PAS Musings

Alarm Management MythBusters Part 2

This is the second of two myths…

Myth #2:  The Best Practice is a Reduced Alarm Count

This myth is an extension of the first – which was more or less “count your alarms and all will be ok”.

This myth says if we can get the alarm count down, then we’re doing the right thing – and by extension – the more the count goes down, the better it is.

Most of you will of course recognize the fallacy in that.

To keep it simple, I go back to my example of the overweight person… 

Just taking off as many pounds as possible is not the best practice.

The same is true for alarms – just reducing the count to some minimum is not a best practice.

Losing one’s excess weight and cutting out excess alarms in the plant are good strategies, but not enough for optimal health and safety.

There’s more to the story…

For optimal body weight, we consider height, physique, body type, and a host of other factors.

For an optimal alarm system, we need to consider process interactions, time to respond, consequences, severity, etc, etc.

And out of that analysis of out alarm system – which is a lot more than just counting alarms – comes an optimal alarm management strategy.

At PAS, we call such analysis work “Documentation & Rationalization” – an interactive work process with process operations personnel to determine the right alarm settings – priorities, trip points and the use of advanced strategies to best handle various plant states, alarm floods, etc – to come up with the optimal alarm strategy.

Broadly speaking, that strategy does reduce alarm count.

But as is the case for your health – a single number such as body weight – is not enough to live well.

And in the plant, it’s also not enough to live safely.

Don’t be fooled – alarm management is more than counting alarms and also more than reducing alarm count.

Want to learn more?

Read the Book!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

Alarm Management MythBusters Part 1

For those of you that surf the web to learn more about Alarm Management, I want to add a couple of postings in the next few weeks to your repertoire of readings… and maybe bust a few myths in the process.

Myth #1:  Alarm Management is all about counting alarms

This myth sounds good because it is quick and easy

1)     Plug in any alarm counting software package

2)     Collect some data

3)     Print the reports

The general thinking behind this myth is that once you’ve identified the problem, you’re pretty much done!

Sadly, there are people out there who just want you to believe that if you could just count your alarms, things will get better…

I guess they assume that if their software points out the problem, you would of course take action to solve it.

That’s like saying an overweight person would get thin if only they knew their weight.

Nope. 

It doesn’t work that way. 

Plant operators and engineers already have way too much on their plate.

Sure, they may take some action and bring down the count - just like an overweight person goes on a diet and drops a few pounds.

But without correcting the situation and keeping it there, the pounds come right back after the diet stops.

There is a solution.

And lots of customers are finding it.

At PAS, we have a number of customers who have switched from someone else’s Alarm Counting software to the real thing – an Alarm Management software + service solution that corrects the underlying problems and then acts to keep those problems from recurring.

Counting alarms with printer port software was not enough for them.

Neither was the fancy analysis.

They tried the diet.  

And it didn’t work.

No surprise, right?

These customers now understand that higher plant reliability (and profitability!) comes from a complete Alarm Management solution comprising all of the following:

>> An Alarm Management Philosophy that matches the needs of their plant

>> Documentation & Rationalization of existing alarms to highlight the real issues in any plant upset and not just ring a flood of alarm bells

>> Alarm Management Software that not only counts & analyzes alarm activity, but also interacts with the process control system in real-time to obtain and maintain alarm loading goals

If all of this sounds like hard work, it’s because it is!!!

But the benefits are there - increasing plant reliability and safety by more pro-actively alerting operators to process upsets BEFORE going off-spec, off-grade or shutting down.

A saying from my high school days have stuck with me ever since - Caveat Emptor.

It’s true that you get what you pay for – those Romans were right with their advice!

Want to learn more?

Read the Book!

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!

NPRA Conference - Part 5 again?

Time again for the annual NPRA Technology Forum. 

This is about the fifth conference I have been to this year, and each time I go to one of these industry conferences, I hear the same top two topics being discussed in earnest.

1. There is impending doom from the shortage of engineers.
2. How we can avoid impending doom from industrial incidents like that of BP Texas City.

These seem to be the two top conference topics all around the country and at all venues, except maybe where there is no oil refining presence, in which case only the first topic comes up again and again. 

These topics are bad news for industry, but contain good news for PAS.

Here’s why….

The shortage of engineers is really, really bad news for industry.  After all, most of the engineers in the process industry are baby boomers – meaning that most of them will disappear off to Costa Rica or otherwise go silent in retirement somewhere else.

And who’s going to maintain and improve the process plants of today once these people are all gone?  (Not me – I’ll be in Costa Rica with everyone else J)

It’s not even what you can see that’s the problem – worse yet, is the maintenance of what you can’t see – all the logic and algorithms that actually keep our process plants operating in a safe place.  Heaven forbid that these systems and applications become unavailable or unmaintainable, for who would then decipher whatever it is that they are supposed to do? 

Certainly not the guys in Costa Rica!

That’s the bad news for industry.

But the good news for PAS is that we have a documentation and configuration management solution that is pointed EXACTLY at this problem.

Integrity – don’t operate your plant without it™.

Read more about that here.

The second item – 15 people being killed at Texas City – is being analyzed over and over by various groups, almost to the same extent as the Challenger disaster.  All that’s missing is the Presidential Report on the topic.

Accidents and the possible over-regulation by the authorities are bad news for industry.  Nobody wants loss of production, let alone loss of life.

And by now, everyone in the refining and petrochemical industry has heard the story of one level – one alarm – one operator as retold by Ian Nimmo at the PAS 2006 User Conference (download paper here) and countless others in the industry.

Very bad news indeed.

But again, the good news for PAS (if we can call it that) is that we have solutions pointed EXACTLY at this area.

Our Alarm Management solutions – written up in multiple textbooks (PAS, ISA), presented in workshops worldwide, and delivered by our team of experts – leads the way in loss prevention, reliability and safety across the process and power industries.

Haven’t heard of it?

Better buy the book and start reading.

In the meantime, be careful out there – with the shortage of engineers, we can’t afford to lose even one, whether by industrial accident or firing due to poor performance.

Later…

© Copyright PAS 2007.  No part of this blog is to be copied in full or in part without the express written permission of PAS; but references and web links are more than OK!