Offer
Functional safety
Issues
At industrial sites, the causes and consequences of hazards go well beyond technological aspects: they must be considered from financial, property, human and environmental perspectives. The physical integrity of an industrial site is characterised by the compliance with industrial processes and the preservation of product integrity.
Functional safety, as introduced in standard IEC 61508, covers Automated Safety Systems and Safety Instrumented Systems used for risk prevention and the protection of humans, the environment, and the industrial facilities themselves. These systems respond to stimuli to maintain the safety of assemblies or to place them in a safe configuration, acting as interlocking mechanisms. The risk reduction level to be obtained is then quantified in a SIL (Safety Integrity Level).
Our approach
The Assystem approach to functional safety covers all phases from the identification and characterisation of risks through to Maintenance in Operational Condition (MOC) of critical systems, and also includes their specification, design and turnkey integration.
Assystem has developed significant know-how organising maintenance teams (MOC/Third-party Application Maintenance) on-site for critical systems. In terms of the systems covered by standard IEC 61511 for example, these work teams intervene directly to ensure high levels of safety performance for these systems (safety integrity) and their monitoring.
There are many criteria that influence the nominal operations of a critical system (initial design choices, documentation, training of operational and maintenance personnel, obsolescence management, execution of preventive maintenance, physical and cyber security for the system itself and the associated utilities etc.).
Our assets
Industrial information and control systems
Historic expertise in automation and safety, coupled with our independent mastery of the technological solutions on the market enable us to offer pertinent choices suited to all different cases.
"Global security" approach
Personal safety, functional safety and cybersecurity are all complementary and interdependent functions. We cover all these fields to provide effective protection for industrial sites and urban infrastructures.
Multi-sector skills
Extensive experience in highly demanding sectors such as energy, life sciences and transport has provided us with in-depth knowledge of industrial processes, infrastructures and the associated standards and regulatory frameworks.
Multidisciplinary expertise
QualiSIL-certified functional safety engineers and design offices operate alongside maintenance and development teams in compliance with the IEC 61508 and 61511 standards.
Our solutions
Risk analysis
Identification and characterisation of hazards and risks (Preliminary Risk Analysis), determination of risk reduction levels (SIL).
Specification of automated and instrumented safety systems
Functional specification, definition of operation and maintenance modes, drafting of specifications etc.
Design, construction and integration of safety-related instrumentation & control systems
Respect of organisational restrictions dictated by standards and targeted safety performances (safety cycle), best-fit technological solutions, anticipation of operational and maintenance limitations etc.
Audit of existing systems to evaluate their integrity and efficiency
Evaluation of real SILs (analysis of conformity of architectures, component choices, management strategies for common modes, resilience to failure), analysis of organisational measures for operation and maintenance, implementation of dedicated monitoring functions etc.
Operation and Maintenance on critical functions
Preventive maintenance and periodic testing, diagnostics and corrective maintenance, obsolescence management, hardware/software configuration management, organisation and upkeep of skills, change management (regression tests, impact studies, documentation updates etc.).
Our projects
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