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Manufacturing alarm text notification for the off-shift crew

When a line stops at 2 a.m. or an ammonia compressor faults, the tech on call should know before first shift walks in. Welco texts the alarm emails your historian, CMMS or HMI already sends. Nothing new goes on the plant floor or the control network.

Text me my plant alarmsBook a demo

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  • Works from alarm emails you send now
  • Nothing on the plant network
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Ignition
  • PI System & historians
  • eMaint & CMMS

Setup guide for

  • FactoryTalk

A Plant SCADA HMI screen with a Engine Room process mimic and an alarm summary: the row COMP2_HDP, Compressor 2 High Discharge Pressure, appears UNACK with priority High above two acknowledged alarms. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Engine Room] Ammonia compressor 2 high discharge pressure at 3:51 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: alerts arrive through the night and each goes to the right person. 10:22 p.m., to Shift maintenance tech: "Welco: [Line 4] Load monitor tool broken, machine STOPPED at 10:22 PM. Reply STOP to opt out." 1:36 a.m., to On-call process engineer: "Welco: [Tank R12] Conservation vent failure, check system at 1:36 AM. Reply STOP to opt out." 3:51 a.m., to Refrigeration mechanic on call: "Welco: [Engine Room] Ammonia compressor 2 high discharge pressure at 3:51 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What a plant gets from Welco

Each plant alarm reaches the person who can fix it, as a text, from the historian, CMMS or HMI email you send now. First shift no longer finds the problem.

  • Machine down reaches the right tech

    CMMS and eMaint alerts for an emergency work order name the machine and the fault, so the millwright or electrician brings the right tools.

  • Process alarms go to the engineer

    PI System and historian alerts about tanks, vents and reactors text the process engineer. TopView alarm texts work the same way.

  • Refrigeration has its own expert

    Ammonia and cold room alarms text the refrigeration mechanic, plus the plant manager through several phones per alert if you choose.

  • A line trip stays readable

    When one fault sets off a string of alarms, flood control holds the burst to a few texts.

A chilled water pump fails on the weekend crew

Saturday night at a plastics plant in Quebec has two operators on the floor and nobody from maintenance on site. Here is how a utility failure plays out.

  1. The weekend rule takes over Friday

    On-call routing sends utility and machine alarms to the weekend lead instead of the weekday crew.

  2. The HMI emails a utility alarm

    ALARM CHW_P3_FAIL Chilled Water Pump 03 Failed Bldg 2 Utilities 02:14:37

  3. The weekend lead and utilities tech both get it

    Welco: [Bldg 2] Chilled water pump 3 FAILED, molds on line 2 at risk at 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. The tech answers from the parking lot

    Here, swapping to pump 4. Will check line 2 mold temps

  5. The reply lands in email

    Text replies are emailed to the alarm's sender. The maintenance manager sees what was done without a phone call.

    Reply from the weekend lead's phone: Here, swapping to pump 4. Will check line 2 mold temps

  6. Monday's planner reads the weekend

    The delivery report lists every phone the alarm reached. The planner opens a work order to rebuild pump 3.

These times are invented for the story, and texts travel over mobile networks. The alarm still needs acknowledging at the HMI.

How to set up plant alarm texts without touching the floor

A controls tech or the maintenance planner can do this. Each system needs one more email recipient, and the control network stays as it is.

  1. Sign up and verify your company

    Tell us which systems will send alarms. We verify each company, using its Business Number in Canada, before its alert number can send.

  2. Invite techs and engineers

    Every tech types in their own cellphone number from the invite and confirms with YES. Add every shift without a per-seat cost.

  3. Add Welco to the alarm email

    Add your Welco address in the historian, CMMS or HMI notification and approve that sender. Test mode shows each text before a phone gets it.

Text your next machine down alarm to the tech on shift

Sign up, verify your company and approve your CMMS or historian sender.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my plant alarmsBook a demo

Which plant systems can send manufacturing alarm texts?

Plants rarely run one alarm system, so Welco takes email from all of them. Guides cover PLC alarm texts, Rockwell FactoryTalk alarm texts and AVEVA InTouch alarm SMS. If alarms already go to a group, see Google Groups alarm mail.

Alarms maintenance techs come in for

These are masked examples. Oil and gas field crews, dairy farm alarms and other industries that use Welco cover similar equipment.

