Abnormal Situation Management
Encyclopedia
The Abnormal Situation Management Consortium The Abnormal Situation Management - ASM® Consortium is a Research and Development Consortium founded in 1994 by Honeywell
to address customer concerns about the high cost of incidents
at their plants such as unplanned shutdowns, fires, explosions, emissions, etc. It aims to identify problems facing industrial plant operations during abnormal conditions, and to develop solution concepts. Deliverables include products and services, guideline and other documents, and information-sharing workshops; all incorporating ASM knowledge. Abnormal Situation Management, like general emergency management
, is achieved through Prevention, Early Detection, and Mitigation of abnormal situations, thereby reducing unplanned outages, process variability, fires, explosions and emissions that are reducing profits and putting plant employees and local residents at risk
.
factors account for an average 22% of incidents
. It includes process complexity, types of materials and manufacturing
- Batch
Process or Continuous Process, state of operation - Steady State or startups, shutdowns and transitions.
.
factors accounts for 42% of incidents. The influences on this factor are the training, skill and experience levels of the operations teams and their stress
levels when situations reach alarm
conditions. As well, the organisational structure, communications, environment
and documented procedures and practices or lack thereof, play a role in operator
response.
The ASM® Consortium focuses its R&D on the People Element or the Human Factors
to avoid and respond to abnormal situations.
and minimize environmental impact while allowing the processes to be pushed to their optimal limits. The ASM Consortium promotes their vision by conducting research, testing and evaluating solutions that develop and advance the collective knowledge of the members, and by directing development of tools, best practices, and services that facilitate the conversion of ASM® knowledge into practice.
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
to address customer concerns about the high cost of incidents
Incidents
Incidents is a 1987 collection of four essays by Roland Barthes. It was published posthumously by François Wahl, Roland Barthes's literary executor.-Summary:...
at their plants such as unplanned shutdowns, fires, explosions, emissions, etc. It aims to identify problems facing industrial plant operations during abnormal conditions, and to develop solution concepts. Deliverables include products and services, guideline and other documents, and information-sharing workshops; all incorporating ASM knowledge. Abnormal Situation Management, like general emergency management
Emergency management
Emergency management is the generic name of an interdisciplinary field dealing with the strategic organizational management processes used to protect critical assets of an organization from hazard risks that can cause events like disasters or catastrophes and to ensure the continuance of the...
, is achieved through Prevention, Early Detection, and Mitigation of abnormal situations, thereby reducing unplanned outages, process variability, fires, explosions and emissions that are reducing profits and putting plant employees and local residents at risk
Risk
Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity will lead to a loss . The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists . Potential losses themselves may also be called "risks"...
.
What is an Abnormal Situation?
A disturbance or series of disturbances in a process that cause plant operations to deviate from their normal operating state. The nature of the abnormal situation may be of minimal or catastrophic consequence. It is the job of the operations team to identify the cause of the situation and execute compensatory or corrective actions in a timely and efficient manner. A disturbance may cause a reduction in production; in more serious cases it may endanger human life. Abnormal situations extend, develop, and change over time in the dynamic process control environments increasing the complexity of the intervention requirements.Sources of abnormal situations
The research of ASM® Consortium has confirmed three principal sources of abnormal situation.Process
ProcessProcess (engineering)
In engineering a process is a set of interrelated tasks that, together, transform inputs into outputs. These tasks may be carried out by people, nature, or machines using resources; so an engineering process must be considered in the context of the agents carrying out the tasks, and the resource...
factors account for an average 22% of incidents
Incidents
Incidents is a 1987 collection of four essays by Roland Barthes. It was published posthumously by François Wahl, Roland Barthes's literary executor.-Summary:...
. It includes process complexity, types of materials and manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
- Batch
Batch
Batch may refer to:Food and drink*Batch , an alcoholic fruit beverage*Batch loaf, a type of bread popular in Ireland*A dialect term for a bread roll used in Nuneaton and Coventry, England*Small batch, bourbon whiskey blended from selected barrels...
Process or Continuous Process, state of operation - Steady State or startups, shutdowns and transitions.
Equipment
Equipment factors count for an average 36% of incidents. This category includes degradation and failures in the process equipment, such as pumps, compressors and furnaces, and failures in the control equipment, such as sensors, valves and controllersController (control theory)
In control theory, a controller is a device which monitors and affects the operational conditions of a given dynamical system. The operational conditions are typically referred to as output variables of the system which can be affected by adjusting certain input variables...
.
People
PeoplePeople
People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...
factors accounts for 42% of incidents. The influences on this factor are the training, skill and experience levels of the operations teams and their stress
Stress (biology)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
levels when situations reach alarm
Alarm
An alarm device or system of alarm devices gives an audible or visual alarm signal about a problem or condition.Alarm devices include:* burglar alarms, designed to warn of burglaries; this is often a silent alarm: the police or guards are warned without indication to the burglar, which increases...
conditions. As well, the organisational structure, communications, environment
Social environment
The social environment of an individual, also called social context or milieu, is the culture that s/he was educated or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts....
and documented procedures and practices or lack thereof, play a role in operator
Operator (profession)
An operator is a professional designation used in various industries, including broadcasting , computing, customer service, physics, and construction. Operators are day-to-day end users of systems, that may or may not be mission-critical, but are typically managed and maintained by technicians or...
response.
The ASM® Consortium focuses its R&D on the People Element or the Human Factors
Human factors
Human factors science or human factors technologies is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, operations research and anthropometry...
to avoid and respond to abnormal situations.
ASM® Consortium Members
Members of the consortium include a wide range of Industrial manufacturers, vendors, and universities. There are three types of membership - User Members from the refining, petrochemical and specialty chemical industries, Associate Members providing human centered design consulting; management consulting, training, and development; and control building architecture and design, University Members providing links into the academic research community.Mission of ASM® Consortium
Operating teams empowered and enabled to proactively manage their plants to maximize safetySafety
Safety is the state of being "safe" , the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be...
and minimize environmental impact while allowing the processes to be pushed to their optimal limits. The ASM Consortium promotes their vision by conducting research, testing and evaluating solutions that develop and advance the collective knowledge of the members, and by directing development of tools, best practices, and services that facilitate the conversion of ASM® knowledge into practice.