Most of the accidents and disasters within the process industry are caused by wrong management, including the management of Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). According to IEC 61511, end users are responsible for the whole lifecycle of the SIS. End users shall document this in a functional safety management (FSM) system to manage the SIS in a safe manner. An FSM system shall include all functional safety related procedures applicable to the SIS lifecycles the end user is involved in such as the procedures for maintenance and proof testing, the procedures for modifications (MoC), the procedures for override and reset, the procedures for startup, etc. Next to this end users must document the roles and responsibilities of all involved with the SIS and manage the competency of all. The main intent of FSM system is to reduce and/or avoid systematic failures with the ultimate goal to prevent the incidents related with the disablement of SIF.
Customer Challenges
An FSM system includes all contents related to functional safety, the SIS, the SIFs, the SIL levels, SIS instruments and the parts of Process Safety Management (PSM). It is experienced as “difficult” to understand and implement functional safety, SIS, SIF, SIL and the relation between FSM and PSM. Nevertheless, it is also the end-user’s responsibility. Many customers are not aware that an FSM system is like a “super” ISO 9001 quality system.
Our Solution
Yokogawa functional safety experts are experienced in documenting and assisting in the creation of FSM systems for various end users. They have enough know-how to guide clients in the setup an FSM system by means of FSM workshops, training, gap analyses and FSM audits together with the responsible person(s) of the end user. They also understand the relation between FSM and PSM and guide easy convergence between FSM and PSM. This joint effort can result in a report on the maturity of the client’s FSM system on which the client can base a self-declaration on systematic capability (systematic safety integrity). Such a self-declaration is sufficient as the IEC standards are not asking for formal certification.
Customer Benefits
The SIS in-charge of the end user will be able to follow standardized procedures to maintain the original SIL from the phase when the plant was designed. End users can reduce incidents caused by systematic failures and human errors in relation with SIS. An FSM system can also lead to less spurious/false trips which will increase plant availability. End users can gain the trust from government regulators and insurance companies through these dedicated activities to keep SIL by means of well applied FSM.
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