Working in and around process safety applications for most of my professional career (just under 20 years), I've enjoyed watching, discussing and participating on many technical challenges and advances regarding safety instrumented systems (SIS).  Now as we begin a new year, a new wave of technology is beginning to unfold that will no doubt have a significant impact on our beliefs and engineering practices.  The new topics that I see/hear the most discussion around process safety is; safety fieldbus, separation and independence, system security, and just how do you determine if your BMS (burner management system) is an SIS after all.

I liken these times to about 10 years ago, when we found ourselves in the middle of the great "architecture wars". This was a time, when a relatively "new" dual redundant architecture (aka 1oo2D) was fighting for market space against the incumbent triple modular redundancy (aka TMR or 2oo3). The fight mostly consisted of whether you believed in common cause faults, and or that the system diagnostic capabilities were really as good as these new fangled systems were touting. That war is now long behind us (depending on who you talk to will determine who the victor was), and here we are again with a whole new array of issues that will no doubt keep our high priced consultants busy for yet another 10 years.

And for those of you that worry about progress and technology advances, just think about what happened in 1876, when one of our top cavalry commanders, General George A. Custer, led more than 250 doomed men of the 7th Cavalry into the Montana country to search for hostile Sioux Indians, he left behind a battery of Gatling guns that no doubt might have changed the outcome of the day. He felt these new guns might have slowed him down thru his travels, so he maintained his soldier’s weapon purely consist of the single-shot Springfield Carbine Model.

During the course of my travels and interactions with many well respected safety instrumented engineers, consultants, and end users I look forward to sharing my observations, impressions and predictions as it pertains the Process Safety Issues that mean the most to all of us.