Functional Safety Management according to IEC 61508-1
In the last article, we presented system FMEA in the context of functionally safe product development as a method for identifying diagnostic measures to detect and control failures during operation. This primarily addresses random hardware failures. If we now look at real field failures, we find that they are often due to systematic error causes. Consequently, IEC 61508 defines Functional Safety Management (FSM) in detail in Part 1 – as an extension of an ISO 9001 quality management system.
This article in the series also focuses on the viewpoint of the manufacturer of a safe component. This limits the part of the safety life cycle to be considered primarily to phases 9 and 10.
As already emphasized: The standard is generic and is intended to be applicable to a wide variety of market segments. This makes it difficult to read, and a sensible interpretation must therefore be made for the respective area of application.
Article published in SPS Magazine
