WhitePaperHowtoConstrucAMPlan

copyright © J Bogdan Consulting LLC 2010 All Rights reserved
Alarm Management Plan
How to Construct One and Use It to
Improve Your Bottom Line
John E. Bogdan,
Susan F. Booth, &
David P. Garcia
Abstract
Why prepare an Alarm Management Plan just to meet PHMSA requirements (49 CFR Parts
192.631 and 195.446) when, for essentially the same effort, you can prepare one that, when
implemented, will improve your bottom line? This paper has three objectives:
1. Explain the fundamentals of constructing an alarm management plan to meet PHMSA
requirements including personnel requirements, scope, content, and maintenance;
2. Examine using in-house resources versus an external consultant;
3. Encourage operators to prepare an alarm management plan that not only will satisfy
PHMSA requirements, but also will improve safety, productivity, and profitability when
implemented.

2 copyright © J Bogdan Consulting LLC 2010 All Rights reserved
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................3
Definitions .....................................................................................................................................3
1 Constructing an alarm management plan..............................................................................3
1.1 Get educated..................................................................................................................4
1.2 Capture knowledge of your operation/organization ........................................................4
1.2.1 Core values .............................................................................................................4
1.2.2 Roles and responsibilities........................................................................................5
1.2.3 Alarm system design guidelines..............................................................................5
1.2.4 Alarm system operation, maintenance, and review guidelines ...............................5
1.3 Organize your information and align it with current standards and regulations..............5
1.4 Write the alarm management plan .................................................................................9
2 In-house development versus outsourcing............................................................................9
3 Thinking beyond the minimum.............................................................................................10
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
On December 3, 2009, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
amended the federal pipeline safety regulations to address human factors and other aspects of
control room management (49 CFR Parts 192.631 and 195.446). In part, these regulations
require pipeline operators to have a written alarm management plan by August 1, 2011 and to
have implemented that plan by February 1, 2013. This paper:
1. Discusses how to construct an alarm management plan to meet that requirement;
2. Examines developing the plan using only in-house resources versus augmenting them
with an external consultant;
3. Encourages pipeline operators to use the implemented plan as a vehicle for continuous
improvement, resulting in a better bottom line.
Definitions
An alarm is a visible and/or audible means of indicating to the controller an equipment
malfunction, process deviation, or other condition requiring a controller’s response. It is
generated by a process variable crossing a defined threshold into an undesirable or hazardous
region.
An alarm system is the collection of hardware and software that detects an alarm state,
communicates an indication of that alarm state to the controller, and records changes in the
alarm state.
An alarm management plan is a written framework that defines how the alarm system is to be
designed, operated, maintained, and reviewed.
1 Constructing an alarm management plan
It is recommended that you designate an alarm management coordinator and an alarm
management team to oversee construction of the plan. The coordinator should have knowledge
of both the technical and operations facets of your organization. The team should be comprised
of personnel from all levels - up, down, and across the organization – to help ensure that all the
relevant disciplines and viewpoints are considered and to increase acceptance of the alarm
management plan.

The construction of an alarm management plan can be broken down into the following steps:
1. Get educated on the principles of alarm management and current guidelines, standards,
and regulations.
2. Capture knowledge of your organization/operation.
2.1. Identify core values.
2.2. Define roles and responsibilities.
2.3. Determine desired alarm system design guidelines.
2.4. Determine desired alarm system operation, maintenance, and review guidelines.
3. Organize your information and align it with current standards and regulations.
4. Write, edit, and review your alarm management plan.
1.1 Get educated
Many personnel, especially those on the alarm management team, will need to be educated in
varying degrees, and the alarm management coordinator will need to acquire broad knowledge
of alarm management, including basic principles, best practices, available technology, and
industry standards and regulations. Information can be obtained through reading books and
articles, reviewing industry guidelines and standards, and/or attending training classes or
seminars. Table 1 contains some recommended starting places.
Table 1 – Suggested Educational Resources
Books Standards Training
Rothenberg, Douglas H.
Alarm Management for
Process Control. 1st Edition.
New York: Momentum Press,
LLC, 2009.
API RP1167 - Recommended
Practice for Alarm
Management DRAFT Apr. 15,
2010
ANSI/ISA–18.2–2009,
Management of Alarm
Systems for the Process
Industries
TIPS, Inc.
ISA, Introduction to the
Management of Alarm
Systems (IC39C)
1.2 Capture knowledge of your operation/organization
After alarm management fundamentals are mastered, the coordinator and team, possibly with
the help of an expert, will study the current state of the alarm system and determine what
elements are in place and what is needed for an effective system in line with regulatory
requirements. They will extract from the organization the information necessary to write the
plan. Major elements are:
1.2.1 Core values
Alarm systems are designed to help manage undesirable situations. To understand what is
undesirable for you, it is essential to first define your organization’s core values. For example,
key values for most organizations are profitability, safety, and environmental responsibility, and
there may be others such as positive community relations.
Because all undesirable situations do not impact each core value and do not have the same
potential severity of consequences, it is necessary to establish relative levels of severity within
each core value. This analysis is the basis for prioritizing and classifying alarms.

