by “Guest blogger” Bill Hollifield, PAS’s Representative and Voting Member on the ISA 18.02 Committee
In 2003, a committee was formed to begin work on ISA18.02: Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries. The committee has had very capable and experienced standards-writing leadership – Nick Sands of Dupont, and Donald Dunn of Aramco. And boy, have they had a difficult job – one that “herding cats” doesn’t even begin to describe!
This month, the standard has finally reached the final comment and internal voting phase. If all goes well, it will be published next year. That will be a significant and important event for the process industries! So, here is some general information about the standard, but remember that it is still in a draft form and not yet finalized.
ISA18.02 is quite different than the “usual” ISA standard. It is not about specifying how some sort of hardware talks to other hardware, or the detailed design of control components. It is about work processes of people. Alarm management isn’t really about hardware or software, it is about work practices (poorly performing alarm systems do not create themselves!) – and thus so is ISA18.02.
ISA18.02 will provide both mandatory and recommended basic alarm management work practices, presented in a “life cycle” framework. The current draft life cycle has 10 stages: Alarm Philosophy, Identification, Rationalization, Detailed Design, Implementation, Operation, Maintenance, Monitoring & Assessment, Management of Change, and Audit.
Three years ago PAS published The Alarm Management Handbook, which provided a proven 7-step methodology for creating or improving an alarm system. The ISA book division, not having a great text on alarm management, read it and then arranged with us to republish it (with minor changes) as Alarm Management: 7 Methods for Optimum Performance. There is no conflict between the PAS 7-step approach and the ISA18.02 “Life Cycle” – there is only different nomenclature and task arrangement. When ISA18.02 is finalized and published, PAS will release a comprehensive paper on understanding and interpreting it – because some of the nomenclature and wording it has is written in “standard-speak” rather than common English!
There are several common misconceptions about standards! By design, standards do not have detailed or specific “how-to” guidance. ISA18.02 will not contain examples of specific proven methodologies or of detailed practices such as are in the Handbook. And, readers of the Handbook should not expect to learn much that is basically “new or different” from reading ISA18.02. The primary items in ISA18.02 that are not in the Handbook have to do with administrative practices such as alarm testing and record keeping (defined in a new “alarm classification” structure).
Don’t take this to diminish the importance of ISA18.02 – it is placing the “stamp of approval” on many important practices that PAS has been advocating and performing for many years!
Remember, standards describe the “minimum acceptable,” and not the optimum. As Nick has told me over 100 times, “Bill, a standard is not a book!” The committee has plans to publish additional explanatory information later in follow-on “ISA technical reports.” This should approach some of the detailed content already existing in the Handbook.
Watch this blog for further information on the progress of ISA18.02: Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries.
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