Complex Regulatory and Industry Requirements
Navigating IEC 61511, corporate requirements, regional regulations, and other industry standards can be overwhelming without specialized expertise.
Get functional safety right— from hazard analysis to lifecycle compliance
Functional safety isn't a single calculation. It's a lifecycle.
Functional safety is more than meeting a standard. It's about making the right decisions throughout the safety lifecycle—without over-engineering, leaving gaps, or creating unnecessary risk. There are many decisions that need to be made during the lifecycle:
- What hazards require further protection?
- What is the best type of protection for the application?
- Is a safety function needed?
- What requirements does the safety function need to meet?
- What design and architecture is needed?
- How is the safety function going to be validated?
- How is the safety function going to be maintained?
Each question is an opportunity for a gap, an incorrect assumption, or an unnecessary expense.
That's where exida comes in. exida provides independent functional safety engineering expertise across the complete IEC 61511 lifecycle, helping you achieve the right level of risk reduction and demonstrate it with confidence.
Challenges
Why Functional Safety Projects Often Fall Short
Functional safety programs frequently encounter challenges that lead to increased project costs, schedule delays, compliance gaps, and unnecessary operational risk. Without the proper processes, tools, and expertise, organizations may either over-design systems and waste capital or under-design protections and expose personnel, assets, and the environment to unacceptable risk.
Resource & Competency Gaps
Many organizations lack sufficient in-house expertise to effectively execute safety lifecycle activities and maintain compliance.
Incomplete Safety Lifecycle Execution
Gaps in hazard analysis, SIL determination, verification, validation, or management of change can undermine safety performance.
Over-Engineered or Under-Protected Systems
Improper safety requirements can result in excessive capital spending or unacceptable operational risk.
SIL Verification & Validation Challenges
Verifying that safety instrumented functions consistently achieve required performance targets requires specialized tools, methods, and expertise.
Aging SIS Infrastructure
Legacy safety systems and failure to replace equipment before wear out often create reliability, cybersecurity, maintenance, and compliance concerns.
exida's approach
You don't have to Navigate the Safety Lifecycle Alone.
exida bring decades of functional safety experience to the decisions that matter most.
Our engineers work alongside your team to:
- Identify hazards and understand risk
- Define appropriate safety requirements
- Determine SIL targets
- Design and evaluate safety instrumented functions
- Verify that architectures achieve their required performance
- Validate the implemented system
- Manage the safety lifecycle over time
And we don't simply deliver a report and leave.
We help your team understand the decisions, the reasoning behind them, and the implications for operations.
Benefits
From Lifecycle to Life Saver
Every safety lifecycle starts with a question:
What could go wrong?
The engineering challenge is turning the answer into the right protection—protection that is sufficient to reduce risk, practical to implement, reliable to operate, and defensible to regulators and assessors.
That's what exida helps you do.
From hazard analysis to lifecycle management, we help turn functional safety requirements into real-world risk reduction.
Reduced Operational Risk
Understand why a safety requirement, architecture, or SIL determination is appropriate.
Right-sized protection
Avoid both unnecessary capital expenditure and insufficient risk reduction..
Reliable Operation
Design and maintain safety functions without sacrificing unnecessary availability or operational performance
Clear Compliance
Build the evidence needed to demonstrate conformance with applicable functional safety requirements and regulations.
Lifecycle confidence
Know that functional safety isn't just addressed during a project—it remains managed throughout the operating lifecycle.
Learn the way—not just the answer
exida engineers guide your team through each safety activity, building the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and apply the approach independently.
Seamless Integration
exida experts use the industry-leading exSILentia platform to streamline safety engineering, making your projects more efficient and effective.
Data-Backed Analysis
Our database of 300+ billion operating hours brings real-world data to your functional safety analysis, helping you make more informed engineering decisions.
Learn More
Functional Safety for the Process Industry Resources
Explore our brochures, webinars, whitepapers, and blog posts to go deeper on Functional Safety for the Process Industries.
Go Beyond the SIL Number
Understand the three barriers that determine whether a Safety Instrumented Function truly achieves its required SIL.
What Does It Really Take to Achieve a SIL?
Learn why a passing PFDavg calculation isn't enough, and how to evaluate the complete SIF design.
Can You Trust Your Failure Data?
Learn why the quality and credibility of failure-rate data can make a critical difference in SIF design verification.
Reduce Cost by Connecting the Lifecycle
See how better flow of safety data from analysis through operations can improve engineering efficiency and reduce lifecycle cost.
Know Whether Your Safety Lifecycle Is Working with FSAs
Understand the role of Functional Safety Assessments in demonstrating that your safety lifecycle has been properly implemented.
A Systematic Approach to Functional Safety in an Olefins Plant
See how a systematic approach can help you navigate complex functional safety requirements, make defensible engineering decisions, and achieve the right level of risk reduction throughout the safety lifecycle.
Take Action
Go from Complexity to Confidence
From Hazard Analysis to Lifecycle Compliance
Functional safety doesn't end with the analysis. You need the knowledge to make informed decisions, the expertise to apply it, and the tools to document and manage the results throughout the lifecycle.
exida gives you all three.
Get Knowledge
Build your functional safety expertise.
Learn from exida through exida Academy training, industry-leading books, and CFSE personnel certification—so your team has the knowledge and skills to make informed functional safety decisions.
Get Engineering Support
Work with experts who show you the way.
Partner with exida's functional safety experts to do the work with you—or show you how to do it yourself. Get practical guidance from hazard analysis through lifecycle implementation and compliance.
[Talk to an exida Expert]
Get the Tools
Turn analysis into traceable results.
Use the industry-leading exSILentia platform to perform functional safety analysis and document your results in a clear, consistent, and traceable way.