System Safety Engineering Management Master Class

The 5-day System Safety Engineering Management Master Class, presented by AMOG Consulting, focuses on the management of the System Safety Program and the interface with the Engineering Project life-cycle. Development and maintenance of the Safety Case is explored using specialised tools such as GSN. The course explores tools and techniques required for risk reduction as well as the influence of Software and Human Factors on the safety argument. Topics such as Legislative Compliances, Duty of Care and ALARP Arguments are explored as well as the role of domain specified regulatory standards.

The demand for superior technology and greater inter-operability within modern systems has seen a substantial growth in the sophistication and flexibility requirements of new designs. This has resulted in a significant increase in the reliance on modern, software intensive, control systems that are extremely complex and can include any number of potentially safety critical failure modes. Acknowledging this challenge, international and domestic governing and regulatory bodies are requiring comprehensive and robust demonstrations of how safety has been considered for these systems, in all facets of the life-cycle – from concept to disposal. This demonstration is often referred to as the Safety Case. A highly interactive worked example on day five of the program puts all of the elements of the master class into practice and ensures that participants take away a thorough working knowledge of the management of system safety engineering.

Recognised for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by Engineers Australia (EA) in accordance with EA CPD Guidelines.

Target Audience

Participants generally have four or more years of experience and come from a range of engineering specialisations including Aerospace, Civil Maritime, Construction, Consultants, Defence, Electrical Utilities, Offshore Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Mining, Power, and Transport.

For those who are involved in the design, maintenance, operation and/or management of systems or equipment with potential safety implications including:

• Safety Manager
• Design Lead
• Contract Manager
• Engineering Manager
• CEO
• Director

Course Outline

DAY 1: Introduction to System Safety Management

Terminology

Explores the unique and varied language associated with System Safety.

• Identify and discuss common terms
• Consider a definition for ‘System Safety’
• Examine the relative merit and significance of a variety of terms and definitions
• Introduce terminology for the course

Standards & Compliance

Justify the application of a particular standard through the impact it has on assurance and compliance.

• ARP 4754/4761
• DEFSTAN 00-56
• AS 50126
• MIL-STD-882
• AS 61508
• ABR 6303 (NAVSAFE)

System Safety Paradigms

Comparing different paradigms to management approaches to analysing and measuring ‘safety’ and the concept of ‘acceptable risk’.

• System Safety Engineering
• Risk Management
• WH&S
• The Principles of Safe Design For Work

DAY 2: the System Safety Case

The Safety Case

What is a Safety Case, and how does it relate to the System Safety Process, specifically the Safety Assessment?

• Problems associated with Safety Cases
• Deconstructing a Safety Argument
• Example using GSN

Safety Case Construction

An overview of the use of GSN to formulate and present the Safety Case argument in a clear and unambiguous manner.

• The development of a GSN argument
• Product and Process structured arguments
• Satisfying standards in safety arguments
• Managing size and complexity issues

Safety Case Maintenance

Most systems undergo changes in use and design, therefore it is important that the engineering team maintain the Safety Case.

• Ongoing Management of the Safety Case
• Elements of the Safety Case likely to be subject to maintenance activities
• Typical issues in Safety Case maintenance
• Providing assurance of the safety case change process
• GSN and Safety Case maintenance

System Safety and Project Lifecycle

Investigates the steps within the generic system safety process, and considers the inputs to and outputs from the process. It then relates the process to the generic project lifecycle.

• The System Safety Process and Project Lifecycle
• Inputs and Outputs
• Quality Assurance
• Safety Controls and their Verification

System Safety Engineering Process

Examines a typical approach to conducting a system safety program including the definition of safety requirements through probability budgets and verification of those requirements.

• The System Safety Engineering methodology and process
• The establishment of functional safety requirements through probability budgets and design assurance
• The verification of safety requirements through design Hazard

Managing System Safety Programs, Constraints and Assumptions

Examines methods of managing the overall Safety Program (SP) and the importance of assumptions and constraints as a control on the level of effort and a demonstration of system bounds.

• Bounding the analysis
• Assumptions and Constraints
• Variances in safety criteria
• Reflecting safety evidence deficiencies

DAY 3: Risk calculation and System Safety

Hazard Identification

An overview of hazard identification techniques and their use.

• What we look for with a hazard
• The benefits of checklists including Hazardous Materials Study• Hazard Identification techniques including FMECA, HAZOPS FHA and the Energy and Toxicity Analysis
• Choosing the appropriate technique

Hazard Assessment

An overview of hazard assessment techniques and their use.

