Let me be the first to say that I don’t normally do book reviews. Frankly, I thought I left them behind years ago when they were required assignments for my undergraduate classes. Nevertheless, I find myself…
exida explains Blog
The Cuckoo’s Egg & How it Relates to Cybersecurity
Why Data Science Knowledge is Required in Alarm Management
The alarm system is a daily encounter for most operations across different industries. For oil and gas, the alarm system alerts and reminds the operation to take action(s) to revert the process back to…
Are You Measuring the Performance of Your SIS?
I’ve been teaching our FSE100 course now for nearly 10 years and it always amazes me that when teaching the course, the number of times I find that end users in the…
New Year’s Resolution: Plan for OT Cybersecurity
The New Year is a great time to make resolutions, but often as the weeks pass, these resolutions fall to the back burner. A study completed in 2016 showed that less than 25% of…
The Perfect Match of Lockpicking and Cybersecurity
First off, an introduction is in order. My name is Greg Houser, and I’m one of the new fish…
To Be Meaningful & Useful Failure Rates Must Be Validated
Engineers and managers who work with safety equipment have likely seen a failure rate of some kind quoted for the equipment. Some equipment even comes with a safety certification stating the failure rate given certain…
Evolution of Engineering Design – Advanced Diagnostics vs Redundancy
I recently studied the design changes made on the T series of old British cars (a hobby) made by the MG Company in England from 1936-1955. Models progressed over that time period including the TA,…
Functional Safety Assessments – Why Aren’t They Being Done?
It’s an interesting fact that many end users and engineering companies that I’ve talked to have not or do not undertake Functional Safety Assessments (FSAs). Why is this? My view is that many do not realize…
Getting Failure Rate Data on a New Component
Realistic component failure rate data is critical to an effective Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA). This failure rate data can eventually be obtained from component parts manufacturers, research and field failure…
What ASIL is a software tool?
TL;DR Tools used in developing safety related automotive systems do not receive an ASIL. Some tools and the way they are used may not be suitable for the development of automotive safety electronics and…
Failure Rate Analysis Paralysis
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…
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…