ISA18 2 Customer Facing F2 20200515

The value of ISA 18.
2 alarm
management standard in
FactoryTalk View SE deployments
05 • 18 • 2020
David Board• EMEA Commercial Project engineer
Alarm Management & Rationalization– ISA18.2
▪ ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016 - Management of Alarm Systems for
the Process Industries
▪ ISA-TR18.2.2-2016 - Alarm Identification and
Rationalization
▪ ISA-TR18.2.3-2015 - Basic Alarm Design
▪ ISA-TR18.2.4-2012 - Enhanced and Advanced Alarm
Methods
▪ ISA-TR18.2.5-2012 - Alarm System Monitoring,
Assessment, and Auditing
▪ ISA-TR18.2.6-2012 - Alarm Systems for Batch and
Discrete Processes
▪ ISA-TR18.2.7-2017 - Alarm Management When Utilizing
Packaged Systems
PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 2

Alarm Management – A simple system - exercise
• Generate the alarm list for this system.
Level Sensor %
High Probe
HiHi Probe Start Outlet Pump & Open Outlet Valve
Close Inlet Valve & Stop Inlet Pump
High Probe
Low Probe
Inlet Stop Outlet Pump & Close Outlet Valve
Open Inlet Valve & Start Inlet Pump
DOL Pump
With rotation sensor Motorised Open/Close
Valve with feedback All Probes have Failure detection
Motorised Open/Close DOL Pump

Valve with feedback With rotation sensor
Low Probe Outlet

LoLo Probe

Alarm Management – A simple system
• Identify the alarms that aren’t alarms
If it doesn’t require operator action then it’s not an alarm
1 HiHi Probe - Tank Full - Stop Inlet Pump and Close inlet Valve 21 High Probe Covered - Inlet Pump Stopping
2 LoLo Probe - Tank Empty - Stop Outlet Pump and Close Outlet Valve 22 High Probe Covered - Inlet Valve Closing
3 HiHi Probe Failure 23 Low Probe Covered - Outlet Pump Stopping
4 LoLo Probe Failure 24 Low Probe Covered - Outlet Valve Closing
5 High Probe Failure 25 Low Probe Covered - Inlet Pump Starting
6 Low Probe Failure 26 Low Probe Covered - Inlet Valve Opening
7 Outlet Pump not rotating 27 Tank Filling
8 Outlet Pump contactor failed to close 28 Tank Emptying
9 Outlet Pump contactor failed to open 29 Level Sensor Failure
10 Outlet Pump Thermal Overload tripped 30 Tank Filling Failure
11 Outlet Pump loss of phase 31 Tank Emptying Failure
12 Outlet Pump MCB Tripped 32 Outlet Valve Failed to Open
13 Inlet Pump not rotating 33 Outlet Valve Failed to Close
14 Inlet Pump contactor failed to close 34 Inlet Valve Failed to Open
15 Inlet Pump contactor failed to open 35 Inlet Valve Failed to Close
16 Inlet Pump Thermal Overload tripped
17 Inlet Pump loss of phase
18 Inlet Pump MCB Tripped
19 High Probe Covered - Outlet Pump Starting
20 High Probe Covered - Outlet Valve Opening

Alarm Management – Past and present
• In the past Control rooms used light boxes
If the process engineer wanted a new alarm there were two options
1. Spend money and install and wire a new alarm light box
2. Ask the process engineer which existing alarm they wanted to not have.
• Now we have easy ways of adding alarms

You just click and type
Every analog can have HiHi, High, Low and LoLo
Alarms that are not alarms are added because we as clever engineers can.

Alarm Management – Business Drivers
• Plants are continuously looking for new ways to reduce downtime, increasing productivity, and
implanting safe performance.
• Alarm management is costly and time consuming but possible to regain what studies have shown
as 3 – 8% production losses due to abnormal situations.
• Sound alarm management is more about mitigating abnormal situations. When everything is
running correctly a good alarm system does nothing but proper mitigation of even small incidents
will save money.

Alarm Management – Why
• 80% of all alarm activations originate from a dozen or fewer sources commonly called nuisance or
bad actor alarms.
• Addressing these alarms can significantly improve system performance.
• Process alarm systems are intended to provide operational awareness and assist operators in the
diagnosis and remedy of abnormal conditions, reducing incidents and accidents.
• Poorly implemented alarm systems can, however, have the opposite effect by overloading operators
with too much information, causing confusion and masking core problems in need of attention.

