Are Your Operators Ignoring Critical Alarms?

A refinery just called me after their alarm system cried wolf 10,000 times last week.

Their operators now ignore everything.

Including the critical alarms that could prevent explosions.

This isn't just bad design. It's a ticking time bomb.

When every pump vibration triggers an alarm...
When every temperature fluctuation screams "emergency"...
When 10,000 alarms flood your screen weekly...

Operators stop looking. They have to. It's human nature.

The refinery's control room supervisor told me:
"We acknowledge alarms without even reading them now. Just clear the screen so we can see the actual process data."

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝗶𝘁:

1. 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Cut from 10,000 to under 300 per week. Only real problems trigger alerts.

2. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿
- Critical: Equipment damage or safety risk (< 5 per day)
- High: Production impact (< 20 per day)
- Low: Everything else goes to a log, not the screen

3. 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 - If a unit is down for maintenance, suppress its 500 nuisance alarms. Basic logic, rarely implemented.

4. 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 - They're bringing operators into alarm design meetings. The people who actually respond to alarms finally get a say in what triggers them.

One operator summed it up perfectly:
"I need to know when something's actually wrong. Not when a sensor hiccups."

Bad alarm management has caused major incidents. Texas City. Buncefield. Operators missed critical warnings buried in the noise.

Your alarm system should be like a smoke detector - silent until there's real danger.

Not a car alarm that everyone ignores.

Fix your alarms before they fail you when it matters most.

See the original LinkedInhere

Ricky Sun
AVEVA PI System Specialist
Sunlead Technologies Inc.

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