Patent ID: 7113085

Claim:
A method of processing an alarm within a manufacturing process control system including a plurality of field devices each adapted to generate and send alarm messages of various categories, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a device alarm message from one of the field devices, wherein the device alarm message has a first set of message fields including a first set of device information; appending a second set of message fields containing a second set of device information associated with the field device to the device alarm message to form an enhanced device alarm message; selecting a device alarm table based on the second set of device information within the enhanced device alarm message; mapping the first set of device information within the enhanced device alarm message to the selected device alarm table to identify a set of information fields containing displayable contextual alarm information; and displaying selected portions of the contextual alarm information at one or more workstations based upon at least one user customizable criterion used to determine which portions of the contextual alarm information are displayed at a particular workstation.