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In recent months, ARC Advisory Group has been looking further into alarm notification, an increasingly important and sophisticated component of industrial automation that has only recently been recognized as a strategic component of the automation ecosystem, especially with the increasing number of assets being monitored thanks to IIoT.
In the past, alarms were restricted to control rooms and machine panels that were monitored by operators on-site. In some cases, general alarm notification, such as calls to phones and messages to handheld pagers, was used. Today, with companies leveraging an increasing base of IIoT-connected devices, it is critical to make appropriate individuals aware of alarms at any time from any location, thanks to the use of wireless and mobile devices, but in an orderly fashion that ensures that the most critical alarms are addressed first, and nuisance alarms do not distract attention from the critical alarms.
Distributed Alarm Notification Driven by IIoT-Connected Assets
Global economic forces require companies to maximize the utilization and availability of a growing number of machines and other plant floor assets, including those assets connected via IIoT. These assets are being monitored by fewer people who also often have other responsibilities. With production processes often running 24/7, it is not cost effective or efficient for operations personnel to be on-site around the clock to monitor the in-plant control panels awaiting possible alarm notifications. Instead, appropriate plant personnel must receive alarm notifications immediately and remotely, regardless of the day and time or their physical location at the time.
Monitoring a greater number of machines and IIoT-connected assets also results in an increasing quantity of alarms. This requires better analytic software tools for alarm filtering management, so only the most critical alarms receive the greatest attention and fastest response by operators who are often remote from the control room.
Alarm Notification vs. Alarm Management
While “alarm notification” and “alarm management” are often used inter-changeably, in fact, they are very different, especially with the proliferation of IIoT-connected assets.
Alarm management in industrial automation largely relates to the ANSI/ISA 18.2 alarm management standard, which covers areas such as baselines for alarms; benchmarking; visualization and labeling of alarms; alarm documentation, auditing, and enforcement. In contrast, alarm notification deals with areas, such as what alarms are most important, whom and to what communication devices should the alarm be sent, how aggressively should the alarm be sent, and how should alarms escalate if they are not acknowledged or addressed by the person notified.
While seemingly simple, the science of alarm notification in the era of IIoT is often exceedingly complex. A simple, easy to manage user experience that effectively filters the most important alarm information from the noise requires a lot of complexity “under the hood,” much of it invisible to the user.
IIoT is increasing the number of alarm notifications received by operators. Only a subset of total alarms, often about 10 percent, are critical enough to warrant notification. That is why alarm analytics software must help filter these increasing number of alarms. For example, instead of getting 100 notifications of 100 related alarms, which would cause devices to be constantly signaling alerts, it is better to receive one notification containing the 100 related alarms.
Alarm Notification with IIoT
Alarm notification typically involved connections with various data sources, often via open standards such as OPC DA, AE, and UA; BACnet, and SNMP. Automation companies also provided specific device drivers to enable direct, native data connections with HMI/SCADA, PLC, PAC and DCS applications. This enabled alarm acknowledgements from any device to be automatically recorded and visible in the core controllers or systems.
Today, thanks to IIoT, there is an enormous proliferation of communication from devices that are not connected to the automation systems, but directly to the cloud. Users have a variety of preferences on what devices and communication methods are connected and used. That means that the alarm analytics software that provide the functionality that controls how alarm notifications are routed, escalated, and filtered must be adapted for IIoT and devices that are cloud connected and not part of the control systems, but still require operator attention.
Alarm Notification Software Must Support IIoT and a Wide Variety of Devices
Today, alarm notification software must support IIoT and a wide range of communication devices and methods. These include smartphone push notifications and alarm displays for major smartphone and tablet devices in HTML5 format; including Android, iOS, Windows phones/tablets, and the range of operating system versions that go back at least two iterations.
Conclusion
ARC predicts that, in the not-too-distant future, alarm notification will become a ubiquitous component of the automation system, with increasing importance and sophistication. This is especially critical now as the IIoT continues to gain traction, providing connectivity to an ever-increasing number and assortment of plant assets, some of which are connected to the cloud and not connected to the control systems, and creating the need for additional alarm notifications of issues, problems and conditions to remotely located operators via their smart phones and tablets.
