Safety and Reliability Engineering
Challenge
Safety and Reliability are critical requirements and it is getting harder to meet these expectations in light of modern day increases in the complexity of systems in expectations. Fukushima, La Megantic, MH370 disappearance, Deepwater Horizon, Mt. Polley, GM Ignition, Port Mann ice bombs – all were unanticipated by their owners, and all must not happen again. The reliability expectations of many complex systems are so high that component reliability cannot be deterministically analyzed or proven in any component test. Yet the world is moving towards increased connectivity, automation (self-driving cars and unmanned aircraft), and higher expectations of public safety and environmental preservation.
Insight
Advanced systems methodologies applied to safety and reliability, overlaid upon the conventional safety and reliability engineering practices, can enable better outcomes. Human factors in the design, testing, certification, and operation of the system must also be carefully considered, as in too many systems this is not considered well-enough, giving rise to safety and reliability issues. While safety and reliability are two distinct disciplines, they are both very cross-functional, cross-disciplinary, and both these disciplines of engineering strongly benefit from the systems approach.
Our services
We provide safety and reliability engineering consulting, organizational capability improvements, and training, including:
Safety engineering
Reliability engineering
Safety engineering
- System Safety Assessment (SSA) per SAE ARP4761
- Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
- Fault tree analysis (FTA)
- Hazards and Operability Analysis (HAZOP)
- Common Cause Analysis (CCA)
- Risk assessment
- Integration of safety processes with other engineering and development processes
- Human Factors
- Fail Safe Design
Reliability engineering
- System availability and mission readiness analysis and related reliability and maintenance requirement allocation
- Functional System Failure analysis and derived requirements specification
- Inherent (System) Design Reliability Analysis and derived requirements specification for both Hardware and Software design
- Fault tolerant systems (e.g. by redundancy)
- Predictive and Preventive maintenance (e.g. Reliability-Centered Maintenance)
- Human Factors / Human Interaction / Human Errors
- Manufacturing- and Assembly-induced failures (effect on the detected "0-hour Quality" and Reliability)
- Maintenance-induced failures
- Transport-induced failures
- Storage-induced failures
- Software(systematic) failures
- Failure / reliability testing (and derived requirements)
- Field failure monitoring and corrective actions
- Spare parts stocking (Availability control)
- Technical documentation, caution and warning analysis
- Data and information acquisition/organisation (Creation of a general reliability development Hazard Log and FRACAS system)
- Analysis of No Fault Found situations
Example projects and case studies from our former experiences
- Airworthiness certification and system safety analysis of potable water system for Boeing 787 Aircraft for International Water Guard, 2015
- HAZOP Gas Clean Up System for Quadrogen Power Systems for Microsoft Data Center Landfill Biogas Fuel Cell plant, 2014
- Helicopter Input Freewheel Unit Bearing Failure for MEA Forensic, 2012
- Fuel Cell stack safety concept and design for reliability for Mercedes B-Class F-Cell Vehicle, 2007