SILalarm v2.10

SILalarmTM is a tool for facilitating the alarm rationalization process and documenting the results in a master alarm database. It guides a rationalization team through a systematic process of reviewing, justifying and documenting the design of each alarm, ensuring compliance with a corporate or site alarm philosophy document. 

It supports data exchange with new (greenfield) and existing (brownfield) control systems via a flexible import/export system. Developed in accordance with the IEC 62682 and ANSI/ISA- 18.2 standards as well as with the EEMUA 191 guideline, it can be used by novices and experts alike to comply with alarm management good engineering practices

SILalarm guides you step-by-step through the rationalization process. Each step prompts the user to document the necessary information and make the appropriate design decisions. This reduces the amount of training needed to use the tool and expands the number of personnel that can effectively use it. The user manual includes tips and techniques showing how to apply good engineering practices to rationalization taken from ISA-18.2 and EEMUA 191.The rationalization process can be customized by the user to fit the applicable Alarm Management Philosophy, aligning the rationalization steps to your alarm management process.

Tailorable to your Alarm Management Practices

Having an alarm philosophy document in place is a pre-requisite to a successful alarm rationalization. SILalarm can be setup to take on the rules defined in your philosophy document. This ensures consistency and traceability by enforcing these rules during the rationalization process. Typical philosophy-specific settings include: 

Alarm Prioritization (number of different alarm priorities / priority names, prioritization matrix)

Consequences of Not Responding (impact categories and descriptions for evaluating potential consequences)

Operator Response Time

Alarm Classes

Alarm Tuning (deadband / hysteresis, on / off delays) 

Prioritize to Ensure Operators Know Which Alarms to Respond to First

Alarm priority helps the operator determine which alarm they should respond to first. Prioritizing alarms following a consistent methodology based on potential consequences and/or time to respond, helps build operator confidence and trust in the alarm system. It also helps optimize their response during upset conditions so that they are always responding to the situation which is most business-critical. 

SILalarm supports several methods of prioritization:

Severity Matrix (Time to Respond vs. Consequences)

Maximum Consequences: (EEMUA 191)

Summating Consequences: Quantitative (EEMUA 191)

Sum of all severities modified by urgency 

To improve the operator’s response it is important to make sure they do not receive an excessive number of high priority alarms. SILalarm calculates the configured alarm priority distribution and provides a comparison to the benchmarks of IEC 62682, ANSI/ISA- 18.2, and EEMUA 191. It allows non-alarm notifications to be categorized (e.g., alerts, prompts, messages) if they don’t meet the criteria for being an alarm.