In the past, alarms were restricted to control rooms and machine panels that were monitored by operators on-site. In some cases, general alarm notification, such as calls to phones and messages to handheld pagers, was used. Today, with companies leveraging an increasing base of IIoT-connected devices, it is critical to make appropriate individuals aware of alarms at any time from any location, thanks to the use of wireless and mobile devices, but in an orderly fashion that ensures that the most critical alarms are addressed first, and nuisance alarms do not distract attention from the critical alarms.
Distributed Alarm Notification Driven by IIoT-Connected Assets
Global economic forces require companies to maximize the utilization and availability of a growing number of machines and other plant floor assets, including those assets connected via IIoT. These assets are being monitored by fewer people who also often have other responsibilities. With production processes often running 24/7, it is not cost effective or efficient for operations personnel to be on-site around the clock to monitor the in-plant control panels awaiting possible alarm notifications. Instead, appropriate plant personnel must receive alarm notifications immediately and remotely, regardless of the day and time or their physical location at the time.
Monitoring a greater number of machines and IIoT-connected assets also results in an increasing quantity of alarms. This requires better analytic software tools for alarm filtering management, so only the most critical alarms receive the greatest attention and fastest response by operators who are often remote from the control room.
Alarm Notification vs. Alarm Management
While “alarm notification” and “alarm management” are often used inter-changeably, in fact, they are very different, especially with the proliferation of IIoT-connected assets.
Alarm management in industrial automation largely relates to the ANSI/ISA 18.2 alarm management standard, which covers areas such as baselines for alarms; benchmarking; visualization and labeling of alarms; alarm documentation, auditing, and enforcement. In contrast, alarm notification deals with areas, such as what alarms are most important, whom and to what communication devices should the alarm be sent, how aggressively should the alarm be sent, and how should alarms escalate if they are not acknowledged or addressed by the person notified.
While seemingly simple, the science of alarm notification in the era of IIoT is often exceedingly complex. A simple, easy to manage user experience that effectively filters the most important alarm information from the noise requires a lot of complexity “under the hood,” much of it invisible to the user.
IIoT is increasing the number of alarm notifications received by operators. Only a subset of total alarms, often about 10 percent, are critical enough to warrant notification. That is why alarm analytics software must help filter these increasing number of alarms. For example, instead of getting 100 notifications of 100 related alarms, which would cause devices to be constantly signaling alerts, it is better to receive one notification containing the 100 related alarms.
Alarm Notification with IIoT
Alarm notification typically involved connections with various data sources, often via open standards such as OPC DA, AE, and UA; BACnet, and SNMP. Automation companies also provided specific device drivers to enable direct, native data connections with HMI/SCADA, PLC, PAC and DCS applications. This enabled alarm acknowledgements from any device to be automatically recorded and visible in the core controllers or systems.
Today, thanks to IIoT, there is an enormous proliferation of communication from devices that are not connected to the automation systems, but directly to the cloud. Users have a variety of preferences on what devices and communication methods are connected and used. That means that the alarm analytics software that provide the functionality that controls how alarm notifications are routed, escalated, and filtered must be adapted for IIoT and devices that are cloud connected and not part of the control systems, but still require operator attention.
Alarm Notification Software Must Support IIoT and a Wide Variety of Devices
Today, alarm notification software must support IIoT and a wide range of communication devices and methods. These include smartphone push notifications and alarm displays for major smartphone and tablet devices in HTML5 format; including Android, iOS, Windows phones/tablets, and the range of operating system versions that go back at least two iterations.
Conclusion
ARC predicts that, in the not-too-distant future, alarm notification will become a ubiquitous component of the automation system, with increasing importance and sophistication. This is especially critical now as the IIoT continues to gain traction, providing connectivity to an ever-increasing number and assortment of plant assets, some of which are connected to the cloud and not connected to the control systems, and creating the need for additional alarm notifications of issues, problems and conditions to remotely located operators via their smart phones and tablets.