Alarm Management Systems

Solutions forOptimizing

Oil & GasOperations

Alarms are an essential part of modern systems and the primary means of alerting operators of abnormal situations in their facilities. Even the best designed systems can become ineffective in the absence of alarms, resulting in potential human and financial setbacks.

Research has shown that many process plants have improperly configured alarms that do not follow international guidelines and add to operators’ confusion. For an effective alarm system and smooth unobstructed plant operations, alarms need to be relevant, unique, timely, prioritized and understandable. Nearly all facilities with ineffective alarm systems show distinct symptoms of poor alarm system design.

Symptoms of Poor Alarm System Design:

A Need for Good Alarm Management

Alarm Management Overview

A significant number of alarms are raised by minor issues

Alarms remain active for very long periods of time

There are no guidelines for alarm implementation

Operators are unsure of how to respond to some alarms

Processes run normally despite some alarms constantly going off

Some alarms do not require an operator’s response or attention

Numerous alarms go off during routine operation but have no purpose

Poorly configured alarms risk the safety of: Plant, Personnel, Equipment

Good alarms increase safety of all three by: Reducing unnecessary alarms Prioritizing important alarms

Safety

Alarms not configured properly result in: Reduced production revenue Losses from damaged assets

Properly configured alarms increase profitability by: Increasing uptime Decreasing incidental losses

Profitability

Over 40% of incidents are caused by human factors

Poorly configured alarms add to these risks

Good alarms reduce errors from the human factor by facilitating operators

Human Factor

Philosophy

Identification

Rationalization

Design

Implementation

Operation

Maintenance

Audit

Monitoring&

Assessment

Managementof

Change

A comprehensive document of work processes, sites and control systems along with best practices for alarm management.

A complete description of processes to update,

change or remove alarms in order to meet changing

requirements or optimize systems.

Data is monitored and benchmarked against

performance standards defined in the alarm

philosophy.

Data is collected for a baseline assessment of current alarm systems against standards, “Bad Actor” alarms are identified.

Areas of trouble in the alarm systems are identified and compared to the alarm philosophy document to evaluate a course of action.

Alarms are re-engineered according to the alarm principles defined in the philosophy document.

The re-engineered alarms are implemented and documented; relevant operators are trained how to respond to alarms.

The site is run with the new alarm systems. Operator- supporting tools are installed; further trainings are given.

Alarms are periodically calibrated and tested for accuracy, repairs and replacement activities are performed.

INTECH provides a unique customer-tailored Alarm Philosophy Document.

INTECH analyzes data for 6-8 weeks and helps customers understand the cause of bad actors

INTECH helps the site team understand, classify and prioritize alarms.

INTECH makes the Master Alarms Database (MADB) for the site.

INTECH installs the MADB and performance management tools; also trains operators.

INTECH trains operators how to handle alarms and provides alarm management tools.

INTECH follows standard maintenance procedures and performs fidelity tests.

Part of the continuous

improvement effort, with

periodic alarm and system

audits

ISA 18.2 Compliant Alarms Management Life Cycle

Time

Normal Operating Region

Maximum Profitability Region

Break Even Point

Profitable Region

Plan

t Pro

fitab

ility

Substantial Net LossDue to Unscheduled

Plant Shutdown

Optimum ProfitabilityAPC & Optimization

Net Loss Due toMinor

Process Upset

0

1500

3000

4500

6000

7500

9000

10500

12000

13500

15000

# of Daily Alarms

All AlarmsEnabled Alarms

Alarms Optimization ImplementedBefore Rationalization After Rationalization

Daily Alarm Count: > 16,000 Daily Alarm Count: < 5,000Hourly Average for Week: 742 Hourly Average for Week: 390High Priority Alarms Contribution: 65% High Priority Alarms Contribution: 43%

INTECH’s Alarm Management Solutions ensure that incidents occurring from bad alarm configuration are minimized. INTECH achieves this by classifying, prioritizing and optimizing alarms to generate useful information for operators. This ensures that operators are immediately alerted to issues that can potentially cause serious damage to the plant and environment, and offset a large portion of the plant’s past profitability.

