The new IEC 61508 club exists both to share information and experiences and to promote the concept to others.
The experience of many of the companies who have had their functional safety capability certified under IEC 61508 is that it did not cost as much as they feared, and it delivered benefits. Those who have had the 'certification experience' are keen to share their understanding with others and have formed a new club to do so.
They are convinced that certification to IEC 61508 (Functional safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic safety-related systems) will improve safety here in the UK, give rise to better designed systems and reduce costs.
Certification to IEC 61508 is fast becoming perceived as demonstrating best practice.
Members of the new club believe that the HSE, which encouraged the development of this certification in the first place, will soon regard it as 'prima facie' evidence of good management of a site. The new IEC 61508 club exists both to share information and experiences and to promote the concept to others.
It is open to new members, especially from the manufacturing and user base for functional safety products - this includes industries such as engineering, plant and process, rail and nuclear, etc Membership is FREE and current members are hosting meetings as well as a planned workshop to take place in October.
More formal training and consultancy can also be provided.
Managers and directors in UK manufacturing and site management are increasingly becoming aware of their legal and contractual obligations with regard to the management of safety.
Certification of their Functional Safety Capability provides a low cost way of demonstrating compliance, certified by a competent third party.
Associated benefits of a structured review of the process are improved design of systems, better specifications, lower maintenance costs and confidence for senior management that they have followed best practice in their safety systems.
Bob Smith of Hima Sella, one of the first companies in this country to gain certification, confirms that more and more specifiers are now making demonstrable compliance with IEC 61508 mandatory in their new contracts.
They are doing this because they want best practice and they also want to be able to demonstrate that to stakeholders - staff, neighbours, community etc The view of another club member, Moore Industries is that the only commercially sensible way to demonstrate compliance to the satisfaction of their customers was to go for Certification of their Functional Safety Capability.
Rob Stockham of Moore says, "By keeping the scope of our initial certification quite tight we were able to control costs and avoid too large an investment.
Now that we have learnt from the initial phase and obtained some of the benefits we are happy to bring more work within the certified scope.' Safety system integrators need to specify components that comply with IEC 61508.
Product certification by a competent third party is another route for component manufacturers to demonstrate that their products meet the stringent requirements of the standard. This route is especially useful for established products that have a history of proven reliability.
Barry Lytollis, of explosion protection specialist MTL, says 'MTL know its customers need products which are certified to IEC 61508 and we are committed to supplying them.' Rotork Control and Safety, soon to become Serck Control and Safety, was also one of the first receive independent certification to IEC 61508.
Commenting on the successful audit, Dermot Coady, sales and marketing director said: "This certification provides additional insurance for clients faced with the challenge of ensuring that their processes meet the requirements of IEC 61508.
In particular, it eliminates the need for them to carry out an individual audit of our project and design implementation procedures, saving both time and money." Sira Certification Service (Sira) is the first certification body to be accredited to certify Functional Safety Capability and is a member of the new club.
David Lewis of Sira says that one of the key achievements of the club so far is getting certification bodies and their clients together talking about what the industry really wants.
This has already helped Sira shape the service it offers. Through the auspices of the club two of the UK 's certification bodies, Sira and Baseefa (2001) are now working together on developing a common approach to product certification under IEC 61508 with reference to documentation published by CASS scheme Ltd.
