|
For industry leaders pursuing long-term operational excellence, Yokogawa proposes alarm management solutions based on the Six-Sigma philosophy.
|
The Six-Sigma philosophy is grounded in the customer-oriented path to operational excellence, setting the highest priority on minimizing deviations in quality. Industry leaders have learned that the damages incurred by neglecting quality far outweigh the profits generated by improving function or maximizing throughput. This wisdom of continual improvement applies to alarm management as well.
|
|
When alarm flooding is symptomatic of sub-optimal plant operations, the first priority for you is to reduce alarms by eliminating excessive deviation. If allowed to continue, alarm flooding can cause operator oversight and incorrect operation, leading to dire consequences such as a plant shutdown, damage to plant assets, injury, environmental disaster, and huge economic loss.
In one recent instance, a refinery neglected alarm flooding for five hours, causing the operators to miss a critical alarm that led to an explosion and a fire. The resulting damage to the plant and loss of production capacity ended up costing this company £48 million.
|
|
Examples of alarm flooding-induced damage/loss
|
Lost materials, lost catalysts, emergency utility, overtime, inventory management, transportation costs, product replacement, contractual penalties, plant asset repair costs, liability charges, disaster control costs, medical costs, remedial advertising costs, lost sales opportunities, declining stock price, tarnished company reputation, loss of credibility
|
Yokogawa provides benchmark data that facilitate your risk simulation, helping you calculate the economic loss your plant would incur if alarm flooding is allowed to continue uninterrupted. Our benchmark data are based on case studies of past incidents and can be further tuned in combination with specific information about your plant.
|
Effective alarm management is like an insurance policy -- it safeguards the reputation and credibility of your company. We generate and deliver concrete proposals of specific interest to plant management, securing executive sponsorship and top-management buy-in for your alarm management initiative. Through our long experience, we know that effective alarm management requires a top-down initiative, a dedicated budget, sufficient engineering manpower, and the involvement of experienced operators.
|
|
3. The realization of a safe and stable plant
|
|
In an optimal plant all the elements that comprise the production system (e.g. plant units, instrumentation, control system, operators and operating procedure) are selected right, installed properly, and used correctly. The result of this is production which is safe and stable, whether the plant is in a routine or non-routine mode of operations. In such a plant, there are very few alarms unless there is a truly abnormal situation such as an unexpected accident.
Conversely, if your operators are plagued by recurrent alarm flooding under normal operations, it means there is room for improvement somewhere in your production process. The alarm management Yokogawa proposes is a fundamental improvement initiative that addresses the root causes of alarm flooding. We deliver very practical software solutions and professional consulting services to help realize the optimal plant where there are very few alarms, not because alarms are suppressed but because the plant is safe and stable. Needless to say, a safe and stable plant is also a very efficient and productive plant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| · |
Continuous Improvement with Six-Sigma Alarm Rationalization |
|
|
|
|
where people are watchful and attentive |
|
|
|
|
|
