【Haichuan’s Best Practices】Regular inspections ensure precise alarm management, enabling these safety \"sentinels\" to function in a reliable and effective manner

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Scientific alarm systems address pain points: Inside the control center of the Daqing Petrochemical Complex, the alarm lights on the control panels flash red. “These ‘veteran actors’ used to appear from time to time, and everyone has almost become ‘immune’ to them; there’s a fear that their appearances will drown out real emergencies! ”said Chen Fei, the head of the Production and Operations Department. By “old actors,” he meant those alarm lights that used to give frequent false alarms and thus had reduced effectiveness. Today, that concern is a thing of the past. For the second round of weekly inspections at Daqing Petrochemical, precise management of alarms was identified as a key focus area; resources were concentrated on thoroughly analyzing the reasons behind alarms going unnoticed or sounding erratically, with systematic efforts being made to address these issues. The goal is to ensure that these alarm systems, which serve as safety sentinels, function in a reliable and accurate manner. At the same time, Daqing Petrochemical, in conjunction with QHSE system audits, has brought in third-party agencies for supervision. By using typical problems as benchmarks, it has established more scientific alarm thresholds to encourage various operational departments to conduct self-inspections and self-corrections, as well as to carry out thorough rectifications. “Frequent alarms reduce vigilance and increase risks. Invalid alarms must be completely eliminated to ensure that alarms truly serve as a warning mechanism! ”Duan Zhaolei, a second-level process engineer in the First Chemical Engineering Department, said. This department strictly compares process cards, operational parameters, and alarm values to continuously improve the accuracy of alarms. The operating characteristics of equipment are influenced by various factors such as the manufacturing process and the environment. The issue of current alarms in the extrusion and dehydration machines in Area 2 for rubber products was quite severe, with over 30 alarms per day. By stabilizing the reaction process and optimizing parameters, the task force reduced the frequency of alarms to less than 5 times per day; the device operated at full capacity, with the average output per shift exceeding 30 tons. Scientific and reasonable alarm systems lay a solid foundation for the stable operation of the device. Driven by the rigorous weekly inspections, the Fertilizer Department addressed the issue of frequent false alarms by creating electronic records of odor sources, using the process of elimination to identify the source of leaks and thereby quickly eliminating false alarms. The number of daily alarms in the ammonia synthesis plant area was abnormally high; the Fertilizer Department promptly eliminated the interference, accurately identified and resolved the faults with the sensors, thereby bringing the number of false alarms back to zero. Over a period of 2 weeks, Daqing Petrochemical inspected a total of over 15,000 alarms, thereby promoting further optimization of alarm management. Aiming at the goals set for the regular weekly inspections, the alarm system was systematically optimized; this process also enhanced employees’ ability to conduct thorough analyses and their capacity to see tasks through to completion. It provided valuable \"methodological\" insights that can be used for the careful management of other potential risks.