Alarm Management – Why
• Operators are bombarded with hundreds of alarms per hour, many of them causing an audible
annunciation.
They become conditioned to ignore most alarms, paying attention only long enough to
silence the horn as they attempt to focus their attention on current process conditions.
• Alarm overload is a well-documented issue that helped drive the emergence of industry standards
and guidelines such as:
• ANSI/ISA 18.2 Standard: Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries in the
United States (2009) revised 2016
• ASM Alarm Management (2003)
• EEMUA 191 in Europe (2007)

Alarm Management – What is an Alarm
ISA-18.2 defines an alarm as
"An audible and/or visible means of indicating to the operator an equipment malfunction,
process deviation, or abnormal condition requiring a response."
This means an alarm is more than a message or an event, as it indicates a condition demanding quick
operator action.

• Alarms must solely exist as a tool for the operator NOT configured for use by Engineers or
other staff.
During the Rationalization process the following rules are applied
• If the operator action is to enter a work order and have maintenance fix it when they can, it should be an alert,
and go to maintenance.
• If the operator action is to get maintenance on it immediately or a shutdown may occur, that is an alarm.

• The most important criteria for an alarm
1. Does the event require operator action?
Events that do not require operator action shall not be allowed to produce alarms.
2. Is this alarm the best indicator of the situation’s root cause?

Alarms should be placed, configured and handled so that a single process event does not produce multiple
alarms all signifying the same thing.
3. Is the alarm truly resulting from an abnormal situation

Alarms should not activate during routine process variable changes or from normal expected cases of operation.

Alarm Management – ISA18.2 Life cycle – Entry Points

Alarm Management – Overview
1. Monitoring & Assessment
• A limited, but effective, program of nuisance/bad actor alarm elimination.
2. Performance Benchmarking and Philosophy

• Benchmarking includes alarm analysis, operator analysis, and gap analysis.
• The Philosophy stage results in a document that details the recommended approach to how a
company addresses alarm management through all stages of the lifecycle.
3. Rationalization and Implementation

• Rationalization is the process of reviewing and justifying alarms that meet criteria that are
established in the Philosophy Document.
• Implementation includes all infrastructure changes to support a new alarm system or
modifications to an existing alarm system.

Alarm Management – Roles and Responsibilities Matrix

Alarm Management – Key Design Principles
• Every Alarm should have a defined response
• Adequate Time should be allowed for the operator to respond
• Every Alarm presented to the operator should be useful, relevant and UNIQUE
• Operators should not get more alarms than they can reasonably respond to
• Alarms should be prioritized and understandable

Alarm Management – Common problems
• Choosing to implement alarm management is to avoid potential safety, environmental, or quality incidents
due to alarm overload or missing critical alarms.

Alarm Management – Monitor and Assessment
We will
now look
at this
easy hit

Monitor
Alarm Management –Bad Actors/Nuisance alarms Assessment
• The main reason alarm systems are ineffective is because systems are plagued with bad
actor/nuisance alarms. These alarms often originate from fewer than a dozen sources, are unreliable,
and send inaccurate information to operators. They may include
• Chattering Alarms
• Chattering alarms transition into and out of alarm status in a short amount of time, often multiple
times per minute.
• Fleeting Alarms
• Fleeting alarms transition in and out of alarm status, but they do not necessarily repeat.
• Duplicate Alarms
• There are two types of duplicate alarms. Dynamic Duplicate Alarms occur when a process event
triggers multiple alarm annunciations in different ways. Configured Duplicate Alarms occur
because incorrect DCS setpoint interconnections cause duplicate alarm configurations.
• Stale Alarms
• These alarms remain “in alarm” for extended periods, with case examples of 24 hours to multiple
years.

Monitor
Alarm Management – Practical limits for Humans Assessment
This table lists recommended alarm frequencies for an alarm system in accordance with ISA 18.2.
Very likely to be acceptable Maximum manageable

~150 alarms per day ~300 alarms per day
~6 alarms per hour (average) ~12 alarms per hour (average)
~1 alarm per 10 minutes (average) ~2 alarms per 10 minutes (average)
From ISA-18.2, IEC 62682 Clause 16.2 – Requirements
1. “Alarm system performance shall be monitored”
2. “Monitoring and assessment of the alarm system performance shall be made against the target
performance levels in the alarm philosophy”

Monitor
Alarm Management –Alarm KPIs Assessment
This table lists recommended alarm frequencies for an alarm system in accordance with ISA 18.2.

Monitor
Alarm Management – Identifying Bad Actors Assessment
• There are several ways to analyze and identify the bad actor types. As a first step, standard alarm
reports that are provided by most control systems provide valuable information.
• Alarm Distribution – Identifies the alarm load impact of the 10 most frequent and longest alarms.
• Alarm Duration – Identifies the top 10 longest duration alarms in a specific time period.
• Alarm Frequency – Shows the top 10 most frequent alarms in a specific period.
• Hourly Alarms – Shows a count of alarms that were active over a one-hour sample during a time
period.
• Standing Alarms – Shows the top 10 alarms that are currently active; determined by the length of
time the alarm has been active.
• Comparing the data from these reports to the recommended 18.2 alarm system target rates for Key
Performance Indicators will provide a measure of how well alarm system performance aligns with
acceptable performance limits.

