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This presentation covers the challenges of alarm proliferation, operator overload, and the impact of human error. It also discusses alarm standards and recommendations, and showcases how alarms can be managed and mitigated in Wonderware System Platform.
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Get Control of Your Alarms David Anderson Logic, Inc. danderson@logic-control.com
Agenda • Alarm Presentation and Management Challenges • Alarm Standards and Recommendations • Alarms in Wonderware System Platform • Wonderware Alarm Adviser
Two Challenges • Alarm Proliferation • Alarm Display
Why did the number of alarms increase? • More information per sensor/actuator • Easily configurable: just a checkbox • Many options: Hi, HiHi, Lo, LoLo, Deviation, Rate of Change, … • Alarm all the things: don’t want to miss anything
Operator Overload • Over-acknowledgement • Happy management • Quieter room • Inhibiting “noisy alarms” • Missing important alarms • Not being able to mitigate in proper time
Alarm Mitigation Takes Time • Detect the alarm • Change screens to get context from process • Verify alarm is valid • Acknowledge it, silence it • Analyze, consult, decide proper action • Act, may require leaving the operator console • Continue to monitor to verify action’s result
Alarm Displays • Too much color • Same color used to convey different information • Too many animations • Too cluttered
Impact of Human Error Abnormal Situation A disturbance or series of disturbances in a process that cause plant operations to deviate from their normal operating state. Source: ASM Consortium
Economical Impact • Reduces the operational effectiveness • Economical impact: Unnecessary plant shutdowns(in the USA alone this costs $20 Billion a year on productivity) • Poor alarm management also causes • losses in product quality • danger to population and environment • image loss of a respective company Source : ASM Consortium Abnormal Situation Management
Safety Impact Texaco Pembroke 1994 Bunkfield Oil Depot Piper Alpha North sea 1988
Texaco Pembroke • “Control panel graphics did not provide necessary process overviews.” • “Warnings of the developing problems were lost in the plethora of instrument alarms…” • “Too many poorly categorized alarms overwhelmed the operators…” • “There was no alarm philosophy for determining what priority an alarm should have and no control was exercised over the number of alarms in the system.” Source: https://www.icheme.org/~/media/Documents/Subject%20Groups/Safety_Loss_Prevention/HSE%20Accident%20Reports/The%20Explosion%20and%20Fires%20at%20the%20Texaco%20Refinery%20Milford%20Haven.pdf
A Set of Standards and Guidelines • ANSI/ISA-18.2, Management of alarm systems for the process industries • EEMUA 191, Alarm systems a guide to design • Namur NA 102 Worksheet, Alarm Management • NPD YA 711, Principles for alarm design (Norwegian petroleum doctorate slowly adopted throughout Europe as the standard) • VDI/VDE Guideline 3699 (process control using monitors) • API RP-1167 Alarm Management for Pipeline Systems ANSI/ISA-18.2 Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries API RP-1167 Alarm Management For Pipeline Systems
What Is An Alarm? From ISA-18.2: An alarm is “an audible and/or visible means of indicating to the operator an equipment malfunction, process deviation, or abnormal condition requiring a response.”
What Is An Alarm? • Alarms must activate only based on truly abnormal conditions, not expected cases of operation • Alarms must require an operator response • Multiple alarms should not signify the same thing
Some Guidance from the Standards • Use broad groups of alarm priorities (severities) • Critical, High, Medium, Low • Use text, color, and shape to indicate alarms • Alarm shelving • State-based alarms • Alarm logging
Situational Awareness HMI and Alarms Combined Traditional HMI Impact What Happened ? Critical Alarm Grid Tool Process Trends Tool Knowledge Operator Operational Limits SA Graphics What is Happening ? Knowledge Operator Alarm Boundaries Interpretation time Alarm Time - 40 %
Global Priority to Severity mapping One location to change and customizable image… Default Alarm Border Icons
Alarm Border Animation Runtime Global Icons Global Styles Auto Configuration for attributes or objects
Update Clients - Runtime • Tabbed filtering • Actual alarm indicators on Tabs • Ack buttons • And styles and themes setup as default
Widgets for Alarming Object or Device Indicator Area Indicator Nav Button Indicator
Alarm Shelving “Shelving” an alarm is a manual initiation by an operator to temporarily silence an enabled alarm for a defined period of time after which normal operation is restored.
Alarms Shelving Features Who Can Shelve? • Shelving from Alarm Client or scripting • Any configured alarm can be shelved • Only enabled alarms can be shelved • Mandatory reason and duration • Audit trail logged to Historian What can be shelved? Alarm Border Integration
Alarms Plant State Based Suppression • Global definition of plant states • Area object based suppression of alarms • Individual state on the area object has a I/O Extension
Plant State Example • Plant area • Two child areas • Area01 • Area02 • Two grandchild areas • Area0101 • Area0102 • Each area has object with an alarm
Alarm & Event History • Database • Automatically created by Configurator • Supports mixed & Windows-only security • Includes Alarm DB Purge/Archive Utility • Logging • All Areas deployed to the Engine • Selective based on severity/event type • Silenced alarms still logged • Based on Engine settings • Licensing: No tag count required for alarms A2ALMDB HCAP WCF HCAL Application Server * * No change for InTouch Alarms/Events
Alarm & Event History Super Simple: 1. Enable Historization in Engine… Already doing that! 2. Adjust Priority to Severity Mappings The old process had 17 – 21 error prone steps.
Storage Robustness with Store Forward • Support for: • Redundant Engines • Store forward • Redundant Historians • No configuration required