Attendees will learn how to conduct alarm rationalization of greenfield (new) or brownfield (existing) applications in order to optimize performance of their alarm systems. The class immerses participants in discussion and hands on exercises which have been designed to demonstrate the best practices and requirements for rationalization as taken from the ISA-18.2 alarm management standard and EEMUA 191 guideline. The class focuses on how rationalization can lead to improved operator performance by eliminating / preventing common alarm problems such as nuisance / chattering / stale alarms, incorrect priority, alarm overload, and alarm floods. It also includes a discussion on tips and tricks for creating an alarm philosophy document, such as how to effectively define the “rules” for rationalization. Exercises will use exida’s SILAlarm rationalization tool.

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Operator response to alarms is a critical layer of protection to prevent a plant upset from escalating to an incident. Poor alarm management has been cited as a contributor to numerous industry incidents. Application of alarm management best practices can help increase operator productivity leading to optimized production and less unplanned downtime. The course will show how the ISA-18.2-2009 standard “Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries”, and the alarm management lifecycle defined in it, can be used to address common alarm management issues (e.g., nuisance alarms, alarm floods) and to create an effective, sustainable alarm management program that delivers quantifiable benefits.

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