Safety Instrumented Systems

"A safety instrumented system (SIS) takes automated action to keep a plant in a safe state, or to put it into a safe state, when abnormal conditions are present..." - Mike Boudreaux

"Part 2: When considering integrated control and safety systems, building a strong defense is an investment in ensuring business continuity. How should you implement the concepts?" - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"It’s becoming increasingly evident that functional safety cannot be developed in a vacuum, and functional security cannot be achieved without significant philosophical (if not physical) interconnection with the control systems of the industrial plant or utility." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"Vessel overflow protection systems seem so simple, so straightforward—that is until one of them fails to work properly and your plant is the six o’clock news" - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"The ISA99 standard on industrial automation and control systems security and the ISA84 standards on safety instrumented systems will join efforts to form a working group under ISA99 on safety and security. Working Group 7 (WG7): Safety and Security of Industrial Automation and Control Systems will help promote greater awareness of the impact of cyber security issues on the safe operation of industrial processes." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"The 2009 Industrial Automation Safety and Security Symposium, sponsored by the ISA Safety Division, concluded in Texas at the Marriott Houston Hobby Airport on 23 April." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"I believe that one day it will only take one control system to automate your critical process. That's right, there will be day where it is commonly accepted that a single platform can and will provide both control and safety shutdown operations. The system themselves will be able to provide the logical seperation necessary to comply." - Charles Fialkowski - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"Combustion equipment safety is critical to the daily operation of all facilities and the safety of every employee. This paper will help you understand how to protect your employees from combustion-related incidents involving fuel-fired equipment (boilers, ovens, furnaces) before you end up a headline." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"exida is unique in the automation business right now. The company recently came in to brief ARC on its strategy for approaching safety certification, cyber security certification, and other businesses." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"“ASCO Numatics has demonstrated that its development processes and product characteristics meet the requirements of the IEC 61508 safety standard,” says exida Partner Chris O’Brien. “The results of the detailed audit are documented in exida’s SafetyCase tool that ensures all relevant requirements of standard are satisfied.”" - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"For other viewpoints on this topic, there are several references available via the DeltaV SIS website, including an ARC whitepaper titled Business Issues Driving Safety System Integration. You can also see a lot of back and forth on this topic of separation, if you're a member of the ISA safety mailing list. Several Emerson process safety experts can be found in the SIS discussions that take place on this list." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

This is a response to Charlie Fialkowski's blog post on the same topic: http://blogs.sea.siemens.com/blogs... - Mike Boudreaux

Charlie Fialkowski speaks his mind on integration of safety and control. - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

A response to this blog post is on the Emerson Process Experts blog: http://www.emersonprocessxperts.com/archive... - Mike Boudreaux

"The latest approach is to base the safeguarding strategy on a task and associated hazard analysis and implement the safeguards in robotic programmable safety systems (RPSS), rather than in separate safety PLCs. This is spurring a quiet revolution in safety policies and associated safety systems; most notably robotic suppliers are introducing innovative solutions that provide protection from the "inside out" rather than the "outside looking in" approach that has been pervasive in the industry." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"In the process industries, many safety instrumented functions operate in "low demand" mode where a dangerous condition exists very infrequently. In such situations, a "Proof Test" must often be done to detect certain failures in the equipment. Various types of proof test techniques are discussed along with tradeoffs in coverage and expense. The exSILentia Proof Test tool is used to show examples of proof test planning documents." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

Link to the video: http://www.safetyusersgroup.com/video_b... - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"Boom! Factories have been going boom and managers have lied to the CSB. Walt Boyes and ARC’s Larry O’Brien discuss what appears to be a crisis in process functional safety in this month’s Control/ARC Podcast edition." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"All on You - Process safety Standards and Rules Still Lack Specifics, but Some Tools Are Gaining Ground to Help Users Assess Risk and Implement Safety Solutions" - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"BP Oil recently contracted with Emerson Process Management to add its DeltaV SIS to BP’s tank overspill protection systems at fuel storage and distribution sites across the U.K (Figure 1). These updated protection systems will monitor tank levels and automatically shut off feeds if levels reach a high cut-off limit. DeltaV’s SIS uses predictive diagnostics to monitor each tank’s whole safety loop, and its logic solver communicates via HART protocol with smart devices to diagnose fault before they cause spurious trips." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"The chairpersons of the ISA99 Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security committee announced plans to establish ISA99 Working Group 7 (WG7): Safety and Security of Industrial Automation and Control Systems. This is a joint working group between the ISA99 committee and the ISA84 functional safety standards committee, as well as other international standards programs and related interest groups, to promote greater awareness of the impact of cyber security issues on the safe operation of industrial processes." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"Businesses have been aggressively engaged in establishing a strong defense against unauthorized access to their digital systems for about the last 20 years. Today we generally refer to these defensive efforts as cyber security, and while protecting against attackers that are using the Internet is an important consideration, cyber security represents only one part of a robust strategy that builds a larger sense of defense-in-depth." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"For many automation professionals the safety world seems littered with a bewildering array of new an somewhat unfamiliar concepts and acronyms like SIF, SIS, SLS, BPCS. The list seems endless. Fortunately, Emerson's own Mike Schmidt wrote an excellent summary of this topic for Chemical Engineering magazine in an article titled, "Tolerable Risk (175KB PDF)." Mike's description is an excellent place to look for practical, well laid out information. This article can give you a fair overview of the topic and includes worked-out examples of how to apply the specifics of risk determination." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"Recent high-profile incidents are among factors driving an increased awareness of safety standards. Here’s an overview of the field, a look at some of the latest updates and some advice on staying ahead of the curve." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"The rollout of the Fieldbus Foundation’s FF-SIF safety protocol has sparked considerable interest and many questions about the protocol itself and about networked safety in general." - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

"An undersized heating system for the residue treater vessel, long known to the Bayer management personnel, required operators to deviate from written procedures. To deal with the inadequate heater, operators had to bypass critical safety interlocks intended to prevent the flow of Methomyl into the residue treater until the required minimum temperature was reached. "The practice of bypassing the safety interlocks was longstanding and was known to Bayer managers and engineers," Mr. Bresland said. "But bypassing the safety interlocks made it much more likely to overcharge the vessel with Methomyl, which could lead to a catastrophic runaway reaction."" - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

Many consider the hazard analysis to be the most critical part of the safety lifecycle. Systematic methods have been developed over the last few decades to identify potential hazards in a process. An overview of these methods will be presented along with current generation engineering tools used to assist those perfroming and documentating the analysis. - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet

As Networks Move to Digital Technology, Some of Them Take On Safety. Users Integrate Control and Safety Where Possible and Keep Them Separate When Necessary - Mike Boudreaux from Bookmarklet