Why is Safety so Hard?
"I don't like your DeltaV system because it has too many alarms in it."
A plant manager at a chemicals facility told me that once. I was standing next to his automation head at the time - the guy who had designed the alarm system. Well, I didn't mention that our system has no alarms by default and that his engineer put all of those in there, but I did suggest that the problem could be corrected easily. The automation manager agreed.
Adding too many alarms can actually lead to unsafe operations. This problem is pointed out in the Control magazine article, "Why is safety so hard? (1.06MB PDF)" The article contends that poor engineering implementation at processing facilities is a problem but is fixable. Interestingly the article points out that simple industry adherence to standards may not be enough, since the standards development tends to lag changing technology and alarm management standards are currently inadequate. A quick scan of this piece may help avoid a plant mishap - probably a good investment of your time.
