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Functional Safety Made Easy


Ron Pierce sits on the Executive Committee of the IET Functional Safety TPN and sits on the IET Health and Safety Policy Panel


Ron introduced us to the definitions of a Hazard, Accident and Risk. The differences between a safety risk and a financial risk for example. The design processes associated with identifying passive and active controls to mitigate the safety risks. We then delved into Hazard Identification, the basic sources of hazard and requirement to control the hazards. He provided an example of a falling hammer (Hazard), the accident trigger (Person underneath falling hammer) and emphasised the importance of focusing on the entire system. We finished off the hazards discussion by exploring the different methods used to identify hazards (e.g. Check lists, HAZard & OPerability Studies, and Failure Modes & Effects Analysis). 


Picking up on the importance of looking at the entire system, Ron introduced us to Functional & Behavioural Performance Requirements (e.g. Define what the system must do and how quickly it must respond). Safety Integrity Levels, understanding how often a particular safety function can fail and still achieve an acceptable level of risk to the entire system. We explored the relationship between the business view of the system, Hazard & Risk Analysis and the safety departments view of the same system. 

For more information and some slides, please visit this site.