Hymn numbers IEC61508 and IEC61511
2 Jul 2009
Industry safety standards association wants to get everyone singing off the same sheet
London - Safety standard IEC61508 and the related process sector guidance standard IEC61511 are both difficult to clearly describe and getting everyone across an organisation to agree on the basics remains a huge challenge.
In response, the 61508 Association has introduced a set of free, downloadable ’toolbox talks’ on its website to, it said, help everyone involved in the safety system to all sing from the same hymn sheet.
According to the association, the downloads take just five minutes to read and feature separate ’hymn sheets’ for everyone in the project: senior management, project manager, project engineer, purchaser, inspection and QA, operations, maintenance and service engineer.
Each toolbox talk is in pdf format and so requires no special software to use and read. They all carry “a group of ’Important and Surprising facts’ that are easy to read and present the basics of the IEC61508 group of standards accurately and with a sense of humour.
“If each engineer reads their own ’hymn sheet’ they will soon find that for much of the key basic information in the IEC61508 everyone in the team will be singing from the same hymn sheet. Users are welcome to download them and forward copies freely amongst their own company, their contractors and sub-contractors.”
The hymn sheets are also supported by free downloadable document to answer the question “What is Functional Safety Management?” under the standard, as well as help on topics such as IEC61511 certification. The information is available on www.61508.org/toolbox.htm, or via the 61508 Association, e-mail: info@61508.org; web: www.61508.org).
Please send your views to the Editor: patrick.raleigh@centaur.co.uk