Monitor
Alarm Management – Report Data > Alarm KPIs Assessment
• Managing the bad actor alarms during Monitoring & Assessment can quickly transform an overloaded
system to the Reactive status.
• Employing recommendations of the 18.2 Alarm Rationalization Audit can move the system into either
the Stable or Robust categories.
• Predictive systems require adhering to the entire 18.2 standard and implementing extensive advanced
alarming techniques.

Monitor
Alarm Management – Achieving the Reactive Status Assessment
• Achieving the Reactive status following Monitoring & Assessment helps ensure safe operation of the
system and eliminates many of the bad actor alarms that undercut requirements for safe operation,
such as……
• Identifying and defining hazards
• Ensuring equipment is properly installed and operated
• Responding to alarms with correct procedures
• Implementing emergency plans
• Monitoring alarm system performance

Monitor
Alarm Management – Tune and Correct Bad Actors Assessment
• No not this one

Monitor
1. Remove the information only alarms.

2. Evaluate and tune controllers.
3. Evaluate and adjust alarm limits.
• The following methods of tuning can correct these bad actors
• Alarm Limit Configuration
• Alarm Deadband Configuration
• Alarm Delay Time Configuration
• Alarm Latch Configuration
• Process Filter Configuration

Monitor
• Tuning bad actor alarms is a highly effective, immediate solution for reducing alarm system
overload.
• A limited number of alarms result in a low-cost and highly visible alarm system improvement.
• Monitoring & Assessment does not evaluate process conditions and identify root causes of system
installation and/or hardware issues.
• These issues are address by these two time consuming and more expensive methods……
• Performance Benchmarking and developing an Alarms Management Philosophy document
followed by
• Alarm Rationalization

Alarm Management – Performance Benchmarking Benchmarking
• Performance Benchmarking is absolutely necessary for improving an existing alarm management

system.
• Measuring the state of the current alarm system, and then comparing it with the objectives and goals
established to enhance the system is called Gap Analysis, which identifies the actions required for
alarm system improvement.
• Information obtained in the Gap Analysis often uncovers areas in the existing alarm system that
should be addressed when developing the Philosophy Document.
• For a new control system developing a Philosophy Document is often the initial step toward ISA 18.2
compliance.
• To help ensure that benchmarking is successful, it is necessary to
• Document the cause
• Potential consequence
• Response time for each identified alarm.
• This helps highlight needed improvements that are most critical to operators.

• The ISA 18.2 standard acknowledges that the target metrics are approximate.
• They are affected by many factors
• The process
• Operator experience
• HMI design
• Degree of system automation
• Degree and significance of alarms produced.
• These ISA18.2 alarm performance metrics provide the foundation of the Benchmarking stage and the
targets for achieving ISA18.2 compliance.

• At least 30 days of alarm data should be gathered

• ISA18.2 says 30 Days of collecting data is desirable
• Every operational plant area needs to be analyzed.

• The alarm rate to be measured is the operator alarm rate at each individual station.
• An operator’s response to an alarm is subject to various human factors, These include

• how the operator detects and silences an alarm,
• navigates the system to ascertain and verify the reason for the alarm,
• takes actions to address the situation,
• then monitors the system to ensure that the correct actions were taken.
• Operators are often inundated with alarms and sometimes, out of necessity, ignore some of them. That
can lead to accidents.

• The three steps to benchmarking are:

• Alarm Analysis
• Operator Interviews
• Gap Analysis

• Alarm Analysis
• Average Alarms Rate
• Peak alarm rate per operator console
• Alarms per 10 Minutes
• Alarm floods
• Frequently occurring alarms
• Chattering and fleeting alarms
• Stale alarms

Alarm Management – Reporting Tools Benchmarking
• FactoryTalk VantagePoint
• 42 SSRS reports
• KnowledgeBase Article – IN537
• https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/68296/loc/en_US#__highlight

Alarm Management – Reporting Tools Benchmarking
• Ocean Data Systems – Dream Report

• EMEA Encompass Partner
• Direct Connectivity into FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

Operator Interviews
Operator surveys and follow-up interviews provide qualitative feedback from the actual
users of the alarm system. Typical surveys include questions about:
• Operator experience
• Amount of DCS training
• Support provided by the alarm system during normal operation
• System performance during plant faults and trips
• Alarm system design
• Alarm management processes and procedures
• General questions requesting recommendations to improve the alarm
• management system

Gap Analysis
• Benchmarking through alarm analysis and operator interviews provides the required information about
the current performance of the alarm system for comparison with the Alarm Management Performance
KPIs.
• The difference between the current situation and goals set for meeting ISA 18.2 requirements determines
the gap to be filled for compliance.

