- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Tuesday, November 19, 2013
- Certification
CFSE Endorsement Program: I Know What It Is, but Why Do I Need It?
Click here to read Part 1 of this blog series
Participation in the endorsement program can provide many benefits to you and/or your company:
- Professional growth and development
- Acquire / Demonstrate expertise in specific areas of functional safety
- Strengthen you resume
- Make yourself a more valuable safety engineer
…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Tuesday, December 03, 2013
- Certification
CFSE Endorsement: Preparation and Achievement
Click here to read Part 1 of this blog series
Click here to read Part 2 of this blog series
Passing an endorsement examination demonstrates proven capabilities and subject matter expertise beyond that which is required for the Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) or Certified Functional Safety…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Friday, January 30, 2015
- Certification
CFSE/CFSP: Why and How to Become One
As an engineer responsible for critical industrial processes, we face a variety of challenges:
- coping with new and changing standards
- increased pressures for process uptime and plant safety
- a growing list of responsibilities
- decreased availability of support personnel
This makes…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Tuesday, March 26, 2019
- Functional Safety
China Probes Factory as Death Toll Rises
Walking into work last week and seeing this article reassured me why I work at exida. Incidents, like this recent one at a pesticide plant in eastern China, are why we push every day to help educate people about the importance of functional safety.
Have you heard about…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Thursday, January 17, 2019
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks Succeed Where Humans and Systems Are Weak
Have you noticed that over the last several years, cybersecurity seems to be “trending?”
Companies of all sizes are starting to learn how to prevent, or at least minimize, these attacks. They hire third-party experts and attend trainings to learn more about the human and system weaknesses that are…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Wednesday, June 19, 2019
- Industrial Cybersecurity
IEC62443 - Learning Cybersecurity (Prevention Techniques)
Last Saturday, I read an article about hackers who were behind at least two potentially fatal intrusions on oil and gas industrial facilities (Yes I read cyber articles on the weekend ). Besides the fact that I enjoy learning about cybersecurity on my…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Tuesday, September 17, 2019
- Certification
Personnel Certification Concerns? We are Here to Help.
A few weeks ago, we were asked to help a fellow colleague who received a message regarding their FS Engineer (TÜV Rheinland) certificate :
We are aware, that the validity of your FS Expert (TÜV Rheinland) certificate is expiring this month. Kindly be informed that we have had a…
Read More...
- 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…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Friday, February 19, 2016
- Certification
Site Safety Index IMPACT on Failure Rates and PFDavg
Performing site audits for numerous customers can be very telling. All sites have their own unique layout, procedures, documentation, and people. Did you know that failure rates differ from site to site? Are you surprised? According to our recent webinar results, the majority of people aren’t, and in fact…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Thursday, December 08, 2016
- Certification
The 3rd Party Effect (Part 1)
Have you even wondered, been involved, or WERE the little kid that didn’t listen to your parents, but always listened to a teacher? This is called the “Third party effect.” In business, it is well known that the power of persuasion can be the most effective by a third…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Thursday, November 21, 2019
- Functional Safety
The Benefits of exida’s Site Safety Index (SSI)
New reports out now are claiming that an aging, failed elbow pipe appears to be the initial cause of a June 21 fire and subsequent explosions that injured five people at the largest oil refinery on the East Coast, federal investigators said.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Tuesday, March 17, 2020
- Certification
The CFSE Exam is Now Offered Online!
exida, the global leader in functional safety, industrial automation cybersecurity, and alarm management is thrilled to announce a new online testing platform for their CFSE (Certified Functional Safety Expert) and CACE (IEC 62443 Certified Automation Cybersecurity Expert) Certification programs. This also includes the CFSP and CACS…
Read More...
- 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…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Thursday, January 14, 2016
- Certification
WHY are Failures Occurring at a Different Rate from Our Other Site?
Site audits have shown many differences in how things are done from site to site. This impacts many variables in a safety instrumented system!
A key metric for process industry designs is called average Probability of Failure on Demand (PFDavg). After several studies of many field failure and proof…
Read More...
- by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
- Tuesday, November 12, 2013
- Certification
You Have Been Endorsed
When current Certified Functional Safety Professionals and Experts (CFSP/CFSEs) come to us seeking further education, we commonly point them to the recently established CFSE Endorsement Program. However, we are often posed questions in return:
- What’s an Endorsement program?
- Is there a test involved?
- If…
Read More...