News & Events.
exida Presenting at 2011 Siemens Automation Summit
June 01, 2011
exida’s Todd Stauffer, Director of Alarm Management, and John Cusimano, Director of Security Services, will be presenters at the 2011 Siemens Automation Summit this June in Orlando, Florida.
The presentations include:
The 7 Things Every Automation Professional Should Know About Control System Security
John Cusimano
Not that long ago, the move towards open systems and the resulting incorporation of off-the-shelf technologies represented a huge step forward in control system design. System integration became easier, product development by manufacturers was accelerated, and training leveraged common tools and concepts. While the benefits have been tremendous, open technology has made control systems open to security vulnerabilities, putting production and human safety at risk. Nothing has made that risk more evident than the Stuxnet virus which has made headlines since it was discovered in July 2010. Countering these threats requires organizations to develop a better understanding of their process control system security risks and how to address them. In this presentation, we will discuss the seven things that every automation professional should know about industrial control system security. We will also discuss how to apply best practices from standards such as ISA 99.02.01.
Click here for more on exida’s Control System Security services
Rationalize Your Alarm Management Problems Away
Todd Stauffer
Modern control systems make it easy (maybe too easy) to add alarms without significant effort, cost, or consideration for whether they are truly needed. This has led to alarm systems that often hinder, rather than help, operators by subjecting them to nuisance alarms, alarm floods, incorrectly prioritized alarms, and an overabundance of alarms. Alarm rationalization, a proven alarm management technique and one of the stages of ISA-18.2’s alarm management lifecycle, can help address these issues and create an optimal, effective alarm system. Attendees will learn the best practices for rationalization as taken from ISA-18.2 and EEMUA 191. Topics include how to determine when an alarm is justified, how to set an appropriate alarm limit / deadband, how to determine priority and how to document cause, consequence and corrective action in a Master Alarm Database (MADB). The discussion will show how the rationalization results can be made available to the operator for training purposes or to aid their response. It will also show how a built-for-purpose tool, such as exida’s SILAlarm, can guide users through the rationalization process, reducing the time to complete and the commitment of key personnel.
Click here to learn more on exida’s Alarm Management services
Get Smart: How to Use PCS 7’s State Based Suppression to Implement Smart Alarming
Todd Stauffer
Do your operators complain about being flooded with alarms during an upset or presented with alarms that are irrelevant based on the operating state of the plant? Would you believe a PCS 7’s state-based suppression functionality can be used to address these problems ensuring that alarms are only presented to the operator when they are meaningful and requires their response (attention). Transient plant conditions, use of different feedstocks, and unplanned process upsets make this a challenge for many process control systems. The SIMATIC PCS 7 system provides a powerful and easy-to-configure capability for suppressing alarms dynamically based on the state of the process and/ or equipment. This functionality can be used, for example, to suppress alarms during startup or in response to a compressor trip (which would otherwise lead to an alarm flood). This presentation will discuss how to implement state-based alarm suppression (aka Automatic Hiding) in PCS 7 following the best practices and recommendations of the ISA-18.2 standard, EEMUA 191 and NAMUR NA 102.
Click here to learn more on exida’s Alarm Management services