Like most of you, I’m always interested (yet skeptical) hearing about new trends in our industry.  Earlier this week, I had the privilege to co-present at a process safety technical conference in the Pittsburgh area, with Dr. William (Bill) Goble of Exida.  Bill enlightened the entire group of some 20 process control engineers on his expert “opinion” on 4 major process safety market trends.

1. New Standards, noted while they standards aren’t quite “new” he has noticed a significant “trend” in customers that are “planning” to comply.  He called this voluntary compliance, since our government doesn’t mandate that we comply to any specific standard, he did mention the OSHA letter which sighted the ANSI/ISA84.01-2004, Functional safety: Safety Instrumented Systems for the process industry sector, as good engineering practice.
2. New Tools, most notably termed as “Safety Lifecycle tools” that are making compliance easy for users who in the past might have felt overwhelmed to manage.  Let’s face it there’s a lot of SIL rated boxes out there, what more can you offer your customers than a pretty certificate.
3. Equipment Certification, while most can probably name a handful of SIL 3 logic solvers, it was like final jeopardy coming up with a SIL rated instrument (sensors and final elements). Bill noted a rise in the level of involvement he’s seen with equipment vendors seeking product certification.
4. New Techniques/tools for operation and maintenance, which focused on on-line proof testing and better system diagnostics. 

The expression of the room, indicated to me that no one had much heartburn or issues with Bill’s discussion.  I’ve known Bill for years, so it was hard for me not to be biased.  What about you guys, anybody like to comment (you can be anonymous if you wish).