1.2.2 Roles and responsibilities
The next step is to clearly define roles and responsibilities for all those who use and support the
alarm system. For example:
 Who will maintain the alarm management plan?
 Who will communicate it to the organization?
 Who will maintain the alarm system?
 Who will review it?
1.2.3 Alarm system design guidelines
Essential requirements for accepted alarms are determined and drawn up, creating a guideline
for detailed design. Some typical questions addressed are:
 How will set points be calculated so that the alarms are presented to the controller with
appropriate time to respond?
 How will alarms be presented to the controller? What style elements are important (e.g.
sound/tone, color, and blink)?
 What kind of alarms does the SCADA system support? Which ones will be used? How
will they be used?
 What advanced alarming techniques will be used? How will they be used?
1.2.4 Alarm system operation, maintenance, and review guidelines
Issues surrounding the operation, maintenance, and review of the alarm system are considered,
and guidelines for normal operations, training, upkeep, testing, repair, updating, and auditing of
the system are prepared. Some typical questions addressed are:
 Are there any special training requirements for certain classes of alarms?
 What alarm system metrics should be measured? What are the action limits? To whom
should deviations be reported?
 How frequently should the alarm management be audited? What is the scope of the
audit?
 How should changes to alarms or the alarm system be managed?
1.3 Organize your information and align it with current standards and
regulations
Once you have completed the extraction of information from your organization, you will need to
organize it into a useful form and verify that you have satisfied any applicable regulations.
Table 2 below should be useful in aligning information with PHMSA alarm management
requirements (49 CFR Parts 192.631 and 195.446). Column 1 is the PHMSA regulation.
Column 2 describes the tasks required to comply with a specific requirement in the regulation.
Columns 3 and 4 list the relevant sections in the AGA Alarm Management for Control Room
Operations in the Natural Gas Industry and ANSI/ISA 18.2 2009 Management of Alarm Systems
for the Process Industries documents respectively that provide guidance for the required tasks.

How to Construct One and Use It to Improve Your Bottom Line

Table 2 - PHMSA Alarm Management Requirements
PHMSA Requirement Required Tasks to Comply
AGA
Control Room Operations
in the Natural Gas
Industry
ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009
Management of
Alarm Systems for
the Process
Industries
(e) Alarm management. Each
operator using a SCADA
system must have a written
alarm management plan to
provide for effective
controller response to
alarms. An operator’s plan
must include provisions to:
Select and educate an alarm
management team, define core
values, assign roles and
responsibilities, gather and
organize relevant information, and
write the alarm management plan.
 Alarm Philosophy  Alarm Philosophy**
(1) Review SCADA safety-
related alarm operations
using a process that
ensures alarms are
accurate and support
safe pipeline operations;
Develop and implement a review
process to ensure that undesirable
events are correctly identified and
properly alarmed (i.e., alarms must
be prioritized and presented to the
controller in a clear and timely
fashion).
 Alarm Determination
 Alarm Audits
 Roles & Responsibilities
- Document the analysis &
action
 Identification
 Rationalization
 Design


AGA
in the Natural Gas
Industry
ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009
Management of
Alarm Systems for
the Process
Industries
(2) Identify at least once
each calendar month
points affecting safety
that have been taken off
scan in the SCADA host,
have had alarms
inhibited, generated
false alarms, or that
have had forced or
manual values for
periods of time
exceeding that required
for associated
maintenance or
operating activities;
Develop a monitoring program to
identify alarms that are generating
false alarms and alarms that have
been set to not annunciate (e.g.,
disabled, inhibited, suppressed,
shelved, out-of-service, off scan,
forced, manual).
 Alarm Audits
- Performance metrics
 Alarm Resolution
 Monitoring &
Assessment
(3) Verify the correct safety-
related alarm set-point
values and alarm
descriptions [when
associated field
instruments are
calibrated or changed
and]* at least once each
calendar year, but at
intervals not to exceed
15 months;
Develop a master list or database
of all relevant alarms and their key
parameters, and compare that
master list to the set of installed
alarms to identify and resolve any
unauthorized changes.
 Management of Change
 Alarm Audits
 Management of
Change
 Maintenance
- Periodic testing


