Creating the Right Alarm Design Using the LogMate Alarm Knowledge Base
Why You Need an Alarm Knowledge Base
As you go through the process of assessing your
alarms to identify potential nuisance alarms or alarms that
should be changed, you will "rationalize" alarms when they
become potential items to change or remove.
Rationalizing an alarm is the process of determining
whether or not the alarm should exist, how it should
behave, and what should be done when it activates. This
process leads to an alarm system that is manageable and
invaluable to reaching operational goals.
During that process, even if for only one alarm, you will
have valuable conversations with people who have a
vested interest in the alarm system. Those conversations
naturally result in the discussion of extremely valuable
process and business information, much of which only
resides in someone's head. Capturing that information is
what an Alarm Knowledge Base is all about.
As you discuss your alarm system, the LogMate Alarm
Knowledge Base (Alarm KB) provides a quick, online
storage location for the knowledge that is shared by the
alarm decision team. Whether or not an alarm is kept, you
can document its intended purpose, cause, corrective
actions, time to respond, and the rationale behind the
alarm, or the absence of one.
As this information is added to the Alarm KB it can be
viewed by operators, analyzed, used to automatically
calculate recommended priority changes, and actively
compared to the current DCS configuration to enforce the
use of approved alarm settings.
What is the Alarm Knowledge Base?
A storage place for alarm settings and related
information, the LogMate Alarm Knowledge Base
(Alarm KB) guides smart alarm design and provides
instant access to information that will help operators
recover from abnormal situations.
The Alarm KB is a part of the LogMate ACE module.
The KB is essentially a database of alarm settings and
additional information.
What does the Alarm KB do?
- Maintains a replica of the DCS alarm configuration
which can be compared to the acttive DCS settings at
any time, enforcing stability of the alarm design.
- Stores valuable information gathered from personnel
during the process of discussing the validity and
proper configuration of alarms.
- Makes alarm information available online, in a
browser-accessible documentation system that can
be accessed by operators when they need
information about how to respond to active alarms.
- Automatically suggests the best priority settings for
your operating environment based on how alarms
impact your plant and business goals.
- Displays your priority counts as percentages of total
alarms configured allowing you to compare to
benchmarks and monitor progress.
How Does the Alarm KB Work?
The Alarm KB stores its information in a database. The
database contains a list of system "Tags" or "Points". Each
"Tag" contains a list of all associated alarms. Each alarm
is linked to its "Tag" as well as a list of attributes, including:
- Type of Alarm
- Alarm Limit (Trip point)
- Priority
- Level of Impact on Safety, Environment, Financial
- How to Confirm Alarm is Real
- Corrective Action
- Response Time
- Rationale
Alarm attributes are completely customizeable. They
can be modified to suit your process and design needs.
How Do I Get Started?
Moving forward requires sitting down to assess alarms
and to discuss the proper design of the alarm system.
We understand that the additional time required is difficult
to find. To help you move forward with improvement of
your alarm system, we offer a one week on site program.
During the on site visit we will configure your LogMate
reports to properly analyze plant data and automatically
email them to the appropriate personnel. We will train
personnel in the use and interpretation of each report and
organize several discussions regarding system changes.
To document changes and provide a historic and
ongoing information resource, we will import your current
DCS configuration into the Alarm KB and train your team
to documentrationale and operations information.
After one week, staff will be trained to assess alarm
behavior and alarm design and to use the Alarm KB to
document, monitor, and maintain progress.
We are happy to further discuss an onsite visit to help you
reap the benefits of alarm redesign and the Alarm KB.
For more information
contact us.
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