Nicholas Olsson - Australian Vinyls Corporation - CASE STUDY | Eliminating unnecessary alarms and messaging in a new operating system

Australian Vinyls

Alarm Management and Rationalisation

AV – External Alarm Management and Rationalisation


AV – Alarm Management and Rationalisation

•  Australian Vinyls – what we are •  2008 Planned Replacement of Plant Control

system •  Increase in alarms generated •  Alarm and message reduction program

AV Bio Control System Replacement Alarms Solutions

Australian Vinyls

•  Manufacture PVC and Wood Plastic Composites

•  PVC about 130kt per annum •  Major Hazard Facility



Australian Vinyls

•  PVC Process Overview AV Bio Control System Replacement Alarms Solutions


Australian Vinyls

•  Control System Replacement 2008 – New ABB system

•  Alarm count dramatically increased – Device alarms (CCF) > 900 / shift – Sequence alarms (TCL) > 2700 / shift – >5 per minute – Floods in the multiple 000’s



Australian Vinyls AV Bio Control System Replacement Alarms Solutions






Australian Vinyls

•  Consequences of excessive alarms – Operators miss events / ignore key alarms –  Incidents / unintentional equipment damage etc. – Short term mitigation

•  Extra Control room operators •  Engineering resources diverted to alarm management



Australian Vinyls

•  Why did alarms levels increase – Older systems alarms expensive – New software alarms

•  Easy to implement •  Each device could have multiple alarms •  People err on the side of caution •  New additions tend to add in every bell and whistle

– New control system no specific effort put into this aspect before switch-over



Australian Vinyls

n Key steps – Establish a process Appoint a Champion

Data Collection - Daily analysis of A & M history Recording and reporting results / Daily / Monthly / Yearly Identify ‘nuisance’ alarms and messages – Daily / Monthly Recommend opportunities to eliminate Implement changes Measure progress – set Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s_)



Australian Vinyls

n Key steps – Analyse and Act Identify the main opportunities Repetitive TCL message frequencies (1 msg / 2 sec) Convert non essential TCL messages to INFO (non alarm) Widen deadband for analog signal “chatter” Fix device faults in fault Alarm masking (alarm when relevant)-consequential alarms Dynamic changing/enable/disable of alarm settings

•  Focus on stripping column operation as >50% CCF alarms



Australian Vinyls

n Key steps – Set Targets n  Initially CCF 150 / 12 hr shift

Initially TCL 250 / 12 hr shift n Key Steps – Set Priorities

n Also introduced a system to ensure any changes made to the alarm system were consistent and would not cause other issues – Formal management of change


Priority Occurrence Emergency (Panel/ESD) Very infrequently High < 5/shift Medium < 2/hour Low < 10/hour








Australian Vinyls – Weekend / Daily Report


Australian Vinyls

•  Summary –  Learn from what others are doing –  Establish a process to manage alarms –  Use existing resources, EEMUA 191, ISA 18.2 etc. –  Measure, analyse and act



Nicholas Olsson - Australian Vinyls Corporation - CASE STUDY | Eliminating unnecessary alarms and messaging in a new operating system

Business

nuisance alarms

new control system

fault alarm masking

multiple alarms people

new abb system alarm

australian vinyls nkey

increased device alarms

shift sequence alarms