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What Does Root Cause Analysis Really Mean?

What Does Root Cause Analysis Really Mean?

This is an intriguing question.  One that I often ask my classes when I’m teaching our FSE100 Functional Safety course. Very often, they do not know or do not fully understand what this means and why it is important.

The IEC61511 standard requires that any failures that occur within the…

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What is a Pragmatic Approach to Cybersecurity?

What is a Pragmatic Approach to Cybersecurity?

Now that we have a little bit of context on what's driving our current cybersecurity landscape. The next question is, “where does this pragmatic approach come in?  What is a pragmatic approach? What does the word pragmatic mean? The dictionary definition is dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a…

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Many Different Forces are Influencing ICS Cybersecurity Adoption

Many Different Forces are Influencing ICS Cybersecurity Adoption

When we look at some of the challenges that are facing  control systems, we also have to think about what forces are influencing how asset owners adopt cybersecurity. We'll talk about four of those main drivers that play a role in cybersecurity implementation. 

National Standards…

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Machine Safety Goals

Machine Safety Goals

From a machine safety management perspective, what goals are you looking to establish? Building a company safety culture, building awareness of the hazards, building the "buy in" to do things right and do things consistently is very important. It can't be done by a single person.  It takes the…

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Forces Influencing Machine Safety Adoption

Forces Influencing Machine Safety Adoption

What is driving machine safety adoption? What are some of the key questions that companies are trying to answer when it comes to machine safety? For industrial facilities, whether it's a chemical plant, or a machine application, it ultimately comes down to facility risk management. Companies want to provide…

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Benefits of Using IEC 62061 Machine Safety Templates

Benefits of Using IEC 62061 Machine Safety Templates

Why would someone consider purchasing templates as a starting point? First off, it decreases the amount of time and energy it takes to build out the program. If you think about starting from a blank page, as opposed to starting with something that is 80 to 90% of the…

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The Importance Of Considering Common Cause with Redundant Systems

The Importance Of Considering Common Cause with Redundant Systems

Common Cause is one of those variables that is not always considered important when it comes to SIL compliance.  And yet, for redundant systems, it can have a significant impact on the PFDavg and Risk Reduction achieved (in Low Demand mode) or PFH (in high or continuous mode).  Most of the…

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Why Functional Safety Management is Important for Machine Safety

Why Functional Safety Management is Important for Machine Safety

Functional Safety Management (FSM) is important for a few key reasons. First, it governs the entire machine safety lifecycle. Regardless of which standards we pick, we need to have the management plan in place to make sure we follow those steps and that we do them consistently. 

Allocating lifecycle…

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Machinery Accidents - Today’s Harsh Reality

Machinery Accidents - Today’s Harsh Reality

During 2017, there were over 36,000 injuries related to machinery in the United States. There were 6200 non-fatal amputations, nearly 60% involving machinery. There were close to 3000 fatalities in 2019. Machine accidents are often overlooked because there aren't multiple fatality explosions or major news events like you see…

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IEC 61508 – Two Key Fundamental Concepts

IEC 61508 – Two Key Fundamental Concepts

We want our system to work. We're going to do everything we can to make it work properly. If it doesn't work, we want it to fail in a predictable and hopefully safe manner. If the failure modes are predictable, we can design the equipment to be fail safe.…

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Creating a Cyber Hygiene Plan

Creating a Cyber Hygiene Plan

One of the things that automation companies are beginning to do is to plan for cyber hygiene. More and more companies are implementing automation specific awareness training for their employees. They conduct periodic exercises which like sending phishing emails to see who if you respond. They might leave USB…

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Automation Cybersecurity - Myths vs. Reality

Automation Cybersecurity - Myths vs. Reality

In today’s automation systems environment, certain myths continue to persist. For example, "cyber attacks are only a concern for big companies".  Although it may be less likely to be targeted by, say, a nation state attack, we’ve seen that malware can cause a shutdown of a system or trigger a…

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Why is Cybersecurity Hygiene Important for Automation Systems?

Why is Cybersecurity Hygiene Important for Automation Systems?

Cybersecurity incidents have shown that there can be major consequences for automation systems. There have been incidences where attackers have been able to manipulate the human resource interface console directly. It was only by chance that an operator in one particular instance happened to notice that his mouse pointer…

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Automation Cybersecurity: IT vs OT - Differing Priorities

Automation Cybersecurity: IT vs OT - Differing Priorities

Before you can dive in and look at the core concept of automation cybersecurity, it's helpful to first define it. Automation cybersecurity is the prevention of intentional or unintentional interference with proper operation of automation systems including industrial controls, smart manufacturing,  and IIOT systems through the use of computers,…

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FMEDA Webinar Series Playlist Now Available

FMEDA Webinar Series Playlist Now Available

As the inventor of the FMEDA process, our experts planned a series of eight webinars introducing FMEDA concepts and methods available in the Youtube playlist below.

The series starts with an introduction for the beginner, quickly moves to medium level topics, and finally, at the end, covers the more…

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