Every alarm needs an action

If an operator cannot do anything about it, it is not an alarm. It may be an event, a log entry or a maintenance message.

Review each alarm with four questions

1. What causes it?

2. What should the operator do?

3. How quickly must they respond?

4. What happens if they do not?

Alarms without clear answers are candidates for removal or reclassification.

Use priority sparingly

Three priority levels are usually enough. If most alarms are high priority, priority means nothing.

Measure before and after

Count alarms per operator per hour and identify the ten most frequent. These often account for most of the alarm load and are the best place to start.