Training Course: Alarm Management

Introduction

The ease of creating Distributed Control Systems (DCS) alarms has led to excessive and ineffective alarm monitoring. Poor alarm management, lack of policy, and human factors can result in ignored or missed critical alarms, increasing risks. This seminar focuses on improving alarm management by teaching concepts, performance assessment techniques, operator readiness evaluation, and strategies to enhance plant safety and performance.

Objectives

• Alarm Management will provide you with a collection of techniques, tools, standards, and procedures that will improve operations and overall effectiveness

• Business Case Tools: Understand the costs of poor alarm performance or not implementing an alarm management philosophy by reviewing sample business case studies

• Best Practice Alarm Management Strategies: Quickly and effectively integrate alarm management strategies by examining successful, working solutions

• Alarm Management Performance: Understand the number of ways of measuring the performance of an alarm system and its users

• Ensuring that Emergency Response systems are in place so if/when the system does fail the response can be efficient and effective

Methodology

Delegates will be encouraged to fully participate in this non-technical program through the use of syndicate workshops and presentations, group discussions, and questionnaires. A hard-copy manual (and CD), PowerPoint slides, relevant DVD material, handouts, and case-studies will be fully utilized

Organizational Impact

• Configured and correctly enforced, alarms need to be set at the right operating conditions

• Identify possible causes for the alarm whether it’s legitimate (providing the information), spurious (misleading or a nuisance) or redundant (telling the operator something he already knows)

• Such conditions will be a major tool allowing process operators to rapidly identify escalating abnormal situations and take action to recover

• Avoid abnormal situations that can quickly lead to personnel danger, environmental issues, commercial loss and a damaged reputation.

Outlines

DAY 1
Introduction, aims, and objectives of the course. Key Issues:

• Guidance document EEMUA 191

  • Basic Alarm Management philosophy, what does it include?

  • 5 Justifications for Alarm Management

  • Alarm Management, all plants need it!

• Project Plan Outline – not a one-off project!

  • Benchmark & Assessment

  • Alarm Management Philosophy

  • Alarm analysis/rationalization

  • Implementation and execution

  • Continuous Improvement

• Functional definitions of systems

• Case Study – Milford Haven Texaco Refinery, 1994

DAY 2
Principles of an Alarm Management Programme

• Managing an improvement program – who should be involved?

• Personal and Team targets

• Alarm proliferation

• Alarm review and control of modifications

• Increased hazards, use of alarms, control, and protection

• Major commercial hazards will involve risks to people and the environment

• Strategy and / or Culture of Improvement

• Operator involvement and ‘no-blame’ reporting

• Integrating Alarm Management to boost Plant Production

• Case Study and DVD - Piper Alpha

DAY 3
Measuring Performance along with Human Factors

• Alarms need people – human factor issues human Factors – International Standard IEC61508

• Operator questionnaires, Improving operator procedures

• Dealing with unwanted alarms

• Logical processing of alarms

• Case Histories – some examples of loss

• Potential conflicts between various business needs

• Case Study and DVD – Bhopal, India. Union Carbide (Dow Chemicals)

DAY 4
Legislation and Self Evaluation

• Operator Interface. “Are there problems with your existing alarm system”? Take some measurements to find out - How many alarms are there? Are you overwhelmed by alarm ‘floods’?

• Management Responsibilities – Legislation

• Physical Assessment Trees

• Learning from sample business cases studies

• Is your organization prepared? Self Evaluating Activity and questionnaires

• The Alerting process; Communications and Warnings

• Equipping and identifying Emergency Operations/Communications Centres

• Stress Levels of Control Room Operators & Emergency Responders

• BP Case Studies – Texas 2005, Alaska 2006 & Gulf of Mexico 2010

DAY 5
Should the system catastrophically fail and a Major Incident follows:

• Departmental Roles & Responsibilities

• Role of First responders - Emergency Response Teams

• Role of the Incident On-Scene Commander

• Shelter or Evacuation workshop

• Designing drills and exercises