Safety lifecycle management. A flowchart presentation of the IEC 61508 overall safety lifecycle model

Safety in the process industry is currently playing an increasingly important role. In the European Union the Seveso II directive requires that companies that store certain amounts of dangerous liquids or gases shall take appropriate measures to reduce the potential risks. Concerning safety-related systems, the (draft) IEC 61508 standard is already adopted by many companies to comply with the Seveso II directive. Contrary to the older standards, IEC 61508 does not only cover the classical technical aspects, but also the business processes that are relevant for the entire safety lifecycle. The standard introduces a structure that consists of safety lifecycle models. The overall safety lifecycle describes required activities associated with safety during the entire lifecycle of the equipment, from the concept phase to the decommissioning phase. For a real operating process installation a study has been performed to investigate what steps should be taken in order to implement the IEC 61508 safety standard. This study is based on the overall safety lifecycle model and uses a flowchart approach that addresses all relevant items of the overall safety lifecycle. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.