(98a) Alarm Management Gap Analysis and Improvement at NOVA Chemicals

Alarm Management Gap Analysis and
Improvement at NOVA Chemicals

Doug
Lutz, Principal Process Automation
Engineer, NOVA Chemicals Corp., Joffre, Alberta, Canada

For the past
10-15 years, many companies have embarked on initiatives to improve Alarm Management
in their facilities.  The ISA 18.2 Alarm Management standard (2009), as
well as the earlier EEMUA 191 publication (1999), offer plenty of guidance in
terms of what good Alarm System Performance looks like.  Both ISA and
EEMUA continue to enhance their publications.  Some of NOVA Chemicals'
newer facilities were considered leaders in Alarm Management System performance
in the early 2000's, achieving lower than EEMUA benchmark alarm rates, and had
programs in place to ensure sustainment that performance.  As with any
information we hear from suppliers and manufacturing organizations, can we
surmise that performance advertised in a few facilities implies identical
performance in all facilities?  Furthermore, is the message that is heard
and understood by senior leadership consistently cast across all the facilities
to ensure consistent performance?

In 2011,
NOVA Chemicals used the available industry benchmarks, as well as NOVA
Chemicals internal standards and procedures, to audit our facilities to look
for potential gaps that should be acted on.  To perform the audit, 50
categorical areas were pulled out of the various guiding documents so that a
gap analysis could be performed across the NOVA Chemicals' facilities. 
From that audit, we set up a program, and prioritized areas for action based on
the priority of each item.

The topic of
this presentation and paper is some of the background that set this journey up
for success (seeds that were planted 10-15 years prior to the audit), the
program that NOVA Chemicals set up and acted on, and what improvements we were
able to realize from this approach.  If you have multiple facilities that
you want to set up a program to improve Alarm Management (more than just Alarm
Rationalization, or reducing alarm rates), I think this story will be of
interest to you.