AGA
in the Natural Gas
Industry
ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009
Management of
Alarm Systems for
the Process
Industries
(4) Review the alarm
management plan
required by this
paragraph at least once
each calendar year, but
at intervals not
exceeding 15 months, to
determine the
effectiveness of the plan;
Conduct an annual audit of the
alarm management program by
comparing managerial and work
practices to procedures,
procedures to policy, and policy to
regulations and industry guidelines.
 Alarm Audits  Audit
(5) Monitor the content and
volume of general
activity being directed to
and required of each
controller at least once
each calendar year, but
at intervals not to
exceed 15 months, that
will assure controllers
have sufficient time to
analyze and react to
incoming alarms; and
Measure the alarm system
performance and compare it to
established targets. Typical
measurements would include
alarm rate, alarm flood (size and
duration), chattering/fleeting,
duplicate, false, frequent,
inhibited/forced/manual, off-scan,
standing/stale, and unauthorized
changes.
 Alarm Audits
- Performance metrics
 Monitoring &
Assessment
(6) Address deficiencies
identified through the
implementation of
paragraphs (e)(1)
through (e)(5) of this
section.
Develop and implement any action
plans or recommendations
identified as a result of programs
developed in steps 1 through 5.
 Alarm Audits  Audit
 Others
- Design
- Implementation
- Maintenance
- Management of
change
*The requirements in [] are specific to Part 195 – Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline.
** The term Alarm Philosophy as used by ANSI/ISA-18.2 is synonymous with the term Alarm Management Plan as used in the PHMSA ruling.


1.4 Write the alarm management plan
Finally, a draft of the plan is prepared and sent throughout the organization for review. The draft
is edited and reviewed as necessary until a satisfactory version is produced and approved.
Periodic review of the approved plan is necessary and should be carried out as specified in the
plan.
Table 3 below is a sample table of contents of an alarm management plan.
Table 3 - Alarm Management Plan Table of Contents
1. General
1.1. Purpose of alarm management plan
1.2. Purpose of alarm system
1.3. Definitions
1.4. Related site procedures
1.5. References
1.6. Responsibilities and roles
2. Identification
3. Rationalization
3.1. Rationalization Team
3.2. Alarm selection
3.3. Prioritization
3.3.1. Prioritization procedure
3.3.2. Prioritization calculations
3.3.3. Internal prioritization review
3.4. Alarm set point determination
3.4.1. Alarm set point review
3.5. Alarm documentation
3.5.1. Alarm class
3.5.2. Highly managed alarms
3.6. Rationalization wrap-up and final approval
4. Detailed Design
4.1. Alarm attributes
4.2. Special alarm design considerations
4.3. Approved advanced alarm management
techniques
4.4. HMI design guidance
5. Implementation, Operation & Maintenance
5.1. Implementation guidance
5.2. Operation
5.3. Alarm system maintenance
5.4. Training
5.5. Testing of alarms and alarm systems
6. Monitoring & Reporting
6.1. Alarm system metrics
6.2. Alarm system review
6.3. Alarm history preservation
7. Management of Change
8. Audit
This organization of topics is general and applicable across industries. The detailed content,
however, is specific to each pipeline operator or company.
2 In-house development versus outsourcing
Developing an alarm management plan requires extensive input from internal sources
regardless of whether the process is facilitated in-house or by an external consultant. Your
organization’s particular needs will determine if in-house development is a good option or if
outsourcing will ultimately serve you better.
If you envisage that your organization is going to develop a number of alarm management plans
and expend a sustained effort on redesigning alarm systems, developing an in-house team of
alarm management experts may be the best way to proceed. Although this does require an
ongoing financial commitment in the form of training and salary, it may be cheaper in the long
run than the cost of external consulting. However, you may still benefit from a limited
engagement of an outside consultant, particularly if the effort requires skills that your staff does
not currently possess. The consultant can bring the skills you need into your organization and
work alongside your people to help them acquire the new skill set. In addition, a consultant can
add a fresh perspective that can challenge internal preconceptions and an impartiality that can
alleviate turf issues.


