This free eBook was written to provide an overview of key terminology and aspects of the safety life-cycle according to IEC 61511 edition 2, aimed at process industry functional safety applications of safety instrumented systems - SIS.It takes many years to master the technical aspects of functional safety and SIS,
Safety Instrumented System FSA 4 – An operations assessment
Did you know, if you own/operate ANY form of electrical / electronic or programmable system that has one or more safety functions with a potential SIL (safety integrity level) rating, then you need to conduct periodic functional safety assessment during operations; also known as FSA 4?
Become a certified functional safety professional – CFSP or CFSE
I often get asked how to become a certified functional safety professional or certified functional safety expert (CFSP or CFSE). Well, here's a blog which explains the background, what your options are, and how much preparation time you'll need to put in.
When is training truly ONLINE?
BUYER BEWARE! There are many types of course currently marketed as "ONLINE", that sadly do not make meet the simplest test of what this actually suggests. I have followed this carefully over the past 10 years, and the variability is still quite staggering. There are too many BAD and UGLY
Safety Instrumented System Functional Safety Assessment Experiences
Functional Safety Assessment may be a dry topic at the best of times, so much so that I took it as a personal challenge to try and write a paper about it!The paper highlights experiences from several different projects and concludes with some simple recommendations to save time, money and
Safety life-cycle accountability with an RACI matrix
What happens when a project is not well planned, plans are not properly communicated or accountabilities are unclear? Safety-related projects are essentially no different to any other project in terms of management, but the issue of accountability is a clear differentiator. When it goes wrong, people, the environment and finances
Does using a Safety PLC mean IEC 61511 compliance?
When it comes to deciding on using hard-wired logic or a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) for a safety instrumented system logic solver design, there are some clear positive and negatives to each approach. So, how do you decide whether a programmable system is advisable or necessary given the possibility for cyber
Tracked E-Learning for Teams
Why do people attend training courses, and what can online Cloud based E-Learning provide for your competence management system that a traditional classroom course cannot?Why does any employee attend a training course? Very often the main answer to the question is that the employer requires them to, usually to enable
Is 100% functional safety compliance possible?
Achieving complete compliance with "risk-based" functional safety standards like IEC 61511 is a great objective to have, but is it, in fact, possible? Experience with process industry functional safety assessment and audit would suggest that 100% compliance is NOT realistic when there are approximately 593 clauses, sub-clauses and bullet-point requirements
Safety instrumented systems and security standards
If you're responsible for a Safety Instrumented System (SIS) with Safety Integrity Level (SIL) rated functions, then you might be wondering where to start with cybersecurity standards for industrial automation and control systems (IACS). Read this blog to find out my personal take.The recently updated process sector safety instrumented system
10 steps to duty holder SIL conformance
Perhaps you have installed safety systems which date from the 1990's or early turn of this century. If so, you might be wondering whether you need to follow IEC 61511 edition 2 for Safety Integrity Level (SIL) conformance?If your safety system installation pre-dates 2004 then you are highly unlikely to
Get a step-change in safety culture from hybrid training
How do you get valued staff and contractors to engage with Process Safety, Functional Safety and similar "tricky" subjects? Send them on a training course or ask them to take some online training? How about both? An online plus classroom experience might just be the answer to getting a step-change
We don’t need no education
The headline, extracted from a popular song lyric*, uses the double-negative "don't need no", quite intentionally - to help emphasize a point. Whatever the song writer meant I'll leave to others to decipher, but for my purposes hopefully it will get attention.
How to assess IACS cyber vulnerability using a Security CHAZOP
The recently updated process sector safety instrumented system (SIS) standard IEC 61511 now requires that a "security risk assessment is carried out to identify security vulnerabilities of the SIS" [1]. But how should such an assessment be approached*, and what can you do to prepare for it?There have been well
Killer tools for improving safety and reducing project cost
Read on to see the software buyer's guide table...a comparison of 4 cloud-based software solutions. This blog will will look at the main reasons why using such software is better than many traditional approaches, which companies are working in the domain, and the questions you should ask before you choose
5 safety instrumented system management tips
Without effective functional safety assessment and audit, you may never know whether your safety system will perform when it is really needed. That is perhaps a bold statement, but read on if you think you disagree...