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Recorded Webinars: Shared Components for SIS & BPCS – not a good idea
The webinar addresses the problems relating to the problems of sharing components between the Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and Basic Process Control System (BPCS). The webinar highlights the impact on reliability and the need to perform an analysis on the contribution to the dangerous failure of the common cause failure, to ensure it is sufficiently low and within acceptable norms.
The webinar introduces the concept of the common cause factor (Beta) and the impact this has on shared or redundant components of SIS and BPCS. It explores some examples of the impact on PFDavg and how this can be compounded by also assuming perfect proof testing.
News Item: Wärtsilä receives first in the industry IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Certification from exida
Wärtsilä achieved IEC 62443 certification after a rigorous multi-month assessment from exida, the certifying organization and world leader in automation cyber security. The certification process included detailed analysis of engineering procedures to determine systematic capability and cyber security strength, documentation review, product design and device validation testing to show cyber…
Recorded Webinars: Alarm Management: Getting the Most Out of your Yokogawa Control System
Yokogawa has a long and rich history of “firsts” in the world of distributed control systems (DCS). They were one of the first suppliers to include alarm shelving, for example, long before it became required alarm management functionality per the ISA-18.2 / IEC 62682 standards. Despite this, many Yokogawa users don’t leverage the alarm management capabilities that are available to them. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss alarm management tools and capabilities that can be used to comply with the ISA-18.2 / IEC 62682 alarm management lifecycle, to reduce unwanted shutdowns (trips), reduce risk, and improve operator effectiveness. Highlights include discussion of how to analyze alarm system performance, perform rationalization, use eclipsing, alarm shelving, load shedding, alarm flood suppression, and present “Alarm Help” to the operator (alarm response procedures). Examples will be shown from CAMS, SILAlarm, exaquantum ARA and AMD, exapilot, and exaplog.
Emerson Automation Solutions - CVX and TBX Steam Conditioning Valves
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
News Item: New Online Course - FSE 001 - Introduction to Functional Safety
Has a potential customer ever said “We Need SIL”? What does that mean? What are the standards that specify SIL levels? What are the basic principles of these standards? The INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL SAFETY course from exida answers these questions and many more. Intended for those who are new to…
Blog Entry: Why Sharing Components Between SIS & BPCS Is Not A Good Idea
This is a topic which comes up time and again, especially when reviewing legacy systems. Although IEC61511 doesn’t preclude the use of shared devices, it does however provide guidance under Clause 11 of what the constraints are. Even though the Safety Instrumented System 〈SIS〉 and Basic Process Control System 〈BPCS〉…
Recorded Webinars: Impact of Human Factors on Operator Response to Alarm
According to numerous industry studies, human failure contributes to upwards of 80% of industrial accidents. New incidents continue to occur that bear a striking resemblance to previous incidents. This means we are not effectively learning from history. The purpose of this webinar is to review selected process industry incidents where operator response to an alarm was a contributing factor. It will examine the incidents through the lens of Human Factors Engineering to seek new insights and lessons learned to improve operator performance. The presentation will identify the possible type(s) of human error (slips, lapses, mistakes, or violations) for each incident and review how cognitive biases, situation awareness demons, and mental model failures may have contributed to the operator’s response.
Hepburn Engineering - Hepburn Hoist SIS
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Recorded Webinars: Safety Instrumented Function Verification – Essential Engineering Duties
Functional Safety standards have established an ingenious, systematic method for management of risk. This method establishes performance targets based on risk reduction need. Safety function designers must meet those targets based on justification and quantitative analysis. There are a few essential tasks that must be done in this effort. This webinar explains those tasks and the knowledge needed by those engineers who do this work.
News Item: NEO Monitors Receives SIL 2 Certification Through exida
Sellersville, PA: The global leader in functional safety, cybersecurity, and alarm management for the process industries, exida, has presented NEO Monitors with a Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2 certification for their LaserGas™ III Gas Monitor. Designed for gas concentration monitoring applications with a special focus on SIL-applications and Ex-d, the…
Blog Entry: Strong Safety Culture Translates to Lower Insurance Premiums
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 of…
NEO Monitors AS - LaserGas III Gas Monitor
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
News Item: exida Announces Business Partnership with Sensia
exida, a global supplier of functional safety products, services, and certifications, is pleased to announce a new business partnership with Sensia , the first fully integrated digital oilfield automation solutions provider. The new partnership will enable Sensia to expand its current process safety lifecycle services in terms of scope of…
News Item: New Case Study: Cybersecurity Gap Analysis and High-Level Risk Assessment
Customer; NIST Cybersecurity Framework and IEC 62443 (Parts 2-1, 3-2) A water plant approached exida to conduct a cybersecurity gap analysis and high-level risk assessment with the aim of abiding by the AWIA cybersecurity requirements. America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) of 2018 requires community water systems serving 3,300 or more…
Recorded Webinars: Learning from the Florida Water Hack
In early February of this year a water treatment facility was compromised in Florida. The attackers successfully increased the concentration of sodium hydroxide (also known as lye) by a factor of 100 risking potential illness for the public as well as significant erosion and pipe damage. Fortunately, operators of the Oldsmar water treatment facility saw the attackers increase the concentration and were able to return the concentration to normal levels before there was any risk for harm to the public. This near-miss highlights several important trends for industrial cybersecurity: Industrial cybersecurity incidents can have major health and safety implications, Critical infrastructure makes an attractive target to a variety of hackers, Critical infrastructure is highly susceptible to cybersecurity attack. In this webinar we will review what is known so far about the attack on the Florida water system and identify practical steps that can be taken to improve the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure systems.
Blog Entry: Attack on Florida Water System Highlights Weak Security Protections for Critical Infrastructure
The Oldsmar Water Treatment Facility in Pinellas County Florida was compromised by hackers on February 5th. Hackers took advantage of the TeamViewer application that was still installed on the water facilities network to gain remote access 1 . The TeamViewer was originally installed to allow for status checks and troubleshooting…
Blog Entry: IEC 62443 - The Evolution of IACS Cybersecurity
When we were doing safety system designs in the 1980s, there was no Windows, there was no TCP/IP, there was no in Ethernet. We had to write our own protocols to transmit data to our I/O and our controllers. Fault-finding was always a challenge . What we ended up doing…
Recorded Webinars: Impact of Improper Maintenance Practices
The webinar addresses the problems relating to the impact of improper Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) maintenance practices and what this means, as well as looking at the competency requirements. Most companies believe they follow good SIS maintenance practices but do they really? Are they really measuring and tracking this? How do they measure and track?
Recent major accidents have been traced back to poor site safety practices, culture and competencies. The webinar addresses some of these issues and suggests a means for tracking and measuring how well maintenance and mechanical integrity is being performed.
What you will learn?
- How poor site safety will affect the SIS and SIF performance
- What constitutes the right approach
- What metrics can be used for tracking
- How to assess where a company is currently situated
Who should attend?
- Operations and maintenance personnel
- Plant Managers and Supervisors
Blog Entry: Alarm Rationalization: An Art or a Science? – Common Rationalization Mistakes
Successful alarm rationalization combines both art and science. From the scientific point of view, rationalization follows a systematic process that applies alarm management principles to determine whether an alarm is justified (needed) and to document its basis (cause, consequence, corrective action, time to respond) and settings (priority, setpoint) in a…
News Item: exida Offers Remote Lifecycle Services for Alarm Management
If your alarm management program has suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, exida can get back on track. exida can help you improve your skills and knowledge (initial & refresher training), update / introduce new processes (alarm system remediation), add new functionality (alarm flood suppression, Alarm Help), and make progress with…