February 2024Environment and Safety—Manelick (aeSolutions)

HP Tagline--Environment and SafetyAlarm management: Small investments equal big improvementsS. Manelick, aeSolutions, Anchorage, AlaskaImagine experiencing a major industrial catastrophe where multitudes of alarms are triggered, creating chaos and confusion about which alarm responses should take priority and what those responses should be, while simultaneously ensuring employee safety and protecting valuable business assets.Unfortunately, this scenario is more common than you might think, and if the possibility of it happening to your site ever keeps you up at night, investing in an alarm management program is a solution worth exploring. Proper alarm management can ultimately reduce operational downtime, increase operational efficiencies, keep employees safer, improve profit margins and lower the overall risk of the facility. This article will explore how and why investing in an alarm management program makes sense, looking first at the cost of downtime.A_HLFH_INSTRUCALCDowntime caused by process shutdowns is inevitable with complex systems, but a well-executed alarm management program ensures that everyone on the team is aware of what actions are required for specific alarms. Knowing proper alarm responses can prevent or reduce the number and length of unneeded or preventable downtime.Additionally, while it is clear that production downtime costs the company money, many often overlook that system startups and shutdowns can be the two most dangerous operations for any site. Startups and shutdowns rank high on the list of incidents that injure employees. A well-developed and executed alarm management program combines the documentation, training and roles/responsibilities associated with alarm management, resulting in more efficient process operations. Reducing the number of startups and shutdowns a site experiences will increase efficiency and reduce the overall risk for the site.So, who can benefit most from an alarm management program? Without question, process industries such as chemical plants, upstream and downstream oil and gas facilities and pipelines can benefit from some version of an alarm philosophy.Of course, different needs are based on the industry sector—the reality is that any company in the process sector that uses alarms in its day-to-day operations would benefit from an alarm management program grounded in a well-conceived alarm philosophy.It starts with an alarm philosophy. Unsurprisingly, a common and often overwhelming challenge with alarm management is figuring out where to begin. One way to start is by reviewing the company’s existing alarm management philosophy, which is the foundation of an alarm management program. The alarm management philosophy aims to identify and document the company’s goals and expectations for operating practices within alarm management. Additionally, the philosophy’s purpose is to break down alarm management lifecycle activities and provide a roadmap of how the site will incorporate, maintain and audit these activities throughout the site’s lifetime. If a company or site does not yet have an alarm management philosophy, this becomes a critical starting point.Maintaining your alarm management program. Once an alarm management program has been developed, it must be regularly maintained to keep it effective and evergreen with site operations. Time frames of when and how an alarm management program should be audited are individually site-specific and based not only on resourcing but, in some cases, on regulatory compliance. Each site must determine how to maintain and manage its alarm management program to achieve the most meaningful results. Some sites audit the alarm management program every 5 yr, similar to when performing its process hazard analysis (PHA) revalidations. Others review specific pieces of their program [e.g., setpoint validation and management of change (MoC)] every 15 mos–18 mos to ensure they comply with regulatory requirements. While the only wrong answer is not doing anything, portions of an alarm management program may need reviewing more regularly:

Establishing employee roles and responsibilities is one area that may benefit a site's annual review. Almost every alarm management lifecycle activity within the alarm philosophy can be tied back to employee roles and responsibilities. Verifying that these roles and responsibilities are being performed to the expectations laid out within the site alarm philosophy can help ensure that the alarm management program is adequately resourced.

Identifying an alarm champion, whose role and responsibility is to head up alarm management, can provide consistency and a basis to help avoid past pitfalls. The alarm champion helps in all areas of alarm management, from identifying rationalization resources to providing direction on things like the basic design of alarms, appropriate advanced alarming techniques, rationalization templates and ensuring proper personnel training.

The alarm philosophy should identify metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be compared and reviewed to identify areas of the site struggling with alarm performance. Meaningful KPIs should be reviewed monthly. Among them, acceptable metrics on the number of alarms or alarm floods allowed to occur, along with associated goals, are recommended. A well-laid path in the philosophy offers tools for performance measurements to help with internal auditing and continuous improvement plans. Reviewing these systems monthly will help the site remain current on the nuisance alarming and better identify issues with either instrumentation [e.g., hysteresis (dead band), suppression] or with the process (e.g., alarm points set too close to normal operating windows).

Most sites have a distributed control system (DCS) independent of the alarm management software; however, these databases will interface and share information. In some situations, information can possibly be changed in the alarm management software and not in the DCS, or vice versa. If that is the case for your site, it is important to compare these databases to ensure they are consistent in areas like the alarm settings, priorities and documentation so operators are always receiving the most accurate information.

The MoC process is the most common name for tracking changes at a site. Whatever your site calls it, this program should be audited annually to ensure that all changes to site automation and alarms are appropriately tracked to the completion of the project. This should include updating all critical process safety information, including but not limited to piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), cause and effect diagrams (C&Es), process hazard analysis (PHA) studies, safety-critical instrument lists, safe operating limits (SOLs) and master alarm databases (MADBs). Lack of or failure to follow a process of change is where many incidents begin.

Operational procedures such as shelving or removing alarms from service for maintenance activities should be reviewed. As part of this review, validation of the proper use of these procedures and completion of competency-based training should be verified. This will help to ensure that all personnel are aware of utilizing these procedures consistently.

While this may sound like many maintenance steps, the good news is that if constructed correctly, the alarm philosophy will guide how the program should be operated and maintained throughout the plant lifecycle. It will document the roles and responsibilities within the company for specific alarm management activities needed to keep the program healthy. HPFirst Author Rule LineAuthor-pic-ManelickSARAH MANELICK is the Client Success Manager, Practice Leader and Alarm Management for aeSolutions. Manelick has more than 16 yr of experience in the chemical and oil and gas industries, with the last 13 yr being dedicated to alarm management and process safety management. Her responsibilities have included process safety and alarm rationalization facilitation, with expertise in the alarm management lifecycle, risk assessment and process hazard analysis (PHA). Manelick is actively involved with ISA 18 and is experienced with regulatory standards for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration/Department of Transportation (PHMSA/DOT) regarding alarm management and process safety.CoverAd—Shell revampContentsAd—Honeywell UOPMastheadAd—MerichemEditorial CommentAd—AFPM Annual MeetingGlobal Project DataAd—HPI Market Data 2024Viewpoint—Tanoguchi (Yokogawa Electric Corp.)Special Focus OpeningSPECIAL FOCUS—Gardner (KBC)SPECIAL FOCUS—McEleney (Emerson)Ad—PEMN CCS StrategySPECIAL FOCUS—McBul (OQ Specialty Chemicals)SPECIAL FOCUS—Burton (AMETEK Process Instruments)Ad—MEPECSPECIAL FOCUS—Bramson (ABS Group)Petrochemical Technologies—Delhomme (Linde Engineering)Maintenance and Reliability—AnwerTurnaround/Project Mgmt—BenomarAd—AFPM IPCEnvironment and Safety—Rodrigues (Saudi Aramco)Environment and Safety—Manelick (aeSolutions)Environment and Safety—Bowling (Seeq Corporation)Ad—PE Outlook 2024Carbon Capture—Carugo (Emerson)Ad—H2T CircTanks, Terminals and Storage—Advani (L&T Energy Hydrocarbon)Tanks, Terminals and Storage—Safamirzaei (Pasargad Energy Development Co.)Sales OfficeAd—HP Circ (Back Cover)