Honeywell cuts nuisance alarms and billion-dollar losses 29 November 2013

Process plants generating thousands of alarms from their automation systems, and force control room operators to differentiate between safety-critical and routine process upsets, may be a thing of the past.

Honeywell's new DynAMo alarm management suite, now launched, is designed to automatically flag up the most important alarms – reducing the overall number and helping operators to focus on those that matter.

Vimal Kapur, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Process Solutions' Advanced Solutions business, explains that at issue is the sheer number of alarms, which range from day-to-day nuisance alarms – such as the opening of an electrical switch room door – to notification of a critical equipment failure.

The industry in general – and the Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Consortium, in particular – recognises that ineffective alarm management can (and has) lead to incidents that cost the process industry billions of dollars, partly because of operator fatigue and partly due to the alarm avalanche effect.

Kapur says that DynAMo captures more than 20 years of alarm management experience in the process industries, reducing alarm numbers by up to 80%. In essence, he says, it identifies maintenance issues, and increases visibility of critical alarms that require urgent attention.

He also states that it is compatible with many mobile devices, enabling personnel to view alarm metrics at any time, from almost any location.

"When operators are forced to deal with hundreds of alarms at any given point in time, there is increased risk to safety not to mention process efficiency," comments Kapur.

"The DynAMo Alarm Suite is an effective tool for optimising alarm management programs to prevent alarm floods and 'chatter', and reduce operator stress," he continues.

"The software offers a layer of protection to minimise unplanned outages, safety incidents and environmental releases."

DynAMo can be integrated with Honeywell's Experion process knowledge system, as well as any other control system, he says.

Brian Tinham

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Honeywell Automation & Control Solutions Ltd

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