What is alarm management and why is it important?

Alarm management ensures alarms are effective for safe operation. Important because alarm floods (too many alarms) lead to operator desensitization and missed critical alarms. Good practices: each alarm should be relevant, unique, timely, and require operator action. ISA-18.2/IEC 62682 standard provides guidance. Key metrics: alarms per operator per 10 minutes (target <1 average), stale alarms percentage, and chattering alarms. Requires ongoing rationalization (reviewing alarm necessity and setpoints), suppression strategies, and state-based alarming.