How to successfully execute and maintain alarm management in a distributed control system

Prior to the era of Distributed Control Systems ( DCS ), alarms were hardwired to the fixed alarm panel installed on the control room wall. The panel consists of a discrete input and a red indicator light at the window (connected via a wire).

Alarm creation has long been done manually because the installer must drill holes in the panel and lay copper wires to activate the signaling device. This approach requires careful consideration of which events are alerted and specific reasons.

The introduction of DCS changed the traditional alarm method. Today, alarms are integrated into distributed control system applications, so new alarms can be created with relatively simple software changes.

This can result in an increase in alarms that are meaningless or unrelated to the operator. Buried in a large number of false alarms will cause the operator to ignore new alarms and also let them miss critical alarms.

Since adding new alarms is easy, implementing an effective alarm management program is more important than ever.

It takes months to design and deploy a new device, and the device can run for more than 20 years. This means that during the design and implementation phase of the project, the operator is likely to need to adapt to the decisions made by others over the long term.

Most of the additions, enhancements, and porting operations of distributed control systems are performed as specific projects.

However, alarm management is endless and requires your unremitting efforts. Therefore, one of the keys to building a successful alarm management program is to realize that it is not just a project, but a long-term process. The ISA-18.2 standard states that alarm management involves not only hardware or software, but also work processes or alarm management cycles.

To ensure successful implementation of the alarm management program in the PlantPAx DCS, Rockwell Automation and certified Encompass partner exida condenses the alarm management cycle into seven major steps:

1. Benchmark the performance of the alarm system. Quantify the average number of alarms/operators and identify false alarms and “bad factors”.

2. Formulate an alarm concept. What constitutes the need for an alarm? How to prioritize alarms?

3. Rationalize the alarm. The goal is to create the best possible combination of alarms to keep the equipment safe and keep it within normal operating range. At the same time, the necessary basis for each alarm must also be recorded.

4. Advanced alarm design. Add logic to suppress alarms when the device is not in use or after the device has tripped to prevent alarm flooding.

5. Implement rationalization results. The alarm configuration changes are loaded into the PlantPAx system and an alarm response step is created to present to the operator on the HMI side.

6. Performance monitoring and evaluation. Regularly review the performance of the alarm system to drive continuous improvement.

7. Audit. Compare the PlantPAx alarm settings to the rationalized alarm settings to confirm that the relevant procedures and procedures are followed.

To achieve proper alarm management, we must make unremitting efforts. In the PlantPAx system, we have no reason to adapt to poor performance alarm systems. The system software is simple to configure and the Rockwell Automation Process Object Library integrates alarm configuration with general suppression technology to reduce engineering time and deployment effort.

Alarm management can be successfully performed and maintained in a distributed control system in a few simple steps.