Overview

Although facilities management often talks about responding to alarms, a deeper discussion on the topic of response inevitably reveals a need to respond on the root cause of a larger event triggering the alarm. Not all alarms point to a problem with the asset which is alarming. Alarms can signal something is wrong with that asset, but many times an upstream asset is the culprit.  Alarms provide the bread crumbs that help an experienced technician diagnose the best way to fix the issue.

Given the above, choosing which alarms to automate is worth of some consideration. Two questions about an alarm can help you determine which alarms will be the most impactful to automate in your organization:

• How complex is triage for this alarm?
• How complex is dispatch for this alarm?

These two questions combine to form the Alarm Automation Fit Matrix as show below. Alarms with high triage complexity are less likely to identify a root cause and are troublesome for automation because they can lead to the creation of multiple work orders for the same event. Alarms with high dispatch complexity are reasonable candidates for automation, but they may require some change management to simplify the triage approach so the generated work order is treated with the urgency it requires.

Alarm Automation Fit Matrix

Alarm Characteristics

Prescriptive Alarms

Prescriptive Alarms are alarms with the same predictable required response each time they occur. Because of their low complexity triage and dispatch, they are a Best Fit for automation. Examples include:

• Maintenance Alarms, such as "Dirty Filters"
• BAS System alarms
• Other vendor-specific alarms, such as "VFD In Bypass"

Although often not critical events, prescriptive alarms are a great way to get a quick win, validate your approach to automated dispatch, and build confidence.

Known Local Cause vs. Potential Upstream Cause

As discussed earlier, understanding the root cause of a problem is an essential aspect of diagnosis. Triage doesn't need to get to the root cause, but it can help to know if the cause is isolated to the asset in alarm or potentially upstream of that asset. With this in mind, we can classify alarms into one of two groups:

• Known Local Cause: the alarm indicates an issue that is known to be at the local equipment, e.g. AHU Fan Failure.
• Potential Upstream Cause: the alarm indicates an issue that cannot be logically isolated to the local equipment. There is potential that the issue may be upstream, e.g., AHU Discharge Temperature High

Known Local Cause alarms are simpler to triage and a Good or Best Fit for automation.

Know Local Cause Alarm Examples

Complex Triage Example: Space Temperature High Alarm

Generally, we recommend against creating work orders for space environmental condition alarms because triage and dispatch of these alarms can be complex creating a Worst Fit for automation. A single event within the air distribution system could potentially create tens of work orders that would not be actionable. If the Space Type is critical (e.g. an operating room), creation of potentially unnecessary work orders may be worth the cost of multiple work orders for the critical event. When deciding whether to automate these rooms, consider the example below that outlines the space impact from a root cause alarm.

Organizing Your Plan

Use the Automation Plan Template at the bottom of this article to help you capture groups of alarms that you plan to automate. The template will help you consider both the scope of alarm coverage and the likely output in work orders. Both are essential for an optimized alarm automation strategy.