How common are process alarms?

Hey! I'm doing research on the use of alarm systems in various industrial facilities, but I haven't been able to find much information on food manufacturing facilities yet.

I'm just looking to see how common these alarms are, whether they are being used in conjunction with a DCS or other central system, how impactful they have been, what issues people have with them.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1. I would say extremely common, I don't think I've ever worked in a process manufacturer that didn't have some form of process alarms.
2. DCS would entirely depend on if the facility had a DCS. The facilities I've worked in that have a DCS, usually have alarms tied into them
3. Impact would depend on times tripped and importance of alarm
4. Issues? Typically that a process parameter isn't set correctly causing alarms to sound often (several times a shift) which would result in operators simply resetting the alarm in many cases. This is common, and can be traced back to quite a few manufacturing disasters.

Are you looking to get some in your process?