There is a certain degree of risk in every activity that is undertaken, and as a society, we look at mitigating and dealing with these risks in different ways. Sometimes we deal with these risks by ensuring the environment we are in, reduces the risk to a tolerable level. Similarly, in an organization to maintain the right working environment with minimal risk, three different entities come together – viz. people, paperwork, and procedures.
When people are trained to deal with the worst situations, they can be the first respondents to any adversity. This is done by assigning roles, responsibilities, and training to ensure every individual is competent in taking up a designated role or responsibility. Paperwork entails all the record-keeping and documentation of every process across every phase. Procedures include testing and re-testing the set procedures to find possible lapses and solutions to counter them accordingly.
Moreover, multiple industries deal with complex systems that multiply the risk that is present. In the automotive industry for example, there are numerous individuals involved, right from the parts of an automotive being manufactured until the point in time it is retired. To ensure every single step is functionally safe in every aspect, functional safety and related risk management system is adhered to throughout the development process.
This includes:
• Requirements specification
• Design
• Implementation
• Integration
• Verification
• Validation
• Configuration
Functional safety when implemented appropriately can greatly improve the safety and quality of the product/s. One can also see lesser maintenance issues in the operations, with seamless integration of the right functional safety techniques.
RISING DEMAND FOR FUNCTIONAL SAFETY-CERTIFIED SYSTEMS
Owing to the risks that functional safety management mitigates, it is not surprising to see functional safety-certified systems becoming pivotal for organizations. Moreover, organizations are acknowledging how the implementation of regulatory measures across functional safety can proportionately lead to growth. This has led to different governments making it mandatory for different industries to implement functional safety measures within the organizations. Owing to these requirements, there has been a steady rise in the market for functional safety systems, predominantly across oil and gas plants along with manufacturing, power, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and petrochemical industries. This growth can also be seen in the latest market research on functional safety where the sector was worth USD 4.6 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 7.1 billion by 2024.
I wrote this for my company and the original link to the blog is, https://www.tuvsud.com/en-in/resource-centre/blogs/importance-of-functional-safety-training-and-certification
This approach is formulated by international regulatory bodies that employers and employees follow in tandem, wherein the regulations depend on the nature of work an organisation performs.
This leads us to the topic of functional safety compliance.SO, WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL SAFETY-COMPLIANCE?Before we dwell on functional safety compliance, it is important to understand the context and definitions of different aspects that constitute functional safety.
This could be caused either directly or indirectly from damage to property or the environment.
Risk on the other hand, can be defined as the amalgamation of the severity of harm that can be caused, and the probability of harm being caused.Functional safety can then be defined as the process of achieving the “absence of unwanted/unreasonable risk that is caused by hazards which take place due to malfunctioning of programmable/electrical/electronic systems.” Functional safety is a pivotal part of the overall safety that ensures a system or equipment is operating appropriately to the inputs.Failure in an operation can either be a Systematic Failure which can be eliminated only by changing the operational or manufacturing process, design and procedures; or can be a Random HW Failure which can occur at any point, unpredictably, during the lifetime of the process.Now that we have addressed the basics, let us define functional safety compliance.
In simple words, functional safety is a part of the overall safety that depends on a system or equipment operating correctly in response to its inputs.WHAT ARE FUNCTIONAL SAFETY STANDARDS?Safety-critical industries need to comply with safety standards pertaining to their industrial sector.
Here is a list of a few Functional Safety Standards associated with different Industries.IEC 61508: Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems ISO 26262: Automotive IEC 61511: Process Industry IEC 62304: Medical Devices EN 50126, EN 50128, EN 50129: Railway Applications (Signaling and Rolling Stock) ISO 25119: AgricultureWHY IS FUNCTIONAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT IN THIS DAY AND AGE?There is a certain degree of risk in every activity that is undertaken, and as a society, we look at mitigating and dealing with these risks in different ways.
