Dynamic prediction of risk levels for manufacturing operations through leading risk indicators: alarm-based intelligence and insights
First Claim
1. A method for managing operational risks at an operations site comprising:
- collecting measured process data for an alarm-monitored process variable monitored by an alarm in an operation occurring within the operations site or for measured alarm data associated with the alarm-monitored process variable;
determining ranges for the alarm-monitored process variable or frequency values for the measured alarm data during a measurement period of the operation;
identifying a change or escalation in a probability of an occurrence of at least one adverse incident recorded in the measured process data during the measurement period by;
comparing the ranges of the alarm-monitored process variable or the frequency values for the measured alarm data against normal operating conditions, whereby the normal operating conditions are derived from long term measured process data comprising at least one of an alarm duration, an alarm frequency, a number of significant alarms, or an alarm flood; and
determining criticality level of the at least one adverse incident by assessing deviation between the measured process data relative to the normal operation conditions;
identifying at least one hidden process near miss based on the criticality level of the at least one adverse incident; and
initiating corrective action to reduce or avert the at least one adverse incident or a catastrophic failure of the operation.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Provided are methodologies to properly assess and manage operational risks at operations sites, e.g., a manufacturing, production or processing facility, such as a refinery, chemical plant, fluid-catalytic-cracking units, or nuclear energy plant, or a biological or waste management facility, airport or even financial institutions, or at any facility in which operations are often accompanied by risk associated with many high-probability, low-consequence events, often resulting in near-misses. In some operations, processes are monitored by alarms, but the invention operates on either process data or alarm data. The methods are based upon measurement of one or more variables, and/or utilization and management of the concept of “hidden process near-miss(es)” to identify a change or escalation, if any, in probability of occurrence of an adverse incident. The methodologies combine a plurality of subsets (also useful independently) of dynamically calculated leading risk indicators for dynamic risk management.
14 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for managing operational risks at an operations site comprising:
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collecting measured process data for an alarm-monitored process variable monitored by an alarm in an operation occurring within the operations site or for measured alarm data associated with the alarm-monitored process variable; determining ranges for the alarm-monitored process variable or frequency values for the measured alarm data during a measurement period of the operation; identifying a change or escalation in a probability of an occurrence of at least one adverse incident recorded in the measured process data during the measurement period by; comparing the ranges of the alarm-monitored process variable or the frequency values for the measured alarm data against normal operating conditions, whereby the normal operating conditions are derived from long term measured process data comprising at least one of an alarm duration, an alarm frequency, a number of significant alarms, or an alarm flood; and determining criticality level of the at least one adverse incident by assessing deviation between the measured process data relative to the normal operation conditions; identifying at least one hidden process near miss based on the criticality level of the at least one adverse incident; and initiating corrective action to reduce or avert the at least one adverse incident or a catastrophic failure of the operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for identifying risk and impact of a hidden process near-miss as a measure of a deviation of a process condition from normal conditions of an operations site, the method comprising:
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collecting measured alarm data associated with at least one alarm-monitored process variable of the process conditions of the operations site during a measurement period; determining alarm frequency values or value ranges for the at least one alarm monitored process variable for the measurement period; collecting long-term alarm data for a time period preceding the measured alarm data; determining normal alarm frequency values or value ranges for the at least one alarm monitored process variable, or combination thereof, based on the long term data; comparing the alarm frequency data of the at least one alarm-monitored process variable for the measurement period with the collected long-term alarm frequency data to determine deviation between the collected alarm frequency data relative to normal frequency values, and initiating corrective action to reduce or avert the at least one adverse incident or a catastrophic failure of the operation based on results of comparing the alarm frequency data to the collected long-term alarm frequency data.
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20. A system for identifying risk and impact of a hidden process near-miss as a measure of deviation of process condition of an operations site from normal conditions, the system comprising:
an alarm fitness analyzer, wherein the alarm fitness analyzer is configured to analyze process data and alarm data of the operations site in order to identify at least one hidden process near miss based on the criticality level of at least one adverse incident, whereby the alarm fitness analyzer; collects measured process data for an alarm-monitored process variable monitored by an alarm in the operation or a measured alarm data associated with at least one alarm-monitored process variable; determines ranges for the alarm-monitored process variable or frequency values for the measured alarm data during a measurement period of the operation; identifies a change or escalation in a probability of an occurrence of at least one adverse incident recorded in the measured process data during the measurement period by; comparing the ranges of the alarm-monitored process variable or the frequency values for the measured alarm data against normal operating conditions, whereby the normal operating conditions are derived from long term measured process data comprising at least one of alarm duration, alarm frequency, number of significant alarms, or intensity of alarm flood; and determining criticality level of the at least one adverse incident by assessing deviation between the measured process data relative to normal operation conditions; and initiates corrective action needed to reduce or avert the at least one adverse incident or a catastrophic failure of the operation.
Specification