Going back in time to the turn of the century (remember 2000?), the amount and quality of failure data threatened to doom the whole probabilistic analysis approach. I recall a letter in IEEE Spectrum magazine from Patrick D. O’Conner, a well known reliability engineering author, who expressed the…
exida explains Blog
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Tuesday, April 30, 2013
- Certification
How Do You Certify to IEC 61508?
As you may already know, when it comes to the certification of equipment according to IEC 61508, there are several 3rd party agencies from which to choose. It is obvious from reviewing different assessments on for example a solenoid, that the interpretation of IEC 61508 and thereby the assessment…
- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Thursday, April 25, 2013
- Certification
Practice Makes Perfect…Almost
How often do Managers see training budgets being cut, or personnel becoming blasé about training in general? Isn’t it the norm that annual performance reviews involve reviewing training requirements? Realistically, how often do these training requirements get ignored and/or forgotten about during the year? The answer, I’m afraid, is…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Wednesday, April 24, 2013
- Functional Safety
PHA: A must or a MUST?
Our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives were lost, and those injured, as well as their families in last week’s fertilizer plant explosion in West Texas. A few statements made in the press were a bit surprising and I wanted to share those with you. Before I…
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Thursday, April 18, 2013
- Certification
Setting up for FAILURE
Last week I was part of a conversation that made me really question why people (companies) would set themselves up for failure. Is it lack of knowledge? Lack of communication? Or maybe they are simply NEW to the process and don’t know what to expect.
But then I thought…
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Wednesday, April 10, 2013
- Certification
The Human Element of Functional Safety (The Challenge)
The analysis of past safety accidents was conducted primarily regionally, and with companies having an “experienced” workforce. Today the global economy is undergoing major shifts in manufacturing which is making the issue of finding, developing, and retaining experienced people more challenging than in the past. In “Brownfield” (developed) areas,…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Wednesday, April 03, 2013
- Certification
A 100% Pass Rate!
I recently read a blog comment from an instructor in a well-known functional safety personnel certification program. The instructor bragged that for the last X courses, 100% of the students passed. In this program a course and an exam are developed by independent consultants who give the course, give…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Thursday, March 21, 2013
- Software
Changing the PVST Interval. Hey, my Architectural Constraints changed!
Did you see my Changing the PVST Interval. Hey, my failure rates changed! post? There is more…
In addition to impacting the way the Partial Valve Stroke Test (PVST) is addressed in the SIL verification calculation, the PVST frequency…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Wednesday, March 20, 2013
- Software
Changing the PVST Interval. Hey, my failure rates changed!
I’ve been receiving several inquiries lately regarding the impact of the Partial Valve Stroke Test (PVST) interval on the failure rates of a final element. Specifically asking how does exSILentia® deal with this? exSILentia® allows users to specify if partial stroke testing is performed on their final…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Wednesday, March 13, 2013
- Functional Safety
That is impossible! It has never happened before…
A week ago Sunday I was traveling to Baton Rouge, LA. I was flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) connecting in Houston (George Bush Intercontinental Airport - IAH) with my final destination as Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR). Under normal circumstances I would probably have flown directly…
- by Rick Smith
- Monday, March 11, 2013
- Certification
Define the Safety Function for a Better Certification
When a product is getting certified for functional safety, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the safety function. First, let’s be clear what is meant by the safety function. IEC 61508-4 describes a safety function as a “function to be implemented by a safety-related system or…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Wednesday, March 06, 2013
- Software
So What’s an Impact Analysis?
It doesn’t take much to remember a time you wish you had “looked before you leaped.” The time you bought furniture that would not fit through the doorway, or the small tree you planted whose roots are now cracking through the sidewalk. Don’t you wish you had given more…
- by Loren Stewart, CFSE
- Friday, March 01, 2013
- Functional Safety
Welcome to the 2H Initiative
exida has been gathering field failure data for over a decade. At this point we have a total of over 60 billion unit operating hours of field data for process industry devices. This data has been used to create a 2H database for components. exida is using this component…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Wednesday, February 27, 2013
- Software
The Real PFDavg Variables
I was recently asked how the PFDavg value in an exida FMEDA report was calculated. Those PFDavg values are calculated using the exSILentiaTM program. The person who posed the question was using the equations from Part 6 of IEC 61508 and got a different value. Why?
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Friday, February 22, 2013
- Certification
Why Personnel Functional Safety Certification Programs are Needed
The publication of the international functional safety standards IEC 61508 (1999), IEC 61511 / ISA-84 (2004) and IEC 62061 (2005) were significant milestones in the effort to increase equipment and process safety. 1,2,3 Unfortunately, the release of safety standards does not by itself make the world a safer place.…