I often walk through my quiet neighborhood streets on weekday evenings or weekend mornings. These are the times when I don’t expect much traffic, and my expectations are usually met. The probability of a dangerous event that would injure me seems pretty low (risk assessment), since I am usually…
exida explains Blog
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, July 07, 2015
- Functional Safety
That Could Never Happen! What are the Odds?
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Monday, June 29, 2015
- Functional Safety
Can Wireless be used in Functional Safety?
exida just completed certification of a new sensor product that uses wireless communication to signal a safety logic solver of a potential problem. Shortly after the certificate was posted, a challenge arose: “How can wireless be used for safety?” Well, it is different. A designer must be fully…
- by Dave Johnson, CFSE
- Tuesday, June 16, 2015
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Performing a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment as a Component of the PHA
There are three main components of the safety lifecycle: analysis, realization, and operation. We will be taking a look at the analysis phase, particularly related to the cyber industry.
To start, the first thing to do in both safety and security is do a detailed process, hazard and…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Wednesday, June 10, 2015
- Functional Safety
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 3
Over the course of several blogs , I will talk about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it…
- 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…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Thursday, June 04, 2015
- Functional Safety
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 2
Over the course of several blogs , I will talk about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Monday, June 01, 2015
- Functional Safety
Getting Realistic Failure Rate Data - Part 1
Over the course of several blogs , I will talk about getting realistic failure rate data, where this failure data comes from, and how different methods of failure data analysis compare. I think if you understand this, you will begin to get a very good feel of what it…
- by Denise Chastain Knight, P.E., CFSE, CCPSC
- Wednesday, May 27, 2015
- Functional Safety
Close Enough? Not so Much
Performing a SIL Verification calculation on preliminary design information can be a very useful tool to dial in the Safety Instrumented Function (SIF), Safety Requirements Specification (SRS) content , and define critical elements for the field component purchase specifications. Conceptual verification is typically performed quickly with general design information.…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Thursday, April 30, 2015
- Software
LOPAx™: This is Awesome!
You will probably not hear me sing the LEGO® Movie’s “Everything is Awesome” song, I’ll keep that private (and you should be thankful to me for that). However as we just released the LOPAx™ module of the new exSILentia® v4 platform, I have come to…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Wednesday, April 01, 2015
- Certification
Competency: Cutting Corners?
Let’s turn our attention to home remodeling projects for a minute… literally cutting corners.
Most people are familiar with trim molding (baseboard and chair rail). Laying out the trim on long flat surfaces is pretty easy: measure, cut, nail, paint… done. Ok, sometimes it goes: measure, cut, measure again,…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Thursday, March 26, 2015
- Functional Safety
Texas City Refinery Explosion: Ten Years Later
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Texas City Refinery Explosion. Is it any safer to work in the oil refinery industry since then? That’s not an easy question to answer. It’s difficult to get a yardstick out to measure safety. But if we consider the number of…
- by Denise Chastain Knight, P.E., CFSE, CCPSC
- Tuesday, March 24, 2015
- Functional Safety
Challenge the LOPA - 10th anniversary of the BP Texas City Refinery explosion
On the 10th anniversary of the BP Texas City Refinery explosion, let’s pause to reflect on one of the lessons learned from this disaster. The process had multiple layers of protection, including operating procedures, BPCS control and alarms, independent alarms, and relief devices. There was additional instrumentation…
- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Friday, March 13, 2015
- Certification
What is Competency Anyway?
I’ve been following some discussions from one of the online forums regarding competency and it’s clear from the correspondence that the issue of competency is still very subjective. It made me think about “what is competency?” To me it’s a blend of knowledge and experience and just how well…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Thursday, February 26, 2015
- Software
Using the PHAx™ Libraries
Conducting a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) can be quite laborious. In a HAZOP, you will systematically evaluate the applicable deviations for each node, within each unit, within each plant. The exSILentia® v4 PHAx™ module is setup to use…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, February 17, 2015
- Alarm Management
Help Your Operators Defeat the Situation Awareness Demons!
Contrary to what you might have guessed, the “Defeat of the Situation Awareness Demons” is not a new video game on XBOX or Playstation. It is a set of eight (8) factors which undermine effective Situation Awareness. It can be applied to operators in process plants to characterize human…