Reliability Engineering experts know there are many variables that impact operational failure rates. These variables even include how operations and maintenance are done at a specific site. Sometimes it feels like there are so many variables…
exida explains Blog
Failure Rate Analysis Paralysis
Alarm Rationalization by the Numbers
“How much time does alarm rationalization take?”
It finally happened. Alarm management problems at the plant led to an incident and now management wants action. You have “volunteered” to put together a plan to…
Being Prepared in Cyberspace via Threat Modelling
Preparedness is defined as being in a state of readiness (Webster, 2022). This can take many different forms but when it comes to cybersecurity, a big part is knowing what threats lie in wait within…
Four Ways to Pick a Winning Alarm Rationalization Team
“Who should participate in alarm rationalization?”
It finally happened. Alarm management problems at the plant led to an incident and now management wants action. You have “volunteered” to put together a staffing plan to…
Competency and IEC61511
Many of you who follow exida’s blogs and webinars will know that we often talk about the requirement for competency. In fact, the 2016 edition of IEC61511 specifically addresses competency in more detail now…
Most Failures are Systematic - NOT!
At exida we have studied hundreds of sets of field failure data from various sources. Some of these data sets have indicated differences in failure rates by two orders of magnitude for the same product…
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…
Demystifying the Threat Modeling Process
The thought of tackling a threat model (TM) might not be the most appetizing to some people. Doing a quick Internet search, someone could get stuck under a mountain of acronyms and terms. I mean, what…
Machinery Hazards and Risk Assessment Techniques
Machinery related hazards continue to result in hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries each year. In 2019, 2,963 deaths occurred in the construction, transportation and warehousing, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and…
If an Alarm Occurs and the Operator doesn’t Ack it, was it really an Alarm?
Similar to the thought experiment “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”, we ask - If an alarm is generated, and…
Measuring Performance – Why Are We Not Doing This?
Part of the changes to the IEC61511 standard in 2016, some five (5) years ago now, was to emphasize the need to do a better job with regards to the Operations and Maintenance phase…
Can Nuisance Alarms “Break” the Operator?
Study after study finds that something like 80% of industrial incidents (give or take) are caused by Human Error. Incidents involving human error often include a failure of the operator to respond to an…
FAQ: More Failures with Actuated Valves than what published failure rates indicate?
During a recent exida webinar we received the following question:
We tend to see more failures with actuated valves, than what manufacturers published failure rates would indicate! Any reason?
There are several reasons. Some…
“Data is King” – Introducing the Sovereign of Component Reliability Databases
With the drive for digitalization and the Internet of Things the expression “Content is King”, coined by Bill Gates, has now been replaced by “Data is King”. This is especially TRUE in functional safety…
Closing Two Common IEC 62443 Compliance Gaps
Two common gaps exida encounters when evaluating vendor compliance against the IEC 62443-4-1, IEC 62443-4-2 and IEC 62443-3-3 standards are:
- Inadequate or unclear Security Guidelines.
- A lack of documentation on the security audit…