Alarms play a crucial function in any facility, as they provide information on the current status of operations. They provide information when operating limits are exceeded, and plant operators use alarms to determine the actions needed to return the process back to normal operating conditions. This interaction between operators and alarms is vital to prevent the escalation of abnormal operating conditions.
Alarms play a crucial function in any facility, as they provide information on the current status of operations. They provide information when operating limits are exceeded, and plant operators use alarms to determine the actions needed to return the process back to normal operating conditions. This interaction between operators and alarms is vital to prevent the escalation of abnormal operating conditions.
This can lead to serious safety risks as important alarms could go unnoticed. During such events, it can often lead to poor decision-making by operators, as well as poor response times to evolving plant conditions. There is also a lack of visibility on issues arising from poor alarm management. If flood events become common, this could also imply that there are far more significant underlying safety issues that need to be addressed.
Introducing Veracity APM: Alarm Rationaliser
AIE understands the severity of the issues that could arise from poor alarm management and has developed a means to help operators manage their alarms through Data Management and the Digitisation of Data through our cloud-based Veracity software.
Our Data Science and Process Safety experts have collaborated to launch our new software solution, Veracity APM: Alarm Rationaliser.
We have created a tool that connects your existing DCS seamlessly to Veracity Cloud. All the extracted data from events are fed into the Alarm Rationaliser, which uses a combination of Python and Image Recognition to convert the data into a common format. A natural language model then groups the events together, and these events are ranked by the counts of events and cross-referenced with the equipment service.
The analysis of data allows status reports to be generated and corrective work orders to be raised in your Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) or within Veracity Watchkeeping. As these actions are completed, the data can be fed back to the Alarm Rationaliser via the Veracity interface for further analysis. This workflow is represented in Figure 1 below.
Fig 1: Workflow for Alarm Data Management
All the data analysed by the Alarm Rationaliser is presented on a dashboard, which can be used to determine bad actors and provide visibility on the number of alarms that operators have to cater for. This increased visibility aids in the improvement of equipment availability and reduction of downtime, which leads to increased productivity and revenue.
With features such as real-time analysis of data and Insight Visualisation, the Alarm Rationaliser efficiently provides you with all the necessary tools to make those critical decisions on time, every time.
How can we help you operate safely?
Alarm Rationaliser is part of a wider service within the Veracity APM (Asset Performance Management) module, which falls under the umbrella of Veracity – our asset integrity management software suite. Veracity APM is built in compliance with international standard EEMUA 191 (Engineering Equipment & Materials User Association) which is recognised as the leading organisation for establishing control system design and performance measures.
The data within Veracity APM is processed and presented in highly visual and interactive dashboards. Our engineers analyse this data to determine bad actors and discuss with operators to determine effective measures to improve performance.
We use our understanding and expertise to provide you with actions that can facilitate change and improve process safety. Through this iterative process, you can expect to see many opportunities for risk and facility optimisation.
To see Alarm Rationaliser in action, click here to book a free demo.
To know more about Veracity APM, contact us today here.