Alarm Rationalisation Campaign
We run a focused engineering campaign that extracts, rationalises and reissues an EEMUA 191 compliant alarm master list
Alarm Rationalisation
Campaign
An alarm rationalisation campaign is the structured engineering project our team runs to take a legacy distributed control system, which typically carries three to five times more alarms than the EEMUA 191 targets allow, and produce a defensible alarm master list aligned to your alarm philosophy and meeting the ISA 18.2 rationalisation criteria. The work is bounded and intensive, with weeks of multidisciplinary workshops, historian driven analysis of the worst offending alarms, suppression logic design and a final implementation specification for the control system. It is distinct from the ongoing governance of an alarm management programme, which is a separate sustaining lifecycle service, because this campaign is the front loaded engineering deliverable that establishes your baseline. The execution failures we see are predictable, namely skipping the alarm philosophy step, rationalising tags without operator engagement, missing the suppression design for startup and shutdown modes, and finishing without a baseline KPI dashboard to prove EEMUA 191 compliance at handover, and we design the campaign to avoid every one of them.
Alarm Rationalisation Campaign workflow
Author or update alarm philosophy per ISA 18.2, define rationalisation criteria, priority bands (critical / high / medium / low), acceptable response times, and alarm presentation.
Extract DCS alarm database, de duplicate, map to P&ID tags, and filter safety critical alarms, build preliminary alarm master list (AML) with tag, setpoint, and current priority.
Review each alarm against philosophy in multi discipline workshop, assign priority, consequence, safe state response, response time, and suppression requirement per tag.
Extract historian data to identify standing, chattering, and frequently activated alarms, rationalise bad actors per ISA 18.2 criteria, delete or redesign transient alarms.
Design state based and conditional suppression logic to eliminate alarm flood under abnormal conditions, author operator response procedures (ORPs) for all critical alarms.
Benchmark current alarm rates against EEMUA 191 targets (<1 alarm/10 min average), support DCS implementation, monitor post rationalisation performance metrics.
Every deliverable from basis to handover
Complete Alarm Rationalisation Campaign scope covering every calculation, drawing, specification, and construction support activity.
Outcomes of Alarm Rationalisation Campaign
- We make sure your operators respond to genuine abnormal situations rather than nuisance alarms
- We prioritise critical alarms so they are acted on within the response time
- We eliminate alarm flood conditions so your operators are protected in an emergency
- We document the alarm basis as evidence for your OSHA PSM inspections
- We deliver EEMUA 191 and ISA 18.2 alarm management lifecycle compliance
- We produce the OSHA PSM process safety information documentation
- We demonstrate the adequacy of your control room alarm system for COMAH and Seveso
- We implement the regulatory recommendations that followed an incident
- We reduce the alarm rate to the EEMUA 191 target of fewer than one alarm every ten minutes on average
- We reduce control room workload and operator stress
- We eliminate standing alarms so system visibility improves
- We prioritise alarms so the time to respond to an abnormal situation falls
- We reduce the unplanned shutdowns caused by missed or delayed alarm response
- We prevent the process excursions that alarm overload drives
- We lower your maintenance burden by keeping only the rationalised alarms in the control system
- We help you avoid the cost of post incident investigations attributable to alarm management
Codes & standards we work to
Triggers that signal the need
Where Alarm Rationalisation Campaign applies
Wellheads, separators, gas compression, FPSO topsides, produced water systems.
Distillation columns, reactors, heat exchangers, storage spheres, LPG handling.
Cryogenic exchangers, liquefaction trains, BOG compressors, storage and sendout.
Reactive systems, batch reactors, solvent handling, runaway reaction scenarios.
Boilers, HRSGs, steam headers, hydrogen systems, ammonia SCR units.
Sterile vessels, CIP/SIP, pressure fermenters, solvent recovery, spray dryers.
Tangible deliverables
- Alarm philosophy document covering rationalisation criteria, priorities and response times
- Baselined alarm master list with the rationale for each tag
- Rationalisation workshop minutes and per tag worksheets
- Report on the removal of worst offending, chattering and standing alarms
- Suppression logic specification covering state based and conditional cases
- Operator response procedures for critical alarms
- Control system implementation specification for handover
- Baseline KPI report demonstrating EEMUA 191 compliance
Ready to start your project?
Speak with our team to scope an engagement tailored to your facility, regulatory context, and lifecycle stage.