconfigure alarms that require no operator action as
event
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Eliminate instrument malfunctions
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Tune chattering control loops
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Optimize alarm parameters: set limit thresholds, hysteresis
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Advanced Alarming
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State based alarming
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Flood suppression

32. What-if scenario: Reducing nuisance alarms
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
0
200400600800
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
400600800
10001200
Minimum limit: was set too high
Minimum limit: lower limit gets
rid of nuisance alarms
Time
Process variable
Process variable
Histogram
(occurrence)
Analyzing the time trend using
histograms:
- Which alarm limits will result
in which alarm rate?
- Find the best alarm limits
(e.g. reduce the minimum
threshold )
35 unwanted (nuisance alarms)

33. Alarm Management
Alarm Rationalization
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Form team to review all alarms
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Define purpose of each alarm – some alarms may be
reclassified as events
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Define new priority using EEMUA and ISA
recommendations
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Determine required operator response and alarm
description
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Remove redundant alarms
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Create Alarm Design documentation

34. Alarm Management
Recommendations
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Maintenance issues
ƒ
Follow up on long standing issues
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Shelve / Deactivate alarm if problem not fixed
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Keep list of shelved alarms and periodically reevaluate
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Preventive Maintenance
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Use a control loop management tool to improve tuning
and identify instrumentation problems

35. Alarm Management
Alarm System Performance Monitoring
ƒ
ABB Smart Logger software
ƒ
Capture and store alarm data
ƒ
ABB Smart Client software
ƒ
Compute alarm statistics and compare with EEMUA
guidelines
ƒ
Monitor performance improvements over time

36. Alarm Management
Features in System 800xA
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Structured organization
and single source of truth
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Pre-configured and ad-hoc
filtering, live values
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Single click from alarm to
multiple informational
displays
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Alarm Hiding - Dynamic
alarm handling
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Alarm Shelving - Operator
based alarm hiding
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Built-in, operator
accessible alarm analysis

37. Improving Operator Effectiveness
Effective decision support environment
Consolidated
alarms &
events
Right click
access to
integrated
information
Seamless
integration of data
from multiple
systems
Personalized
Workplace
based on
operations
philosophy
Filterable,
separated
asset alerts
Configurable
Application
Bar
Graphics
based on
MS WPF