Webinar Insights on Alarm Management Standards

Oct 8, 2024

Webinar on Alarm Management and ISA 18.2 IEC 62682

Introduction

  • Welcome to the webinar focused on alarm management and standards ISO 18.2 and IEC 62682.
  • Presenter: Todd Stauffer - Director of Alarm Management at Exeter.
  • Special Guest: Peter Kaprilian - Chief Technology Officer at SciTech.
  • Participants are in listen-only mode; questions can be submitted for later answers.
  • Presentation slides and a recorded video will be sent after the session.

Overview of Exeter

  • Exeter is a global leader in functional safety, cybersecurity, and alarm management services.
  • Offers personnel and product certification for functional safety and cybersecurity.
  • Provides tools for Safety Instrumented System (SIS) design including:
    • SILALARM (for alarm rationalization).

Introduction to Excel Reporter by SciTech

  • Excel Reporter is a reporting tool for industrial applications.
  • Recently added ISA 18.2 compliant component in partnership with Exeter.
  • Custom design work in Microsoft Excel with capabilities to retrieve live and historical data from various databases.
  • Reports can be produced automatically or on-demand, using Microsoft OpenXML technology.

Alarm Management Lifecycle

Key Standards:

  • EMUA 191: Initial guidelines for alarm management with best practices; foundational for developing KPIs.
  • ISA 18.2 & IEC 62682: International standards detailing alarm performance monitoring assessment.

Lifecycle Stages:

  • Alarm Philosophy
  • Rationalization
  • Monitoring and Assessment
  • Audit
  • Focus of presentation: Monitoring and Assessment, how to measure alarm system performance, and identify issues.

Importance of Performance Measurement

  • Required by ISA 18.2 and IEC standards.
  • Performance must be monitored and assessed against target performance levels defined in alarm philosophy (examples include number of alarms per operator, alarm floods, stale alarms).

Definitions and Terminology

  • Monitoring: Measurement and reporting of alarm system performance.
  • Assessment: Evaluation of measured performance against KPIs or target metrics.
  • Audit: Comprehensive assessment including quantitative performance and work practices evaluation.
  • Benchmark: Initial audit establishing performance baseline for comparison.

Alarm Management Program Steps

  1. Initial Benchmarking
  2. Alarm Philosophy Document Creation
  3. Alarm Rationalization
  4. Alarm Response Procedures
  5. Continuous Improvement
  6. Auditing Work Practices

Monitoring and Assessment Process

  • Use of SciTech Excel Reporter for ongoing performance measurements and assessments.
  • Includes operator questionnaires and auditing of practices as part of the benchmarking process.

Common Alarm Management Issues (Villains)

  • Excessive alarms leading to operator overload.
  • Nuisance alarms (chattering, stale, fleeting alarms).
  • Misleading alarm priorities affecting operator responses.
  • Importance of monitoring to ensure effectiveness of alarm systems.

Successful Operator Response

  • Steps involve detecting, diagnosing, and responding to alarms.
  • Typical capacity: 1-2 true alarms in 10 minutes; 10 alarms during an alarm flood.

Nuisance Alarms

  • Defined as excessive or unnecessary alarms that create confusion and desensitization.
  • Types of nuisance alarms:
    • Chattering Alarms: Frequent activation with no real corrective action possible.
    • Fleeting Alarms: Similar to chattering but without immediate reactivation.
    • Bad Actors: Alarms that contribute disproportionately to total alarm traffic.
    • Stale Alarms: Active for over 24 hours, cluttering the alarm summary.

Alarm Priority

  • Recommended distribution:
    • 5% High
    • 15% Medium
    • 80% Low
  • Critical for guiding operator responses effectively.

Benchmark and Performance Reports

  • Initial benchmark report compares real performance against ISA standards.
  • Key metrics include chattering alarms, alarm flood frequency, and nuisance alarm counts.

Accessing Benchmark Reports

  • Process for generating a free benchmark report using alarm data.
  • Submit data via an alarm collector tool provided by Exeter/SciTech.

Continuous Improvement and Rationalization

  • Ongoing monitoring informs updates to alarm rationalization processes.
  • Rationalization involves checking alarm validity, assessing consequences, assigning priorities, and modifying settings.

Conclusion

  • Continuous monitoring and effective use of tools like Excel Reporter drive improvement in alarm management.
  • Encourage participants to leverage available resources for starting alarm management programs.

Q&A Session Highlights

  • Reports turnaround time: typically within 24 hours.
  • Excel Reporter performance: handles large volumes of alarms efficiently.
  • Rationalization activities are separate but informed by performance data.