Safety in the Process Industries

Guiding Principles to the Implementation of IEC-61508

SIPI Workshop held in Tampere, Finland
June 03

The European Community Framework V funded project, Guiding Principals to the Implementation of IEC 61508, SIPI61508, held the eighth of its twelve European workshops, in Tampere, Finland 10th and 11th June 2003. The workshop hosted by TLG members Kemira and ASAF, the Automation Society of Finland was attended by twenty nine safety practitioners.

The attendees were welcomed by Matti Sunquist from STM, työsuojeluosas, also representing ASAF and Arto Meskanen from Kemira. Stuart Nunns, SIPI Project Manager provided an overview of the SIPI project and Tino Van De Capelle the proposed web schema.

As in previous events we managed to secure a keynote presentation from the national regulatory authority. In this case, Leena Ahonen, a Senior Inspector of TUKES, the Safety Technology Authority in Finland. Leena’s presentation addressed ‘Surveillance of dangerous chemicals Processes – automation a part of safety’ and drew attention to the Finnish legal requirements in respect of automation systems. Leena reminded attendees that ‘processes must be equipped with such protection and control systems and supervisory and safety devices that the operation of equipment does not cause direct harm to people, the environment or property in the case of a disturbance the process can be directed into a safe state’.

Our second keynote speaker during Day 1 was Tapio Nordbo from Enprima Oy, outlining their ‘ Experiences in applying IEC 61508 for fossil power plants’. ENPRIMA have developed an internal QEHS system, based on ISO 9001 with elements covering the areas of occupational safety; engineering and product safety audits; identification of piping, process, electrical drawings and competency of staff.

Four breakout groups convened to discuss issues faced by individuals and companies in implementing 61508/61511 and to prioritise these into their top five.

The day concluded with a social event hosted by Metso Automation consisting of dinner and traditional Finnish sauna in a delightful lake side setting!

Day 2 commenced with an analysis by Chris Birtles, SIPI partner from Aston Dane, of the completed Finnish SIPI questionnaires and also feedback from the previous workshops identifying trends across EU member states. This was followed by a presentation from Olli Ventä of VTT Industrial Systems, Finland. Olli outlined VTT experiences in developing software reliability management in Finnish industry. Olli commented that the main application areas for software dependability are within process industry, nuclear energy, medical devices, within the process, nuclear and medical sectors, however the knowledge of software reliability and dependability is not as high as VTT would like to see.

There was significant support for the formation of a local SIPI Group under the auspices of ASAF.