“Safety Alarms” (aka Safety Related Alarms) are commonly used as safeguards or independent protection layers to prevent the escalation of hazardous scenarios. Despite this simple purpose, there is a wide range in the interpretation of what a safety alarm is, its requirements and how it should be managed. Some schools of thought advocate that safety alarms have a risk reduction > 10 and must be implemented in a safety instrumented system (SIS) that is compliant with IEC 61511. Others would say that all alarms implemented in an SIS are safety alarms. Still others would say that safety alarms can be implemented in a BPCS, and they may be assigned a risk reduction factor ≤ 10.
This webinar will highlight the current “body of knowledge” contained in ISA-18.2, EEMUA 191, UK HSE’s OG47, IEC 61511, and ISA-84. It will also discuss where industry is heading in terms of new guidance, interpretations, and requirements. Organizations such as the UK HSE, NAMUR, and ISA are updating existing guidelines or developing new ones. ISA is developing a new standard on Safety Controls, Alarms and Interlocks (ISA-84-91.03).
This webinar will discuss how to identify what is a safety alarm (and what this means to the end user). It will also discuss how risk reduction, safety integrity level, identification as a safeguard or independent protection layer, and use as a mitigation or prevention barrier, impacts requirements.
Todd Stauffer, PE, is responsible for exida’s alarm management products and services (training, consulting, SILAlarm™ rationalization software). He has been an editor and voting member of the ISA-18.2 standards committee on alarm management since 2005. He was an active participant in the development / publication of the ISA-18.2 standard itself and as an editor / reviewer for ISA’s series of technical reports on alarm management (including ISA-18.2 TR1 “Alarm Philosophy” and TR3 “Basic Alarm Design” for which he served as co-chair). He is currently the co-chair of the joint working group developing ISA-84.91.03 “Functional Safety of Safety Controls, Alarms, and Interlocks for the Process Sector”. Todd is an instructor for ISA’s official training class on alarm management and is exida’s representative on the EEMUA 191 committee.
He has executed numerous alarm philosophy workshops, gap assessments, and alarm management training classes for different control system platforms. Todd developed exida’s alarm philosophy best practices template. He is also the product manager for the SILAlarm rationalization software tool. Todd is an industry thought leader in alarm management. He has published numerous articles and presented many papers at supplier user group and industry conferences. His presentations have garnered three “Best in Conference” nominations and his article “Don’t be Alarmed: Avoid Unplanned downtime from alarm overload“ was selected as Intech magazine’s best article of the year in 2007.