What is Asset Criticality

Asset criticality is a ranking system that prioritizes your facility's most important assets. By evaluating the impact on operations, safety, and finances, this ranking helps you allocate resources for maintenance and ensure critical functions are protected.

In Alarm Triage, asset criticality can be used to guide operator response to an alarm, ensuring that you are always focused on what is most critical to real-time operations.

Asset Criticality in the VF Platform

In Alarm Triage, an “asset” can be a space (like a research lab), equipment (like an air handler) or a system (like chilled water).  

Asset criticality can be set to one of five thresholds (highest, high, medium, low, lowest) or left unassigned (No criticality). The method for assigning criticality depends on the type of asset.

Determining Asset Criticality for Spaces

Virtual Facility assigns asset criticality for spaces based on the criticality of the space type, adhering to relevant standards like ASHRAE 62.1, FGI, NCES 2006-160, NFPA 99, and ASHRAE 170-2021.

Table. Example Space Type Criticality based on Reference Standard

Based on space type criticality, operating rooms (ORs) are typically assigned a default asset criticality of Highest, while exam rooms are assigned a Medium criticality.

Default space type criticality settings can be overridden by Virtual Facility if required.

Determining Asset Criticality for Equipment and System

Performing an asset criticality analysis (ACA) translates abstract risks into actionable data. By integrating ACA data with Alarm Triage, you can leverage this criticality information in real-time to prioritize alarm response. This ensures critical asset issues are addressed first, minimizing downtime and optimizing resource allocation.

There are two main methods for defining asset criticality within Alarm Triage for your equipment and systems:

1. Manual Input:  Import your existing Asset Criticality Analysis data directly during the onboarding process. This allows you to leverage your established criticality rankings.
2. Automated Reasoning:  Leverage the power of topological reasoning. Here's how it works:

• We analyze the criticality of downstream spaces served by the equipment or system.
• The asset's criticality is then assigned based on the most critical space it feeds (criticality propagates upstream from spaces to equipment).
• This means an air handler supplying operating rooms (ORs) or vivariums will have a higher criticality than one serving meeting rooms or exam rooms.

Note: In the event of a conflict between method 1) and 2), the manually supplied value 1) governs.

Example 1

An air handling unit (AHU) supplies air to operating rooms (ORs), exam rooms, and a pharmacy. The  Asset Criticality Analysis (ACA) assigned a criticality of “High” to the AHU.

Since the AHU feeds an OR (criticality = “Highest”, the most critical space), Alarm Triage would automatically assign the AHU a criticality of “Highest” to match the worst-case scenario. This ensures a higher priority response for alarms associated with this critical asset.

Example 2

An air handling unit feeds a janitorial closet, meeting rooms, and a laundry room. The ACA assigned a criticality of “High” to the AHU. In this scenario, the worst-case criticality among the served spaces is likely a meeting room (typically assigned a “Medium” criticality). However, the ACA resulted in a higher criticality for the AHU itself (criticality = “High”).

Alarm Triage prioritizes the higher criticality value. Therefore, the AHU's criticality would be set to “High”, reflecting the importance assigned by the ACA, even though none of the individual spaces have a criticality of “High”.

Example 3

Same as Example 2, except no ACA criticality data provided. Since no ACA data is available, Alarm Triage relies on the criticality ratings of the downstream spaces. In this case, the worst-case scenario is likely a janitorial closet or meeting room, which typically have a criticality of “Medium”.

Alarm Importance

When multiple alarms are present at the same time, alarm data must be organized and presented to the operator so they know which one(s) to respond to first (which are most important). Alarm importance is characterized by the following alarm attributes in Alarm Triage:

1. Asset criticality
2. Alarm priority
3. Service failure (Y or N)

How Asset Criticality Influences Alarm Response

For applications where alarm priority has not been set systematically based on consequence or time to respond, it is recommended that asset criticality and service failure be used as the primary means for evaluating alarm importance.

The fields “Asset Criticality” and “Service Failure Alarm” can be added to the relevant alarm display as shown below. This enables them to be used to sort and filter for alarm importance. 

Figure. Using Asset Criticality and Service Failure to View by Alarm Importance

Note: Service Failure Alarms indicate a complete or partial failure of a critical service (temperature, flow, relative humidity, pressure) supplied by a piece of equipment, system, or a space. These require immediate attention to minimize downtime and potential impact.