Manage the lifecycle of your alarms according to the standards ANSI/ISA 18.2 “Management of Alarm Systems” and ANSI/ISA 101 “Human/Machine Interfaces”.
A while ago, the digitalization of industrial plants was incipient, so creating new alarms or indicating existing anomalies had to be a well thought out task. Many times, there were indicator panels with lights on, or with backlit cards; these indicators were costly and needed to be allocated manually on the panel.
However, since the emergence of digitalization, as well as of supervision and control via DCS and SCADA systems, the cost of creating new alarms individually has become virtually zero. To err on the side of caution, all the variables in the project used to be (and still are) set up as alarms. Furthermore, the graphic interfaces of these systems hardly followed any guidelines to help the operator both detect and resolve any issues.
As a result, many industries nowadays still overload their operators with an excessive number of alarms. Several accidents take place, and may continue to do so, because the quantity of alarms in the system makes it difficult to distinguish what really matters for it from what is merely there for informational purposes.
Aware of this situation, many entities, among which are EEMUA and NAMUR, have started to study this subject more extensively to be able to propose improvements and new approaches in the field.
Currently, two standards are considered the benchmark for good practices in the area: ANSI/ISA 18.2 “Management of Alarm Systems” and ANSI/ISA 101 “Human/Machine Interfaces”.
The ANSI/ISA 18.2 standard specifies general principles and processes for modelling and managing alarms and events, focusing on their lifecycles. Basically, the alarm’s lifecycle stands for several steps to be completed for the proper management of alarms systems, ranging from their inception, implementation and optimization. This is a continuous improvement process, in PDCA style (Plan-Do-Check-Act), which must never be closed.
On the other hand, the ANSI/ISA 101 standard addresses the recommended practices for Human Machine Interfaces. If the standard, recommended practices and methodology are followed, the result should enable the users to be more effective yielding improved safety, quality, productivity and reliability. Both standards work in tandem to offer paths for mitigating this issue.
The lifecycle proposed by standard 18.2 starts with each company’s philosophy on how to handle alarms, and subsequently presents the alarm’s purpose, concept, implementation, and so on.
After the identification, rationalization, detailed design, and implementation stages, the monitoring and maintenance loop begins. Now, the alarm’s operation and maintenance will take place. It’s important not only to monitor, but also to assess whether the alarm is fulfilling its role, because the process itself may go through changes, such as malfunctioning sensors, seasonality, and other factors that may render the alarm obsolete or, worse, too noisy to function because it distracts the operators.
This is where the lifecycle ends. Based on the results of the assessment, new alarms will be introduced, and the system’s set-up will be updated to reflect these changes in the audit stage.
Elipse Alarm Manager (ELAM) is Elipse Software’s alarms management tool, which allows monitoring this cycle in a customized, flexible way. It can connect to both Elipse’s SCADA systems (E3/Power/Water) and to third parties.
For further information, check www.elipse.com.br/en/produto/elipse-alarm-manager.
