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 the operator fails to acknowledge it, was it really an alarm? A prevalence of unacknowledged…
exida explains Blog
- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, November 11, 2021
- Alarm Management
If an Alarm Occurs and the Operator doesn’t Ack it, was it really an Alarm?
- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Thursday, November 04, 2021
- Functional Safety
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 of the safety lifecycle. One of the key aspects of the Operation and Maintenance phase…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, October 26, 2021
- Alarm Management
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 alarm, which is often directly or indirectly caused by nuisance alarms. Poor alarm management has…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Thursday, October 21, 2021
- Functional Safety
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 manufacturers publish data based on field return data where they classify failures caused by customers…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, August 12, 2021
- Software
“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the drive for digitalization and the Internet of Things the expression “Content is King”, coined by Bill Gates, has now been replaced by “Data is King”.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 where the safety and reliability predictions generated from a Failure Modes, Effects & Diagnostics Analysis…
- by Bill Thomson
- Tuesday, August 10, 2021
- Certification
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 records (AKA logs).
Improving compliance in these areas is also a very cost-effective…
- by Dave Johnson, CFSE
- Thursday, July 22, 2021
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Block that attack! Getting IEC 62443 Cyber Certified (Part 4)
This is the next in a series of blogs and papers on the benefits of cyber certification. You can read part 1 here , part 2 here, and part 3 here . Certification provides you with the opportunity to work with an experienced cyber team here at exida, and…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Thursday, July 08, 2021
- Functional Safety
Can Checklists Prevent Human Error?
In the book “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”, Atul Gawande, surgeon and best-selling author, tackles the problem of how to prevent human error in an age where 
professionals grapple with the increasing complexity of their responsibilities. Errors,…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, June 29, 2021
- Certification
Spend Your Product Development Time Wisely
Want to improve your safety lifecycle and be more compliant with IEC 61508? Focus on the things that have the most benefit. Like what? What are some of these valuable things?
One of the major deficiencies I see while doing certification assessments is…
- by Dave Johnson, CFSE
- Thursday, June 24, 2021
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Block that attack! Getting IEC 62443 Cyber Certified (Part 3)
This is the next in a series of blogs and papers on the benefits of cyber certification. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here. Certification provides you with the opportunity to work with an experienced cyber team here at exida, and the vast knowledge of cyber…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Alarm Management
Operator Response - the SRK Model
Understanding operator decision-making is a good first step in improving operator effectiveness. Operator decision-making depends on the person (their level of expertise) and the situation (how familiar). A popular behavioral model from Rasmussen proposes that operator response can be broken into three levels; skill-based behavior, rule-based behavior, and knowledge-based behavior as shown in…
- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Tuesday, May 11, 2021
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Pipeline Safety and Security – Why are we still not prepared?
It’s interesting that I had been preparing a webinar on pipeline safety and security since there have already been numerous incidents reported regarding pipeline accidents and leakage. Now the latest incident concerning Colonial Pipeline and the ransomware attack by Darkside, a so-called extortion group,…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, April 20, 2021
- Certification
Safety Application Shortcuts - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
No, you probably don’t want to hurt me. But if your product is used in a safety application, and my job depends on your product doing its job, will it hurt me if it fails?
With so many of us doing more things differently during the COVID pandemic, I wonder if…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, April 13, 2021
- Functional Safety
Learning From History So We Don’t Repeat It – New Tools
According to numerous industry studies, significant improvement has been made over the last 20 -30 years in occupational safety, but not so much in operational safety (process safety). New process safety incidents continue to occur that bear a striking resemblance to previous incidents. This means we are not effectively learning…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Thursday, April 08, 2021
- Certification
What is SIL (Safety Integrity Level)?
The term SIL is rapidly spreading to Request for Proposals (RFP) and purchase requirements in many industries. But in many of those industries, few have heard about SIL and fewer have a grasp of the fundamental concepts of SIL. SIL is a term that means Safety Integrity Level. It is used…