If your organization is responding on a more limited basis to regulatory requirements or is
operating with limited personnel, hiring an external consultant will offer those same benefits and
is likely to be the most timely and cost-effective way to accomplish your alarm management
objectives. In-house efforts often strain available resources and, therefore, drag on
unsuccessfully and expensively. An external consultant can, in approximately one week on-site,
train a core group in the basics of alarm management and guide that group through a workshop
to extract the information required for the alarm management plan. As a further benefit, the
consultant’s expertise and experience can help the team begin thinking about ways to use the
alarm system as a rich source of operations and safety improvement ideas. The actual writing
of your customized plan will take the consultant about another week off-site. In two weeks, you
can have a completed plan. The time savings and improved results often make outsourcing the
more cost-effective option.
Whether the effort is in-house or aided by outsourcing, the ideal facilitator for the development
of an alarm management plan will have experience in the following areas:
 Development of alarm management plans;
 Industrial experience in automation, engineering, and operations; (It is helpful, but not
essential, for the facilitator to have experience in the organization’s particular field.)
 Leadership and conflict resolution skills.
3 Thinking beyond the minimum
Your motivation to write an alarm management plan may be to meet looming PHMSA
regulations, but preparing a well-designed plan now will pay off in 2013 when the mandate to
have it implemented takes effect. It involves almost no extra time or effort to think beyond the
minimum requirements and prepare a plan that will be the foundation for continuing operational
improvement.
Broadening the scope of alarms to be reviewed is one area to consider. The PHMSA regulation
specifies review of only safety-related alarms in Section e(1), but, in Section e(5), it requires a
yearly evaluation of the general activity for each controller to assure there is sufficient time to
analyze and react to incoming alarms. Whether or not PHMSA’S intent was to have the plan
cover only safety-related alarms, it is recommended that your plan specify review of all alarms
for the following reasons:
 It is difficult to isolate safety-related alarms. Common methods of identifying them by
alarm type or service class often result in misclassification of non-safety alarms as
safety, and vice versa. Reviewing all alarms ensures that every safety-related alarm is
identified.
 All alarms, not just safety-related, demand a response from the controller. Therefore, all
alarms must be properly prioritized relative to each other for the controller to be able to
respond appropriately to a series of alarms.
 Most importantly for your bottom line, reviewing all alarms enables you to eliminate
unnecessary alarms. In a typical system, elimination of 30 to 60 percent of existing
alarms is achievable. This not only improves safety by reducing controller workload, but
also greatly simplifies the alarm system.


Another area in which thinking beyond PHMSA’s minimum requirements is likely to be profitable
is monitoring and assessment. This task often seems overwhelming because of the number of
alarms. However, once you have eliminated unnecessary alarms, monitoring and assessment
of the alarm system becomes practical for improving operations. To be of the most value, more
frequent monitoring than required by PHMSA is necessary, but much of it can be done
automatically. It is also essential that the task of assessing the collected data be clearly
assigned and thoroughly carried out.
Monitoring and assessment of frequent alarms may reveal an underlying, recurring problem that
can be corrected. Consequential alarms can identify causal relationships between parts of the
operation that are not readily apparent. Chattering alarms, which are typically considered
nuisances to be eliminated, can indicate that conditions have shifted so that the operation is
running undesirably close to an alarm limit. Every activated alarm is a valuable source of
information, which, if tapped, can lead to significant operational gain.
For example, one pipeline operator used the number of communication failure alarms to help
decide the order in which to upgrade communication links from satellite to 3G. Another operator
monitored the number of alarms generated by an old tank gauging system and compared them
to those generated by a new one to determine that replacing the old system was desirable.
Conclusion
The mandate to develop an alarm management plan may seem at first glance to be a low-
benefit, high-nuisance proposition. However, alarms are not simply notifications to the controller
that action is required; they are also notification to the rest of the organization that there is a
potential operating or safety improvement to be made. A carefully crafted alarm management
plan will provide the backbone for an alarm system that will yield rewards for years to come.

WhitePaperHowtoConstrucAMPlan

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (18)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to WhitePaperHowtoConstrucAMPlan

Similar to WhitePaperHowtoConstrucAMPlan (20)

WhitePaperHowtoConstrucAMPlan