Alarm Rationalization
Alarm Analysis – Annunciated alarm priority distribution
• Effective use of alarm priority can enhance the ability of the operator to manage alarms and provide
response.
• The effectiveness of alarm priority is related to the distribution of the alarm priorities: higher priorities
should be used less frequently as shown in the table below (Table 6 ISA18.2 2016).
• Some alarm systems use an additional highest priority for a few alarms with severe consequences.
• Alarm priority distributions can vary based on process and industry.
• A target alarm priority distribution should be established in the alarm philosophy.

Alarm Rationalization
Exida SIL Alarm Rationalization software
Encompass Partner
Todd Stauffer
Director – Alarm Management Services
ISA18.2 voting member
ISA18.2 TR3 Co-chair

Alarm Management - Rockwell Whitepaper
Customer facing Rockwell whitepapers (included in handouts)
This three-part white paper series covers these areas in the 18.2 lifecycle stages:
• Economic and Effective Alarm Management
https://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/wp/proces-wp013_-en-p.pdf
• Performance Benchmarking and Alarm Philosophy Development

• Alarm Rationilization and Implementation


Alarm Management – Simple Step Guide run through
• Health and Safety Executive – Better Alarm Handling practical guide (included in handouts)
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/chis6.pdf

Alarm Management – What the operator sees
FactoryTalk View Alarm and Events
• Alarm Details in lower pane
• 2 click navigation to View commands
• Suppress
• Reset of Latched Alarms
• Disable
• Ack selected, Ack Page
• Alarm counters as functions
• Priority icons
• Alarm Groups
• Filtering

ISA Standards Participation
• ISA standards are written by volunteers
• Great way to increase your network
• No need to become an ISA member
• https://www.isa.org/default.aspx?

References
▪ ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015 - Human Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems and Technical
Reports
▪ ISA18.2 2016 – Alarm Rationalization and Management and Technical Reports
▪ Designing for People – ISBN 9781539808008
▪ ASM Consortium Guidelines – ISBN 978-1440431647 - Effective Console Operator HMI Design
▪ High Performance HMI Handbook - Hollifield et al
▪ Alarm management Handbook – Bill Hollifield
▪ Information Dashboard Design - Stephen Few
▪ American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers AM-15-07
▪ Operator Situation Awareness & Delivering ASM-Compliant High Performance HMIs: Failure Modes and
Success Factors
▪ Rockwell Automation® Library of Process Objects
Available from the Product Comparison Download Website
▪ Rockwell Automation Whitepaper – Human Machine Interfaces for Distributed Control Systems:

Thank you
www.rockwellautomation.com

ISA18 2 Customer Facing F2 20200515

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The value of ISA 18.

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 2

Motorised Open/Close DOL Pump

Low Probe Outlet

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 3

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• Now we have easy ways of adding alarms

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 5

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• Addressing these alarms can significantly improve system performance.

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2. Is this alarm the best indicator of the situation’s root cause?

3. Is the alarm truly resulting from an abnormal situation

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2. Performance Benchmarking and Philosophy

3. Rationalization and Implementation

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• Adequate Time should be allowed for the operator to respond

• Alarms should be prioritized and understandable

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 15

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Alarm Management –Bad Actors/Nuisance alarms Assessment

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Alarm Management – Practical limits for Humans Assessment

Very likely to be acceptable Maximum manageable

From ISA-18.2, IEC 62682 Clause 16.2 – Requirements

1. “Alarm system performance shall be monitored”

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 19

Alarm Management –Alarm KPIs Assessment

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 20

Alarm Management – Identifying Bad Actors Assessment

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Alarm Management – Report Data > Alarm KPIs Assessment

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Alarm Management – Achieving the Reactive Status Assessment

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Alarm Management – Tune and Correct Bad Actors Assessment

• No not this one

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Alarm Management – Tune and Correct Bad Actors Assessment

1. Remove the information only alarms.

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Alarm Management – Tune and Correct Bad Actors Assessment

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 26

• Performance Benchmarking is absolutely necessary for improving an existing alarm management

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 27

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• At least 30 days of alarm data should be gathered

• Every operational plant area needs to be analyzed.

• An operator’s response to an alarm is subject to various human factors, These include

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 29

• The three steps to benchmarking are:

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 30

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 31

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 32

• Ocean Data Systems – Dream Report

PUBLIC | Copyright ©2019 Rockwell Automation, Inc. 33