Prerequisites for IEC 61508 application

Experience indicates that properly applied, IEC 61508 can lead to significant economic and safety benefits for user organisations. To apply the standard correctly requires judgement, competency and planning. A number of projects have had significant problems with applying the standard that can be traced to poor understanding and inadequate preparation. The problems have included additional costs, project delay and in more than one case rejection of the safety case. There are a number of essential steps that need to be taken prior to application of IEC 61508. The steps include making senior management aware of the essential principle of the risk based approach so that agreement can be reached on risk targets and the method that will be use to determine the need for risk reduction. Policy and strategy also need to be agreed. Project management also needs to develop awareness of the safety process so that safety lifecycle and project lifecycles can be properly planned and integrated. Appropriate procedures and documents will need to be defined. Project technical staff will need training on the detailed requirements within the standard and be made aware of the tolerable risk targets and the project procedures that will be applied. Application of IEC 61508 will never be easy but with the above preparation problems can be solved with a safe and cost effective outcome.