Certification
Personnel Functional Safety Certification Programs
People play an important role in preventing process safety accidentsAnalysis of process plant disasters by Trevor Kletz concludes that all accidents are traceable to human error in some form. The major areas of human error that contributed to the safety incidents include:
- process design (60% )
- hazard and operability studies (50%)
- operating procedures (33%)
- training and human factors -to eliminate operator errors (20%)
- inspection (16%)
- mechanical design (10%) - Ref: Kletz, “What Went Wrong: Case Histories of Process Plant Disasters”
Competence is a requirement (not an option)
The international safety standards IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 / ISA 84 both contain requirements for personnel competency.IEC 61511 – “Persons, departments or organizations involved in safety life-cycle activities shall be competent to carry out the activities for which they are accountable” – IEC 61511, Part 1, Paragraph 5.2.2.2
Not all Programs are Created Equal
What is the difference between a certificate program vs. certification program?
Certification Program
- Applicant must pass an exam which tests broad industry knowledge (independent of training courses or course providers)
- Measures an individual’s knowledge in use
- Credentials: participants may use letters or acronyms behind their name (e.g., PE)
Certificate Program
- Applicant must attend a particular education course and pass a test based on material from this course
- Confers a document at end of course
- Credentials: participants may NOT use letters or acronyms behind their name (e.g., PE) and cannot portray as “certified”
The Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) Program
A program that helps individuals develop / enhance their competence in Functional Safety. It supports different personnel skillsets and expertise such as “practitioner” vs “expert”. Available in different application areas:- Process Safety
- Machine Safety
- Safety Hardware Development
- Safety Software Development