TConnolly
Lifetime Supporting Member
[rant on]
As RSView users are aware there is a limited space for alarm messages and if you use the alarm banner the message display may be truncated. We try and pack as much info in as succinctly as possible.
Here is a situation that happened recently: A "Kidney Loop Filter Clogged" alarm occurred on an offline hydraulic filtration and cooling loop indicating that it is time to change the filter. Rufus the operator acknowledges it and then does nothing to notify anyone about it so that the filter element can be changed. He gets dozens of these alarms during a shift and takes no other action except to acknowledge it. The alarm doesn't keep the machine from running so he won't be bothered with it. Same thing happens on 2nd and 3rd shifts - operators fail to notify Bubba in maintenance. Now Bubba is pretty smart (Rufus not so much)and when it happens to go into alarm when he is around he notices it. When Bubba looks at the alarm log he discovers that operators have been ignoring it for a week. Bubba brings up the topic of operators ignoring alarms in the daily production meeting. Rufus is there. He retorted "Yabbut, we get that alarm all the time. It starts up every few months, then it just goes away after a few days." It doesn't really just go away. Otis works weekends. He is ambitious enough to work an extra job on weekends and he is conscientious about his work - that says something about him. Otis notifies Cletus on weekend maintenance and he changes the filter. Rufus is oblivious to the incrimination his yabbuting just piled on himself. Rufus and co. clearly aren't getting it that the filter element needs to be changed. He sees the alarm as a nuissance that mysteriously comes and goes. One of three managers gets it, the other two side with Rufus. So an order to "fix the nuissance alarm" lands in the engineering IN box and four engineers, Bubba & Cletus's foreman, and one manager have to explain it to the other two managers in a meeting that consumes half the work day and provide documenting evidence from the alarm log and maintenance work orders to show why it really isn't a mysterious alarm that mysteriously goes away.
Ultimately the two managers remain on Rufus's side and rather than address the training, we get tasked with making the alarm message more clear. Which brings us back to the short alarm message banner in RSView and the last time I created a pop up window that was overly pedantic and got told to remove it.
I could make a pop up that said "The kidney loop oil filter is clogged. Submit a Maintenance Work Request to maintenance indicating that the kidney loop filter needs to be changed. Click OK to continue" As this isn't the only alarm where we expect the operators to apply some intelligence and be proactive, and not the only case where Rufus would ignore the alarm, that would be a couple of dozen pop up windows, all along the lines of the one I was told to remove a while back because it was "pedantic and condescending to give detailed instruction on what the operators already know." Ironically, I created that one specifically because one particular alarm was being ignored. Except now it is different, only the same.
[rant off]
As RSView users are aware there is a limited space for alarm messages and if you use the alarm banner the message display may be truncated. We try and pack as much info in as succinctly as possible.
Here is a situation that happened recently: A "Kidney Loop Filter Clogged" alarm occurred on an offline hydraulic filtration and cooling loop indicating that it is time to change the filter. Rufus the operator acknowledges it and then does nothing to notify anyone about it so that the filter element can be changed. He gets dozens of these alarms during a shift and takes no other action except to acknowledge it. The alarm doesn't keep the machine from running so he won't be bothered with it. Same thing happens on 2nd and 3rd shifts - operators fail to notify Bubba in maintenance. Now Bubba is pretty smart (Rufus not so much)and when it happens to go into alarm when he is around he notices it. When Bubba looks at the alarm log he discovers that operators have been ignoring it for a week. Bubba brings up the topic of operators ignoring alarms in the daily production meeting. Rufus is there. He retorted "Yabbut, we get that alarm all the time. It starts up every few months, then it just goes away after a few days." It doesn't really just go away. Otis works weekends. He is ambitious enough to work an extra job on weekends and he is conscientious about his work - that says something about him. Otis notifies Cletus on weekend maintenance and he changes the filter. Rufus is oblivious to the incrimination his yabbuting just piled on himself. Rufus and co. clearly aren't getting it that the filter element needs to be changed. He sees the alarm as a nuissance that mysteriously comes and goes. One of three managers gets it, the other two side with Rufus. So an order to "fix the nuissance alarm" lands in the engineering IN box and four engineers, Bubba & Cletus's foreman, and one manager have to explain it to the other two managers in a meeting that consumes half the work day and provide documenting evidence from the alarm log and maintenance work orders to show why it really isn't a mysterious alarm that mysteriously goes away.
Ultimately the two managers remain on Rufus's side and rather than address the training, we get tasked with making the alarm message more clear. Which brings us back to the short alarm message banner in RSView and the last time I created a pop up window that was overly pedantic and got told to remove it.
I could make a pop up that said "The kidney loop oil filter is clogged. Submit a Maintenance Work Request to maintenance indicating that the kidney loop filter needs to be changed. Click OK to continue" As this isn't the only alarm where we expect the operators to apply some intelligence and be proactive, and not the only case where Rufus would ignore the alarm, that would be a couple of dozen pop up windows, all along the lines of the one I was told to remove a while back because it was "pedantic and condescending to give detailed instruction on what the operators already know." Ironically, I created that one specifically because one particular alarm was being ignored. Except now it is different, only the same.
[rant off]
