What constitutes a good coding guideline?
Serious software development for functional safety requires a coding standard or coding guideline. Most organizations have one, but how do you know if it’s good?
You need to look beyond the boilerplate and physical code layout that are often defined in a coding…
Insurance Companies are hedging their bets through premiums while the Manufacturing Industry is placing their wagers on luck.
The worlds of gambling and insurance are similar in many ways. Both are built upon elements of probability, modeling and quantification of risk. Professional gamblers are well informed on the odds…
I have often heard the question “Who says they can issue a certification?” This is often accompanied by “Why can’t I certify my own product?” “Who knows our design better than we do?” Good questions.
The IEC 61508 standard does not require certified products for Functional Safety. …
Have you even wondered, been involved, or WERE the little kid that didn’t listen to your parents, but always listened to a teacher? This is called the “Third party effect.” In business, it is well known that the power of persuasion can be the most effective by a third…
exida, the global leader in functional safety, industrial automation cybersecurity, and alarm management is thrilled to announce a new online testing platform for their CFSE (Certified Functional Safety Expert) and CACE (IEC 62443 Certified Automation Cybersecurity Expert) Certification programs. This also includes the CFSP and CACS…
It’s interesting that the majority of the time when people talk about functional safety, they are usually thinking about hardware: what sensors to use, which logic solver, what actuator, solenoid or valve to select; what voting architecture, etc. What often gets overlooked, initially, is the application program.
Essentially, when…
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…
The analysis of past safety accidents was conducted primarily regionally, and with companies having an “experienced” workforce. Today the global economy is undergoing major shifts in manufacturing which is making the issue of finding, developing, and retaining experienced people more challenging than in the past. In “Brownfield” (developed) areas,…
Significant progress in process safety has been made by many companies and engineers around the globe. This progress is often overshadowed when a process safety accident hits the news. In December of 2007, a runaway reaction led to an explosion at the T2 Laboratories in Jacksonville, FL.…
Hey everybody. I hope this blog finds you, your family, and your colleagues well. At exida, we appreciate the trust you place in our solutions and services to support you in achieving your functional safety, cybersecurity, and alarm management needs. We are committed…
Sure, you might think I’ve got it made… sitting here on my perch telling you what you need to do to meet IEC 61508, while you sit there with all the work to do. Well, it wasn’t always that way. I was in your shoes, responsible for achieving functional…
When the latest edition of IEC61511 was published in 2016, one of the key changes was the emphasis on competency and some further guidance on what this means. The relevant clauses in the IEC61511:2016 are 5.2.2.1 to 5.2.2.3 under Clause 5.2.2: Organization and Resources. I am often asked what…
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…
When it comes to IEC61511 and the selection of equipment for use within Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF), there are only two methods that can be used to justify selection: IEC61508 Certified devices for the required SIL or Prior Use Justification. Just…
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…
If you’re a manager in the process industries then you should be familiar with the concept of Functional Safety and the need to have well defined processes and procedures in place. If not, then how else will you be able to ensure that your Safety Instrumented System and plant…
The new release of IEC61511:2016 has caused some confusion when it comes to the Functional Safety Assessments (FSAs). Which ones are mandatory?
The confusion comes from the wording in the standard and the clarifications in the notes. The relevant clause in the standard 5.2.6.1.4 states:
A FSA team…
Many will agree that exida's Safety Equipment Reliability Handbook (SERH) and the Safety Automation Equipment List (SAEL) are very useful tools for choosing products to use in safety instrumented systems. The SAEL shows a product’s IEC 61508 and cyber security…
In a marketplace where many of buyers of firmly committed to “proven in use,” many projects are still using 30 year-old logic solver designs. Proven in use is a valuable concept especially for field equipment where it is hard to evaluate how well a product design will…
Memory mapping is a technique used in computer systems to manage memory resources safely, it involves creating a virtual address space that corresponds directly to the physical memory or to a portion of it, this allows programs to access memory in a way that is…
