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News Item: exida Announces Channel Partnership with Automation Distribution Inc.
Sellersville, PA : As the global leader in functional safety, control system cybersecurity and alarm management for the process industries, exida is pleased to announce their channel partnership with automation solutions provider Automation Distribution Inc. to offer functional safety, software and cybersecurity consulting services. The partnership helps exida extend its…
Blog Entry: How Does the IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Standard Apply to Integrators?
The IEC 62443 series of cybersecurity standards include over ten documents covering various subjects. Buying a full set is a bit expensive, but for me the real cost is the time needed to read and understand them. So I often ask one of the experts at exida for a quick…
News Item: 2018 exida User Conference in Singapore
exida Asia Pacific is pleased to announce the 2018 exida User Conference in Singapore. This conference is a great opportunity to learn about the new features of our powerful, integrated Safety Lifecycle Tool exSILentia version 4 as well as meet and engage in detailed discussions with our team of experts!…
Emerson EPRO - AMS 6500 ATG Digital Protection System
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
News Item: Q&A with Hal Thomas on ISA website
Hal Thomas, CFSE, serves as a Senior Safety Engineer at exida, a global leader in automation system safety, alarm management, cybersecurity, and availability. With more than 36 years of professional experience, Thomas is widely recognized as an expert in functional process safety analysis, including safety instrumented systems and high availability…
Blog Entry: Fake Fact: Diagnostics are useless
The idea that diagnostics are useless contradicts everything I’ve ever learned and taught about diagnostics. Diagnostics help identify problems. Diagnostics can turn a fault that is unrevealed during normal operation into a detected fault, which allows me to take action. That action could be an automatic transition to the safe…
Recorded Webinars: Performing Cyber Risk Assessments using exSILentia
Management of risk at a facility, or company-wide, requires careful consideration of potential process hazards as well as cyber-attacks. Cyber-attacks not only impact business from a financial perspective, but can also initiate process safety incidents. Cybersecurity standards are being written to address these issues both from a manufacturer as well as a user perspective. The most effective method for developing a streamlined work process is the creation of a cohesive lifecycle that addresses all automation requirements. Cyber risk assessments and security level verification are simplified by leveraging best practices from functional safety.
White Paper: Functional Safety Practices for Operations & Maintenance
Operation and maintenance teams bear a heavy responsibility to ensure that the Safety Instrumented System integrity and reliability is sustained. Decisions made long before operation begins, or outside the operating environment often impact the ability to be successful. Design choices fix physical configuration and instrumentation capabilities. Inadequate bid assessment results…
BDK Valve Private Limited - Triple Offset Butterfly Valves
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
BDK Valve Private Limited - B-TORQ Pneumatic Actuators
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
BDK Valve Private Limited - Trunnion Mounted and Floating Ball Valve
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
BDK Valve Private Limited - Double Eccentric Butterfly Valve
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Training Course: IEC62443 Cybersecurity for Integrators and Solution Providers
This Course is Also Offered Online This course addresses solution providers acting in roles of integrators and on-going support of industrial automated control systems, and how they interact with owner / operators as part of the overall supply chain throughout the owner / operator’s lifecycle. The maturity model is introduced…
Recorded Webinars: IEC61511 Compliance - How to get Started
OSHA in the US and COMAH in the UK require companies to follow Best Practice or what is commonly known as RAGAGEP (Recognized And Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice). Companies coming under OSHA PSM or COMAH need to demonstrate that they are following RAGAGEP. The IEC61511/ISA-84 Process Industry standards are regarded as RAGAGEP.
The IEC61511/ISA-84 Standard is predicated upon a performance-based Safety Lifecycle (SLC) to help reduce risk and to provide a foundation for the development, operation and maintenance of Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). The SLC is composed of three phases: Analysis, Design/Implementation (Realization) and Operation and Maintenance. Compliance with the standard is often mixed and some companies struggle with where to start and how to comply.
This webinar outlines how a company can begin on the road to compliance by starting off with a simple GAP Assessment, which highlights any “gaps” and enables recommendations to be made on how to close any gaps. It also enables companies to build off existing managed quality systems they have in place, such as ISO9000. The goal is not to re-invent the wheel but to build off an existing platform with the goal of establishing a Functional Safety Management Plan that covers the SLC for any SIS.
Managers and personnel responsible for Functional and/or Process Safety should attend if they want to know more.
Blog Entry: Functional Safety Assessment of Valve Assemblies (Part 2)
In Part 1 , I covered the emerging trends in the valve assembly market, how these trends relate to IEC 61511 requirements, and the anatomy of final elements. Now let’s discuss why we need to show requirements traceability down through the design of the safety instrumented function and then onto…
News Item: exida VP of Global Business Development Interviewed for Precision Magazine
exida VP of Global Business Development and exida Academy instructor Steve Gandy, CFSP was interviewed in the Winter 2017 issue of InstMC's quarterly UK magazine Precision . Precision offers reviews from experts in the field and present technical articles related to measurement and control in an easy-to-comprehend style. The journal…
White Paper: Functional Safety For Managers – What Managers Need to Know
The purpose of this paper is to provide managers with an overview of their role and responsibility with regards to Process and Functional Safety, as defined within the IEC61511 standard1. Experience has shown that many companies management teams have little or no understanding of functional and/or process safety requirements. Process…
Recorded Webinars: Functional Safety Management For Managers
The IEC61511 Standard is built around a safety lifecycle (SLC) to provide a consistent approach to risk identification and risk reduction, in accordance with a company’s tolerable risk, following best practices. By following the SLC it provides a means of achieving optimum design that balances risk reduction with performance.
What governs the SLC is Functional Safety Management (FSM), which requires a plan to be in place that defines how functional safety will be managed throughout the entire SLC. FSM requires that there be processes and procedures in place, that are monitored and audited, to facilitate FSM. It also requires a competency plan to be in place to ensure staff are properly trained and regularly assessed. This needs to happen at all levels within the company, with anyone involved in SLC activities and/or tasks.
Managers need to also be competent when it comes to managing SLC tasks and being responsible for personnel who are performing SLC tasks. Understanding the importance of performing preventative maintenance and mechanical integrity to maintain process safety is key; arbitrarily cutting expenditure on maintenance and proof testing could lead to serious incidents. Managers who don’t understand the ramifications and/or can justify why budget cuts were made could end up being held accountable and could be prosecuted. Deniable culpability will not be a defense.
This webinar will highlight the importance of understanding FSM and how FSM can be managed and maintained. Executives, Managers and Supervisors should be aware of this and understand the ramifications.
Recorded Webinars: IEC 62443 - An Introduction to exida Cybersecurity Certification Programs
After a number of cybersecurity attacks on industrial control systems (ICS), most plant owner/operators now consider a cybersecurity attack to be a credible risk. In 2007 the ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI) was founded and defined the first cybersecurity certification scheme. Now in 2018, IEC 62443 standards have since been released, new schemes have been defined based on cybersecurity experience and these new standards. The presentation will describe the IEC 62443 Certification Program based on the progression of the IEC62443 standard.
Blog Entry: Do You Measure the Performance of Your SIS?
It always amazes me that when teaching our FSE 100 Functional Safety Engineering course, the number of times I find that end users in the class are not really measuring the performance of their SIS. In most cases, they are doing some measurements, but not thoroughly. It was partly for…