Most modern alarm systems are implemented at the software level and require no physical hardware installation, this has led to a significant increase in the number of available alarms at any site - a growth fueled by international standards that require periodic monitoring for process assessment. The major drawback to all this however is an overwhelming amount of alarm notifications being constantly generated during operation in the absence of alarm management.

INTECH’s Alarm Management reduces overall alarms going off to manageable numbers through continuous improvement. INTECH identifies “bad actor” alarms - alarms that cause nearly half of all alarms - and optimizes them. Additionally nuisance alarms - which don’t serve any real purpose - are identified and reconfigured to reduce overall alarms. This results in up to 90% reduction in average daily alarms.

Reduction in Overall Alarms:

INTECH’s Alarm Management Suite

Performance and Financial Benefits

INTECH delivers software and services for operations and process optimization with a variety ofdeterministic optimization techniques that may be manually or automatically selected based on theobjective function and constraints. Alarms Analytics Dashboards module delivers KPIs, metrics andreports based on ISA 18.2 standards and EEMUA 191 guidelines.

This module provides comprehensive data management for identifying & documenting causes,consequences, and corrective actions as well as alarm set points, alarm enabled states, priorities,purpose, operator action, consequence of not attending alarm, min. time to respond to the alarm, deadband, requirement of alarms suppression and requirement of de-bounce timer

INTECH, with it's rich experience in operations and process, identifies process and equipment states.Based on ON, OFF, INITATING, START UP, SHUT DOWN etc. states, alarms can be dynamically enabled ordisabled.

Alarms Analytics Dashboards Module

Alarms Rationalization Module

Static, State-Based and Dynamic Alarms Suppression Module

INTECH’s Advanced Solutions Deployment - Software Architecture

REPORTS

Hand Held Terminal

PDC-Windows CE

Manual Logging

Manual Logging /Hand Held Terminal

Client

1. Data Acquisition

8. PDC/Historian Interface

2. Advanced Process Historian

Production Data

REPORTS

SAP PM

RAW DATA

RESULTS Process Historian

Historic Process Data

Manual Data

Historic Process Data

5. Reporting7. Processing Simulation

LEGEND:

Equipment Run Hours, Starts and KPIs Efficiencies

Process DATA

OPCDAI/F

MS-Excel Reports

Ontology Framework

Excel-Data Link

Thin Client WEB-APPS (Browser)

Process Engr. Data Analysis/

Extract

KPIs

Process Simulation

Server

3. AlarmManagement

4. Control LoopPerformanceManagement

Alarms & Events AE I/F

Loop Tuning

DAI/F

Alarms Analysis, Rationalization Module

Control Loop Performance Management Module

Visual Interfaces (GUI) - To be

deployed by INTECH

Sometimes Already Deployed or To Be Offered by INTECH

Already Deployed Systems within IT / CCR Landscape

6. Condition based Maint.

Advanced Process Historian to SAP PM Interface

ACE (Advanced Calculation Engine) Tank Mass/Vol KPI. Run Hours total

Starts, Efficiency Calculations

Alarm & Loop Analysis Client DCS

OPC Server

Notice: All registered logotypes, trademarks, brands, product and services marks used in this document are acknowledged as properties of their respective companies/owners and such companies/owners have not consented to their use by INTECH (Term INTECH is used for INTECH Process Automation Inc. and its affiliates). INTECH is not affiliated with these logotypes, trademarks, brands, product and services marks and any use by INTECH should not be construed as an endorsement of INTECH or its services. The services described herein are provided solely by INTECH. © 2017. All rights reserved by INTECH Process Automation Inc. facebook.com/Intechprocessautomation

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Vendor Expertise Standards & Certifications

End User EPC

What Our Customers Say...“I commend you on your efforts in customizing the business analysis software for trial deployment for a Web Based Alarm Management Dashboard. It meets our objectives and has produced the desired results.”

Control & Automation Leader

“[We] commend INTECH’s knowledge of alarm management, dedication, commitment and effort. Most importantly, works have been completed safely and INTECH has been able to work successfully in our diverse environment”

Central Maintenance Coordinator

“INTECH’s team worked with extraordinary zeal & efforts at the Adhi Electronic Flow Metering Project which included on-line trends and alarms of sales gas parameters’ limits. The competency level and performance of their deputed team is satisfactory and commendable. “

Deputy Chief Engineer

PPL

OEM

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