COP conducting industry survey on highly managed alarms

The Center for Operator Performance (COP) is conducting a survey of how process plants are implementing the requirements for highly managed alarms specified in ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016 and IEC 62682. The Dayton-Ohio-based COP, a collaboration of operating companies and distributed control system suppliers that conduct research focused on ways to improve operator performance, will use the results of this survey to identify any issues related to implementation of HMA and to guide the organization’s future research.

Highly managed alarms (HMA) is a special group of alarms that require more administration and documentation than regular process alarms, which is also referred to as safety alarms. ANSI/ISA 18.2 specifies HMA as classes of alarms that are critical to process safety, personnel protection and environmental protection. The standard does not prescribe the applications of HMA or how it should be implemented.

COP is inviting anyone from a process company to participate in the survey. All participants will receive the results of the survey.

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COP operating companies include Chevron, Koch Industri, Citgo and Nova Chemicals. The DCS suppliers are Emerson and Yokogawa.