When speaking with several manufacturers’ sales teams recently, it became very evident that some of these sales people, selling into the Industrial Safety and Controls markets, had little or no knowledge of how their products’ failure rate data compared to their competitors and/or another industry benchmark (such as DOW…
exida explains Blog
- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Tuesday, August 25, 2015
- Functional Safety
Failure Rate Data: Are You Being Outsold?
- by Rick Smith
- Thursday, August 20, 2015
- Industrial Cybersecurity
How Cybersecurity is like a Goldfish
Oh look! Squirrel!
I am not much of a blogger. I should be but I’m not. This is strange, because I always have plenty to say.
This subject just gets me going so I am writing about it. I welcome feedback and opinions.
I have been in cybersecurity in…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, August 18, 2015
- Certification
Certification and the Environmental Test
Functional Safety Assessments (FSA) focus on the relevant functional safety standards that are to be applied to a product in the appropriate industry. These are standards such as IEC 61511 in the process automation industry, or ISO 26262 in the automotive industry. And IEC 61508 is like an umbrella…
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Thursday, August 13, 2015
- Certification
The True Meaning Behind Those Fancy Letters on a Signature
Let me ask you a few questions: Does adding letters after a person’s name make them more important? What did that person go through to achieve those letters? If someone has XYZ after their name and another person also has XYZ after their name, are they equal? Did one…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, August 11, 2015
- Functional Safety
Back in the Old Days
Some time ago, I was involved with embedded software projects using microprocessors that had limited memory, speed, and I/O resources. All embedded programming was in assembly code. All memory variables were global; it was too hard to keep track of stack variables. The hardware design assumed that any technical…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Tuesday, August 04, 2015
- Certification
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 6
Over the course of several blogs , I talked about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it takes…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Thursday, July 30, 2015
- Certification
Building a Foundation for an IEC 61508 Development Process
There are organizations that are small enough to follow an informal or even undocumented process and still produce a product of sufficient quality to meet market needs. When these organizations attempt to develop a safety product, they inevitably fall short of meeting the requirements of IEC 61508. A formalized…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Monday, July 20, 2015
- Certification
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 5
Over the course of several blogs , I will talk about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Monday, July 13, 2015
- Industrial Cybersecurity
I Did Not Lock the Car Door
I was driving one of exida’s top risk experts from Europe to a business meeting. We parked and I locked the car door. He commented “I noticed you did not lock the car door when you parked at the exida office.” He was right. In an area I do…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Thursday, July 09, 2015
- Functional Safety
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 4
Over the course of several blogs , I will talk about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, July 07, 2015
- Functional Safety
That Could Never Happen! What are the Odds?
I often walk through my quiet neighborhood streets on weekday evenings or weekend mornings. These are the times when I don’t expect much traffic, and my expectations are usually met. The probability of a dangerous event that would injure me seems pretty low (risk assessment), since I am usually…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Monday, June 29, 2015
- Functional Safety
Can Wireless be used in Functional Safety?
exida just completed certification of a new sensor product that uses wireless communication to signal a safety logic solver of a potential problem. Shortly after the certificate was posted, a challenge arose: “How can wireless be used for safety?” Well, it is different. A designer must be fully…
- by Dave Johnson, CFSE
- Tuesday, June 16, 2015
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Performing a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment as a Component of the PHA
There are three main components of the safety lifecycle: analysis, realization, and operation. We will be taking a look at the analysis phase, particularly related to the cyber industry.
To start, the first thing to do in both safety and security is do a detailed process, hazard and…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Wednesday, June 10, 2015
- Functional Safety
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 3
Over the course of several blogs , I will talk about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it…
- by Michael Medoff , CFSE, CISA
- Monday, June 08, 2015
- Functional Safety
The Evolution of Coding Standards
Sometimes it seems that things change slowly in the world of functional safety. If you look at many of the technical references in IEC 61508 you will find that most come from the 1980s and 1990s. There is even one reference that dates back to 1950! With the rate…