October 7, 2009 - The Simatic PCS 7 process control system from Siemens Industry includes a comprehensive set of tools to implement the recommendations and requirements of the newly adopted ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009 Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries standard. The standard gives engineering, operations and maintenance professionals a framework to follow when designing, implementing, operating and managing alarm systems in a process plant. The standard follows a lifecycle management approach similar to the functional safety standard IEC 61511/ ISA-84. Siemens, one of 25 voting members on the ISA18 standards committee, played an integral role in the development of the standard.
Standard alarm management capabilities of PCS 7 include:
- Document Rationalization Results and Display in the HMI: Includes the ability to attach alarm rationalization details to each alarm point; these details are available online in the HMI as part of an alarm response procedure to assist the operator when an abnormal situation occurs.
- Bulk Engineering: Enables viewing and editing of alarm parameters from multiple alarms simultaneously.
- State-based Alarming: Allows alarm attributes to be changed based on the operating state of the plant or a piece of equipment.
- Alarm Shelving: Enables users, with proper credentials, to temporarily hide less critical alarms during the handling of a plant upset.
- Alarm Statistics: Useful statistics such as frequency and average time in alarm are automatically calculated for analysis that can help uncover nuisance alarms and other problem areas that need to be addressed.
This ensures that operators are only presented with significant alarms, which leads to improved operator performance.
The result is a manageable number of alarms for the operator to address during the upset.
Additionally, PCS 7 alarm management capabilities may be applied to new systems, existing systems and to third party systems that migrate to PCS 7.
“The standard is designed to improve process plant safety and to help achieve operational excellence,” says Don Mack, Siemens process automation senior marketing specialist.
“When following the standard, the result will be a significant reduction of the common alarm issues experienced by many facilities.
PCS 7 provides a comprehensive set of out-of-the-box tools that help users handle these and other abnormal alarming situations.”
About Siemens:
Siemens Industry, Inc.
(SII) is the U.S. affiliate of Siemens’ global Industry Sector business—the world’s leading supplier of production, transportation and building technology solutions.
The company’s integrated hardware and software technologies enable comprehensive industry-specific solutions for industrial and infrastructure providers to increase their productivity, sustainability and profitability.
The Industry Sector includes six divisions: Building Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility, Drive Technologies and OSRAM SYLVANIA.
With nearly 222,000 Siemens Industry Sector employees worldwide, the Industry Sector posted a worldwide profit of $5.82 billion on revenues of $57 billion in fiscal 2008.
