LR issues ShipRight procedure regarding alarm management

Classification Society Lloyd's Register has issued a ShipRight procedure regarding alarm management.

This document was published on January 1st, 2023.

Alarm management is a systematic process designed to mitigate risks associated with alarm systems.

The process of alarm management is a continuous process. Procedures and settings will need to be revisited over time. Audit review and management of change are important parts of the improvement process.

A properly designed and implemented alarm management system can help to address issues such as alarm flooding, dangerous shelving of safety alarms due to user nuisance, and unintended user responses due to a lack of information and competencies on proper alarm responses.

For alarm management to work successfully, multiple stakeholders must collaborate. This document provides guidance on how the process, outcomes, and ownership can be distributed among the stakeholders involved.

Besides the guidance on roles and responsibilities, it is important to emphasize that the responsibility for facilitation, submission of resulting documents to LR, and implementation rests squarely with the entity seeking an award of the descriptive note.

Final end-users of the system may not yet have been selected at the early stages of design. In such instances, it is important to source experienced users from elsewhere.

Control engineers, process engineers, system integrators, etc. are not experienced users.

Only users who have personally operated liquefied gas cargo systems are to be considered valid to represent the user role.

The cargo alarm system is to be surveyed at the manufacturers' works in accordance with the approved test schedule, and the inspection and testing are to be to the Surveyor's satisfaction.

For more information, please visit the LR ShipRight Procedures page, where the document is available FOR FREE.