Faux pas- (Webster's): An embarrassing blunder that breaks a social convention, a gaffe, error of judgement, etc. Perhaps it should now be termed faux-PAS.

One of my favorite lines from a movie was in "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof". When his daughter-in-law Mae makes a positioning statement for his inheritance, the father Big Daddy (Burl Ives) asks the son (Paul Newman) a question. He says "Do you smell that, Brick? (Brick is his son's name.) That's the smell of mendacity." I had to look the word up the first time I heard it as a kid. I often recall this line when I witness some of the things vendors tell potential clients when attempting to position themselves for "inheritance". Most of you can guess just what odor he refers to. This turned out to be a faux-pas on the part of the daughter-in-law.

I'd like to share a recent faux pas we witnessed. It was like watching a train wreck. You just can't turn your head when its happening, though you probably should for your own future sanity.

Faux pas #1- A service vendor releases a 150 page hardbacked marketing brochure, and postions it as a best-seller non-fiction release with truths that have been until now kept under wraps. They even go so far as to claim that their book is "better than EEMUA". That's Mendacity. Further, the so-called book does not address alarm management as a lifecycle issue. Rather, it deals only with rationalization as if that were a means to the end of alarm managment issues. It is not.

I'm here to tell you right now: THERE IS NO DOCUMENT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE, EITHER PURCHASED, DOWNLOADED, OR STOLEN THAT ECLIPSES EEMUA 191 as an Alarm management reference. It is simply the pre-eminent authority on alarm management available today.  All written alarm management works point to it.

Faux pas #2- Since that time, the same service vendor has tried to blur the lines of truth between that book, and another published with the ISA, and their adherance to and ownership of ISA "specifications". They even went so far as to announce the same at the ISA Expo in Houston, where it was almost immediately repudiated by the ISA, and any others involved in the establishment of a specification. Their goal is to spread what is referred to in the sales world as "FUD" or Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. The hope is that they can make alarm management seem so complex as to require assistance from an outside consultant- perhaps one who wrote a book on part of it.

Faux pas #3- To befuddle this issue even more, they claim the existence of a so-called specification that only they can meet. Since no specification exists, they hope the FUD will convince you one is looming. Truth: The ISA is currently working on a specification, but to date none exists other than the SP-18.01 which deals with annunciator panels. I don't believe they can claim to address that specification since their book contains a specific chapter on the death of the annunciator panel.

Alarm management is neither a secret "void", proprietary to one company, nor is it rocket science. Most of the information needed to perform Alarm Management activities (the how-to) has been published in public documents. (see www.tipsweb.com/amlibrary.asp ) And, as stated, the EEMUA dcument gives a very concise view of the technical expectations. 

So, buy a copy of the new EEMUA 191 Guide, and you will be 80% of the way there. It tells you how to measure, what to examine, and how to go about it. (Order one at www.eemua.co.uk )

If you're looking for a book on the subject, save your money until one comes out from a true expert on the subject- one who has no service sales axe to grind- one that addresses more than just the rationalization side of alarm management. Until that time, there is plenty available in the papers (www.tipsweb.com/amlibrary.asp ) and EEMUA (www.eemua.co.uk ) guidelines.

Mendacity stinks. Don't get it stuck to your shoes.