IEC61508: an opportunity for reliability

摘要

Reliability practitioners can find wide-ranging opportunities in these new standards, which require a renewed emphasis on Markov analyses, more rigorous FMEAs, called failure modes and effects, diagnostic analysis (FMEDA), and more accurate failure rate predictions. This paper addresses some issues encountered by this reliability practitioner in recent work on Markov analyses, FMEDAs and failure rate predictions for designs for safety related systems intended to satisfy the SIL requirements from both standards. This paper recounts lessons learnt in the application of these two new standards over more than two years' worth of design assessment. This experience has included the usual and mundane task of scheduling and running FMEDAs, when, as typical throughout the industry, the entire staff is overworked and facing (to them) an unreasonable completion deadline.