- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Wednesday, December 07, 2011
- Certification
It Ought to be a Crime
There is no shortage of drivers who try to “beat the red light,” or roll through a stop sign. I see it every day (luckily BEFORE they hit my side door). Even though everyone knows, or should know the “rules of the road,” there are some folks who are…
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- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Thursday, July 13, 2017
- Functional Safety
Making the Most of Customer Feedback
Your organization gets information, feedback, and requests from customers all the time. It’s up to you to do some preliminary analysis and determine what the customer really wants. Do they want to buy something? Do they want to complain about something? Do they have a need for which no…
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- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Thursday, November 17, 2011
- Functional Safety
NEVER Use B10 Values for PFDavg Calculations
The machine safety community has defined a number called the “B10 number.” It is a measure of time where 10% of a population of devices should have failed. Generally it is a measure of expected end of life or “useful life” as defined by the reliability engineering community.
The…
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- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Thursday, October 24, 2019
- Functional Safety
PES Refinery – CSB Initial Report
I'm sure you are aware of the preliminary findings of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) Refinery explosion. If not, have a look at the video below. It is very interesting, but sad. I think we all can learn a lot from it.
- by Loren Stewart, CFSE
- Thursday, January 31, 2019
- Functional Safety
Setting Goals for 2019: Are You Thinking About Functional Safety?
When I went to set my goals for 2019, I set both personal and professional goals. One of my professional goals is to clean off my desk, but another is to get more people to think about functional safety before an accident occurs, instead of when they are normally…
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- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Thursday, September 24, 2020
- Functional Safety
Share the Wealth (of Functional Safety Knowledge)
Experience is a good teacher. But how do you get the experience?
Formal classroom or online training is often available for more general skills, but on-the-job training usually provides a more in-depth path to gain such experience. After doing a job for a while, working through difficulties with colleagues,…
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- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Thursday, December 06, 2012
- Software
Spaces and Braces and Comments – Oh My!
What constitutes a good coding guideline?
Serious software development for functional safety requires a coding standard or coding guideline. Most organizations have one, but how do you know if it’s good?
You need to look beyond the boilerplate and physical code layout that are often defined in a coding…
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- by Mark Kozub
- Thursday, March 04, 2021
- Functional Safety
Strong Safety Culture Translates to Lower Insurance Premiums
Insurance Companies are hedging their bets through premiums while the Manufacturing Industry is placing their wagers on luck.
The worlds of gambling and insurance are similar in many ways. Both are built upon elements of probability, modeling and quantification of risk. Professional gamblers are well informed on the odds…
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- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Friday, March 04, 2011
- Certification
Tales from the Certification Wars - Who certifies the certification agency?
I have often heard the question “Who says they can issue a certification?” This is often accompanied by “Why can’t I certify my own product?” “Who knows our design better than we do?” Good questions.
The IEC 61508 standard does not require certified products for Functional Safety. …
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- 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…
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- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Thursday, November 19, 2020
- Functional Safety
The Dos and Don’t of SIS Application Programming
It’s interesting that the majority of the time when people talk about functional safety, they are usually thinking about hardware: what sensors to use, which logic solver, what actuator, solenoid or valve to select; what voting architecture, etc. What often gets overlooked, initially, is the application program.
Essentially, when…
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- 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…
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- 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,…
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- by Rick Smith
- Tuesday, March 31, 2020
- News
Training in 2020 and Beyond. Adapting to COVID-19 with Online Solutions.
Hey everybody. I hope this blog finds you, your family, and your colleagues well. At exida, we appreciate the trust you place in our solutions and services to support you in achieving your functional safety, cybersecurity, and alarm management needs. We are committed…
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- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Sunday, October 02, 2016
- Certification
Welcome to my world
Sure, you might think I’ve got it made… sitting here on my perch telling you what you need to do to meet IEC 61508, while you sit there with all the work to do. Well, it wasn’t always that way. I was in your shoes, responsible for achieving functional…
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- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Tuesday, June 16, 2020
- Functional Safety
What is Prior Use Justification?
When it comes to IEC61511 and the selection of equipment for use within Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF), there are only two methods that can be used to justify selection: IEC61508 Certified devices for the required SIL or Prior Use Justification. Just…
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- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Thursday, February 22, 2018
- Functional Safety
What Managers Need To Know About Functional Safety
If you’re a manager in the process industries then you should be familiar with the concept of Functional Safety and the need to have well defined processes and procedures in place. If not, then how else will you be able to ensure that your Safety Instrumented System and plant…
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- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Thursday, April 26, 2018
- Functional Safety
Which FSAs Do I Have to Perform?
The new release of IEC61511:2016 has caused some confusion when it comes to the Functional Safety Assessments (FSAs). Which ones are mandatory?
The confusion comes from the wording in the standard and the clarifications in the notes. The relevant clause in the standard 5.2.6.1.4 states:
A FSA team…
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- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Tuesday, January 17, 2012
- Certification
Why am I not on “the list?”
Many will agree that exida's Safety Equipment Reliability Handbook (SERH) and the Safety Automation Equipment List (SAEL) are very useful tools for choosing products to use in safety instrumented systems. The SAEL shows a product’s IEC 61508 and cyber security…
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- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Thursday, November 07, 2013
- Certification
Why Innovation in Safety?
In a marketplace where many of buyers of firmly committed to “proven in use,” many projects are still using 30 year-old logic solver designs. Proven in use is a valuable concept especially for field equipment where it is hard to evaluate how well a product design will…
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