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  • Engineering Services
    • PHA (HAZOP, What-If)
    • SIS/SIL Consulting
    • Fire & Gas Engineering
    • Alarm Management
    • PHA FieldSync Services
  • Process Safety Training
  • Software Solutions
  • About Us
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Clarity in the chaos—alarm systems that work when it counts

At Watchmen, our team of risk management and safeguarding experts brings more than just alarm expertise—we bring the broader perspective of professionals who understand how alarms fit into your overall risk reduction strategy.


Alarm Management is not simply a technical exercise; it’s a critical layer of protection that must align with your HAZOP, LOPA, and SIL strategies. Our facilitators are seasoned in these risk methodologies and uniquely qualified to lead alarm rationalization and prioritization with purpose, structure, and efficiency.


We understand how to manage the time and focus of multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring rationalization sessions deliver actionable results without stalling productivity. Because of our deep knowledge in functional safety, safeguarding systems, and risk-based design, we provide insight and challenge that few others can offer—spotting gaps, inconsistencies, or missed opportunities in alarm response design.


As a vendor-neutral service provider, our guidance is not tied to your control system platform, alarm software suite, or engineering contractor. You don’t need to license a specific tool to access our expertise, and the documentation we deliver is format-flexible and implementation-ready. While we often support clients in moving from design to execution, we’re not in the business of using Alarm Management to drive programming work.


With Watchmen, you get independent, unbiased expertise grounded in real-world risk and safeguarding knowledge—ensuring your alarm systems are not just compliant, but meaningful, effective, and integrated with your overall safety strategy.

Alarm Benchmarking and Philosophy

Alarm Rationalization, Calgary, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Alarm Management Consulting

Operator response to process and safety alarms are key components of an effective operating and safeguarding strategy.  The complexity of these systems and number of alarms has grown rapidly creating new issues that were not prevalent a couple of decades ago.  This increased level of information and demand on an operators attention can degrade response to mission and safety critical alarms.  Practices compliant with ISA 18.2 and EEMUA 191 Alarm Management standards supports the pursuit of operational excellence.  


The extensive process safety expertise our functional safety specialists at Watchmen provide are uniquely well suited to guide the implementation of these highly specialized activities.

Alarm Benchmarking Study

Existing or new facility?  Consider benchmarking your Alarm Management processes and performance against industry standards and peers.  Watchmen offers a benchmarking audit to identify compliance gaps and areas for potential improvement for use in developing an alarm management strategy.  


Do not make the mistake many others do by focusing all your efforts on solving problems without first understanding the big picture, and coming up with an well laid out plan.  Our specialists at Watchmen can provide and unbiased review getting to the root of problems, saving you time and money.

Alarm Management Philosophy

For greenfield facilities looking to implement a new alarm system or existing facilities looking to evaluate and optimize their current alarm systems, establishing an Alarm Management Philosophy is necessary to optimizing alarm performance.  The philosophy establishes an approach that will guide the rest of the lifecycle activities (rationalization, prioritization, detailed design, implementation, commissioning/testing, operation and maintenance, decommissioning).  


Lean on our expertise and take advantage of our templates when developing your Alarm Management Philosophy tailored to your needs.

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Alarm Rationalization, Prioritization and Design

Alarm Rationalization and Prioritization

Alarm systems must effectively communicate abnormal conditions to maximize the operators ability to take a timely, prioritized response, preventing an unwanted condition.  Rationalization is a facilitated activity performed to assess each alarm and validate that it is meaningful and useful.  Many alarms provide little value and can be degraded to a different type of notification (i.e. log or message) or even removed.  This can have a profound reduction on the load placed on the operator.  


Prioritization is performed to support operators to prioritize their response when multiple alarms come in at or near the same time. 

Alarm Detailed Design

There are many ways to maximize alarm effectiveness and remove "bad actors".  Watchmen lead workshops on setpoint analysis and alarm tuning ensures sufficient response time is available while avoiding alarm chatter.  Identifying opportunities for advanced alarming such as state based and dynamic alarming are used to ensure alarms and their timing are relevant.  


Pre-determining and communicating alarm responses with Operator Decision Support is another way to maximize their effectiveness.  Watchmen led workshops will identify details to be configured into the alarm system including:  alarm cause, consequence of inaction, recommended response, and response time.  

Post Alarm Rationalization Support

Post alarm rationalization is crucial for maintaining an effective alarm system. Our support services include:

  • Management of Change (MOC) Hazard Analysis: We conduct detailed hazard analyses of proposed changes to ensure they do not introduce new risks or compromise system integrity. This proactive approach helps maintain operational safety and compliance with industry standards.
  • Alarm Configuration Implementation: Our team is available to support implementation of alarm configurations updates to agreed to by the rationalization team.
  • Training: We provide comprehensive training for your personnel to ensure they understand the updated alarm configurations and the rationale behind them. This training empowers your team to respond effectively to alarms, enhancing overall safety and efficiency.
  • Review of Bad Actors: The rationalization process will typically address many alarm issues.  However, additional alarm issues can persist that require additional measures to address.  Identifying and addressing bad actor alarms—those that frequently cause nuisance or false alarms—is critical for maintaining an effective alarm system. We analyze alarm data to pinpoint bad actors and implement strategies to reduce their occurrence.
  • Standing and Suppressed Alarms: Our specialists review standing and suppressed alarms to ensure they are appropriately managed. This includes verifying that suppressed alarms are justified and that standing alarms do not indicate unresolved issues.

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About Watchmen

Watchmen Instrumented Safety Experts (WISE) is your trusted partner in functional safety and risk management. We specialize in designing and validating preventative and mitigative safeguarding systems that protect people, assets, and operations across high-hazard industries.


Our team brings deep, practical expertise to every project—offering comprehensive services including:

  • HAZOP and LOPA facilitation 
  • Bowtie risk assessments 
  • SIL verification and SIS lifecycle consulting 
  • Alarm management strategy and rationalization 
  • Fire and gas detection engineering and mapping 


Whether you're developing a new safety system or improving an existing one, Watchmen delivers independent, vendor-neutral guidance that’s grounded in industry standards, operational reality, and decades of experience.


Partner with us for risk-informed solutions that are accurate, actionable, and aligned with your safety goals.

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