Alarm Coverage vs Operator Attention
Conduct formal alarm rationalisation under functional safety principles to ensure operators can reliably respond to critical process events.
CyberTRIZ analysis · Seveso contradiction PS017 · one of 8,235 worked contradictions published by CyberTRIZ.AI
Regulations
Business Context
Expanding alarm systems improves visibility into developing process
conditions. However, excessive alarm generation may overwhelm operators
during abnormal situations.
The Contradiction
More alarms increase operational awareness.
More alarms reduce the operator\'s ability to identify truly critical
events.
Why It Exists
Alarm systems often evolve incrementally over many years, with new
alarms added after incidents or engineering changes while obsolete
alarms remain active.
Direction
Apply alarm rationalization, priority management, contextual alarm
presentation, and intelligent filtering to improve operator
effectiveness.