• Acceptability of Risk
• Hazard assessment
• Hazard analysis techniques including Fault and Event Tree Analysis
• HAZMAT

Hazard Identification and Analysis

This guided practical consolidates the techniques in the hazard identification and assessment modules by allowing the participants to analyse a hypothetical system for hazards through a workshop.

Risk Reduction

Techniques for identifying, analysing and evaluating risk reduction strategies.

• Unintended consequences
• Consider IEC61508-7: Risk Reduction Examples
• Recognising and accounting for the shifting of risk

DAY 4: Software Safety Management

Software Safety Engineering Process

Examines a typical approach to managing a software safety program.

• Software Safety Engineering Process
• Software Hazard Identification and Assessment
• Software Safety Analysis Techniques including Software Fault Trees, HAZOPS, SHARD and Sneak Circuit analysis

Software Assurance

• Software Integrity Levels (SIL’s) and assurance activities
• Software Assurance techniques

Software Safety Standards

The management of software safety standards and their impact on assurance and compliance.

• Overview of Software Safety, Software Assurance and Software Development standards and their relationships
• Overview of Software Safety paradigms
• Examination of Software Safety/Assurance standards such as RTCA/DO-178B, IEC61508-3 and JSSSC SSSH

Human Factors

What is Human Factors Engineering and how can it assist in design and safety analysis?

• Defining human factors
• Human cognitive limitations and how we should account for them in system design
• Human physical limitations and how we should account for them in system design
• Categorising human errors and error causes
• Consider the application of internal mental models/patterns in constraining human behaviour

DAY 5: Interactive Workshop

Workshop

An interactive workshop activity will be held at the end of the course in order to consolidate all of the System Safety Principles.

Review and Summary

A final review and summary of course material.

Course Objectives

• Comparison of standards to effectively manage your System Safety Engineering context
• Management of System Safety Engineering and the related safety paradigms of System Safety, Risk Management, Reliability Engineering and OH&S
• System Safety management – data and analysis
• Management of the integration of the System Safety Program with the project life cycle
• Managing the interfaces to related Safety Programs
• Assessing the quality of a safety case
• Building a Safety Case utilising Goal Structuring Notation (GSN)
• Methods of analysis including hazards, fault tree analysis, event tree analysis, failure mode effects and criticality analysis, and human factors
• Risk management in System Safety Engineering
• Managing software safety engineering including the role and determination of Software Integrity Levels (SILs)
• Assurance and compliance in System Safety Engineering
• Identify the critical elements of an effective system safety program
• Apply hazard identification and assessment techniques for safe system design
• Apply risk reduction strategies available for safety critical systems
• Manage interpretation of how the human factor applies to design and safety of systems
• Understand the importance of software safety management, software engineering and software assurance for safety related systems
• Identify and complete relevant project management documentation
• Management techniques for assurance and compliance

Facilitator Information

Presented with our partners

Mr Christopher Van Berendonck

MSc (CompSci), BEng (Electrical), BSc, AssDip (Electronics), FIEAust, CPEng, NPER, TUV FSE, AICD

Chris has extensive engineering experience covering the Aerospace and Maritime sectors in both Defence and Civilian disciplines. Chris is a specialist System Safety and Certification Practitioner having refined his skill set over nearly two decades as an avionics system designer, a system safety practitioner in aviation and marine, a Defence aerospace regulator, a system safety and certification manager in Defence Maritime and more recently as a specialist consultant to Defence and civilian industry.

Mrs Cherie Holland

MSc (Mechanical Engineering), BSc (Mechanical Engineering), MIEAust

Cherie has worked across a variety of Australian Defence Force and civilian projects providing expertise in technical analysis, system safety engineering and health hazard assessments. Previously, Cherie was employed in the aerospace industry in the USA and has experience in structural design and analysis of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with expertise in technical analysis. Cherie is a specialist health hazard analyst where she brings expertise in the areas of hazard identification, environmental and operational risk, use of Codes of Practice and Standards, and qualitative and quantitative risk assessments.

Mr Tony King

BEng (Mechanical), Associate Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

Tony is a specialist System Safety and Fire Safety Engineer. He has been responsible for managing and executing system safety assessments on a large number of defence and civilian projects. His specialty includes the identification and analysis of quantitative risk and safety assessments and consequence modelling (fire, blast dispersion and plume.)

Mrs Alexandra Morey

BIT (Hons), Dip IT

Alexandra is a Human Factors and Safety Engineering Specialist with experience across a variety of areas primarily in medical and rail systems. Alexandra has a strong academic background, lecturing in Human Factors, Interaction and Human Interface design, as well as publishing in numerous engineering and medical journals and proceedings.

Registration

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Course fees detailed below are inclusive of GST