Ten emails hit the engineering inbox. You sigh, “Here we go again...” Weeding through the emails and seeing that only one requires action, you think, “This can’t be the best use of my time.”
As a plant operator, you are on the front-lines managing critical business operations. These operations are supported by sophisticated industrial operational technology, and you must ensure that all processes run smoothly to keep your personnel and the environment safe. You need a practical one-stop solution to manage your site’s events and alarms and help you take action in time to maintain plant security and safety.
There’s a lack of off-the-shelf solutions that you can just plug and play. In fact, configuring these solutions is tricky and can be counterproductive if implemented poorly. With several visual and audible inputs competing for your attention, you might find yourself overstimulated and unable to focus. If you have multiple systems generating alarms, the problem is compounded, and alerts may get ignored. In the case of one pipeline customer, two-thirds of the alarms were found not to have an immediate impact on operations. It resulted in operating personnel losing trust in the system. What our customer needed was a single platform that only alerted events that required intervention. Do you relate? If a highly redundant system with a single visualization platform was put in place, how would it change your day?
Understanding the Different Alarms of Different Industries
Alarms are used to minimize damage to equipment, injury to personnel, and minimize lost revenue. Don’t let promises of one-size-fits-all solutions fog your judgment. While the types of alarms are standard across industries, the utilization of the alarming systems will vary. As a result, they require a customized solution that fits their needs. For example, oil and gas pipelines have control centers where a team continuously monitors a screen while data centers have multiple people monitoring their mobile phones, with nobody sitting at a control screen. Giving these two industries the same platform would not respond to the needs of the people caring for their respective systems.
Additionally, if the same method is used across all industries, the industry-unique regulatory requirements are at risk of not being met; operations incur unnecessary risk. Casne works with clients to take the different alarms and prioritize which ones are most important to their organization. Our process puts your needs at the forefront of the customization.
A Platform Built For You
You need a solution with a customized platform that fits with the way you do business. The alarm notifications your team receives need to make your work better, not more cumbersome. With a system that gives you the most necessary information, your training and skill will come into play. In 2009, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed a US Airways flight safely on the Hudson River in New York. Despite the cockpit light flashing and alarms blaring, his training and innate skills saved all 155 people aboard. That’s what you need to do when your technology alarm systems are activated.
Like you, we are troubled by data overload. We know how difficult it is to intervene when critical alarm information is mashed up with other stimuli. Fortunately, we’ve helped dozens of organizations solve this problem over the past decade. Great techniques work across industries, whether running an oil and gas pipeline, server farm, or wastewater treatment plant. The right alarm management tools and techniques help you master operational technology during chaotic events. With our prioritization techniques, we have been able to reduce notifications to an individual by 95%.
Customized Plan That Meets Your Needs
At Casne, we use our expertise and apply it to creating a customized single visualization platform that meets your team’s needs. Here is what you can expect:
Meet and Establish Goals, including the Alarm Philosophy
Casne applies operational technology tools and techniques to make sense of the chaos.
If you are being flooded with non-urgent alarms, these can become a distraction to the safe operation of a system. Operators need to be focused on imminent risk.
Non-urgent alarms can also be critical when, for example, it is related to advanced maintenance strategy. Ultimately, the urgent and non-urgent alarms need to be routed differently, so the non-urgent does not overshadow the urgent alarms.
We work with our clients to create a customized engineering document that includes the creation of the data center’s alarm philosophy. For this document to be truly customized, it becomes a living document that develops with you and your team’s needs.
Source: https://www.isa.org/intech/20180402/
Create a Customized Alarm Plan
We work with our clients to create a customized alarm plan based on their needs, goals, and alarm philosophy. First, we triage the current situation by addressing the immediate needs of the system. We focus on achievable short-term objectives that put out any fires. One customer had us start with life safety and environmental issues. With Casne triaging their immediate needs, improvements were seen within a couple of weeks.
Next, we create a rationalization plan. Alarm rationalization starts with understanding how the alarm system will ideally operate. The fine details include reviewing and documenting every alarm situation. Parameters are applied to each condition, determining the potential impact/consequence of each situation. This will help determine who the first responder should be and ensure the right information gets to them.
Last, we leave our clients with a process they can continually use to update, improve, and maintain their platform. We give them the support to build any new processes, alarms, or procedures into their platform.
The cost of failure can be immeasurable. A single missed alarm may mean the difference between business as usual and plant shutdown. When regulatory requirements aren’t met, operations may incur unnecessary risk. In the most critical operations, the worst-case scenario may lead to the loss of lives and damage to the environment. Casne’s work around a single visualization reduces the risk of a missed alarm.
Casne helps you build alarm and event management solutions that are trustworthy and reliable. Its single-platform based solution helps maximize resource productivity while giving you and your staff the peace of mind to focus on items that rightfully need attention.
Engage with Casne Engineering. We’ll help you be the master of chaos. Be the “Captain Sully” of your critical business operations.
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