Addressing alarm flood situations in the process industries through alarm summary display design and alarm response strategy

• Operators rely on summary displays to manage alarm floods caused by plant upsets.
• We compare operator alarm flood responses using two alarm summary displays.
• We provide operators with training in effective alarm response strategies.
• Response strategy training and a new alarm display together improve performance.

Despite efforts to improve alarm systems, alarm flooding remains a significant problem in the process industries. Alarm summary displays for managing alarm floods do not fully support operator needs when responding to plant upsets. This Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (asmconsortium.org) funded study tested two alarm summary display designs in a simulated process control environment using twenty-four certified operators. The first display represented the traditional list-based alarm summary display typically used in control rooms. The second display was a new alarm tracker summary display, which showed alarms in a time series represented by icons and a short alarm description. Results of the simulated evaluation showed that when operators used a formal alarm response strategy that focused the new alarm tracker summary display by equipment area, they responded to more process events overall and had fewer false responses compared to when operators used the traditional list-based alarm summary.Relevance to industryNew alarm summary displays can combine the benefits of list-based displays with time series presentation of alarm information. Process operators can be trained on formal alarm response strategies and should be given ample time to familiarize themselves with new displays as part of an effective deployment strategy.