  • Compressed air: Welco: [Plant 1] Compressed air header LOW, 565 kPa at 1:09 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Cold room: Welco: [Cooler 3] Room temp 6.8 C, above 3.5 C at 4:27 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Boiler: Welco: [Utilities] Steam boiler 1 low water cutoff trip at 11:36 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Compressed air, "Welco: [Plant 1] Compressed air header LOW, 565 kPa at 1:09 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Cold room, "Welco: [Cooler 3] Room temp 6.8 C, above 3.5 C at 4:27 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Boiler, "Welco: [Utilities] Steam boiler 1 low water cutoff trip at 11:36 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Which manufacturing alarms should text the off-shift crew?

Text the alarms that stop a line, spoil product or put people at risk before morning. Quality and efficiency warnings can wait for the shift meeting.

Alarms that justify a call-in

  • Emergency machine down work orders on a bottleneck machine.
  • Refrigeration high pressure, or a cold room or freezer above its limit.
  • Compressed air header low, which can stop every line at once.
  • Boiler low water cutoff or flame failure.
  • Chilled water or cooling tower pump failure.

Alarms for the morning meeting

Scrap rate, cycle time and OEE warnings belong in reports. So do preventive maintenance reminders and filter pressure drift. A text for these teaches techs to ignore texts.

Name the area so each alarm finds its owner

One plant often has three alarm owners: maintenance, refrigeration and process. Put the area or line in each alarm subject so a rule can match it. Our alert message templates give sample wording.

If your HMI writes alarms in French, the text keeps that wording. Only Welco's own start and STOP line are in English.

Ammonia detectors keep their own horns and strobes. A Welco text is a heads-up for the tech, not the safety alarm.

A machine down work order as a text

A CMMS work order email carries the machine, the problem, who asked and the priority. Welco sends the part the tech needs to pick up the right tools.

Alert email from noreply@cmms.example.com, subject “MACHINE DOWN - HMC 7”. Welco trims it to one text of 88 characters: “Welco: MACHINE DOWN HMC 7, pallet change cycle fault at 11:47 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: MACHINE DOWN HMC 7, pallet change cycle fault at 11:47 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters208881 credit

Animation: the alert email "MACHINE DOWN - HMC 7" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: MACHINE DOWN HMC 7, pallet change cycle fault at 11:47 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."

When the machine is fixed, the CMMS may send a back-in-service email. A keyword rule can text it or keep it in email.

Off-shift breakdowns, then and now

Found at first shift

  • Machine down work orders sit in the CMMS until someone logs in.
  • Ammonia alerts go to a Google Group nobody reads at night.
  • The historian flags a vent failure in an empty control room.
  • A line trip sends twenty emails to the same inbox.

With Welco

  • The machine, the fault and the time on the tech's phone.
  • Refrigeration alarms go straight to the refrigeration mechanic.
  • Process alarms reach the engineer who can judge them.
  • A burst of alarms becomes a few texts.

Frequently asked questions

Can each production line text a different maintenance tech?

Yes. Alarm emails usually name the line, cell or machine. Write an alert rule for each one that matches that name and picks the tech's phone. A tech who covers two cells can be in both rules, and still gets each alarm once.

Our ammonia system alerts go to a Google Group. Can Welco text them?

Yes. Add your Welco address to the group, or forward the group's mail to it. Then approve the group's address as a sender. A rule can cut the group footer, so the text holds only the alarm.

Will back-in-service emails wake our techs up?

Only if you want them to. A rule can drop emails that contain words like Back in service or Return to normal, so they stay in email. Some plants keep them on during the day and drop them at night.

Does Welco connect to our PLCs or our MES?

No. Welco never touches your machines or your plant network. It only reads the email your historian, CMMS or controller already sends out, from senders you approve. Those emails keep reaching their inboxes as before.

Do techs need an app, and do they all have to sign up?

No app. Alarms arrive as normal texts on any cellphone. Each tech joins with their own phone and replies YES once, and can reply STOP to leave. Nobody gets alarms they didn't confirm.

What does Welco cost for a plant with three shifts?

There are no per-user fees, no hardware and no setup fee, so adding a third shift costs nothing by itself. Alarm texts draw on the message credits in your monthly plan, with no overage charges. Try it for 7 days with 15 credits; we email a reminder before the verification card is ever billed. See plans and pricing for the numbers, in US dollars.

Can Welco take over from our plant's alarm dialer or notifier?

For texts, often yes, as long as the alarm also goes out by email. Welco sends no voice calls and has no escalation, so a plant that needs callouts should keep its notifier. The WIN-911 comparison lays out the trade-off.

Have the next line stop reach a tech, not an empty office

Approve your CMMS or historian sender and add your shift phones.

Text me my plant alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing