Simple tips for writing the alarm information that can make a meaningful improvement. As an industry we have come along way in terms of considering when alarms should be activated and to whom. But when it comes to the content of the message there is still little content available, and there must be a better way to write messages so that our operators can comprehend and react faster.

1. WRITING ALARM MESSAGES
7 TIPS LEADING TO BIG IMPROVEMENTS

2. ALARM MESSAGES COME IN MANY FORMS
With ISA 18.2, alarm messages are split into multiple components, such as:
PURPOSE
GUIDANCE
TAG COMMENT
TIME-TO-RESPOND
CONSEQUENCE
AND MANY MORE…
WHAT FOLLOWS ARE SIMPLE TIPS TO MAKE
MEANINGFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN WRITING ALARM
INFORMATION, INCLUDING TAG COMMENT (24
CHARACTERS)
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3. Think from the operators perspective:
WHAT DO THEY NEED TO KNOW?
WHAT INFORMATION OR KNOWLEDGE DO
THEY HAVE AVAILABLE?
TIP 1 – BE RELEVANT TO THE OPERATOR
The content
MUST BE RELEVANT

4. OPERATORS ARE
ACTUALLY BUSY
ACHIEVING THE GOAL
IS WHAT MATTERS
Strip trivial information to keep
focus on what matters
Nothing more, nothing less
In other words
KEEP IT SIMPLE & TO THE POINT
TIP 2 – BE CONCISE

5. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE MADE
AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE
BUT NOT
SIMPLER

6. TIP 3 – BE CONSISTENT
There are several ways to say the same thing:
TANK 1 IS APPROACHING HH LIMIT
TANK 1 IS REACHING HH LIMIT
T1 APPROACHING HH
MESSAGES SHOULD BE CONSISTENT AND BE BASED ON
STANDARD, AGREED UPON TERMINOLOGY,
THAT IS KNOWN AND USED BY ALL OPERATORS

7. TIP 4 – BE OUTCOME FOCUSED
Alarm messages should be focused on telling the
operator what the problem is, and then guide the
operator towards the appropriate action
EVERY ALARM SHOULD BE THE RESULT OF AN OPERATOR
ACTION;
EACH OPERATOR ACTION SHOULD BE A RESULT OF:
AN ALARM,
MANAGEMENT REQUEST,
OR
IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITY

8. TIP 5 – EASILY READABLE
This is self-explanatory
Alarm messages should be presented
in a manner that is clear, well
structured, quick and simple to read.
WE DO NOT WANT THE OPERATOR TO LOOSE
VALUABLE SECONDS DUE TO POOR LANGUAGE IN
THE MESSAGE

9. Alarms usually display the following information:
DATE/TIME STAMP
Example:
On some HMI systems, the operator will always be shown the tag-name, so in that
case we should be sure not to include the tag-name in the message to ensure that we’re not
duplicating the same information
SEVERITY
TAG NAME
ALARM MESSAGE (TOPIC)
TIP 6 – DUPLICATION OF CONTENT
We should ensure to not duplicate information
already provided to the operator

10. Operators know their facility in extreme detail, from
an operations perspective...
TIP 7 – OPERATOR LANGUAGE/TERMINOLOGY
KNOW THE LANGUAGE OF THE
OPERATORS AND WRITE ALARMS
INTHE SAME LANGUAGE
THE CORE GOAL OF ALARM SYSTEMS IS
TO SUPPORT THE OPERATOR:
It is critical that alarms are written in a manner that
matches the operator’s language, training and mental
model

11. CONCLUSION
DON’T BE TOO SET ON ONLY ACHIEVING THE ISA18.2
NUMERICAL TARGETS WHEN MANAGING AN ALARM
SYSTEM
SMALL IMPROVEMENTS AND SIMPLICITY IN ALARM
MESSAGES TRANSLATE TO SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS
IN AN OPERATORS DAILY WORK
IMPROVED ALARMS WILL ALWAYS BE
APPRECIATED BY YOUR OPERATORS

12. THANK YOU!
ALARM METRICS
HAZOP STYLE ALARM WORKSHOPS
IMPLEMENTING ALARM MANAGEMENT
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