Industrial Automation Magazine India

Yokogawa enhances plant safety with Safety Function Monitoring

Published on : Tuesday 28-09-2021

OpreX asset operations and optimisation solution release delivers significant improvements in operational safety performance monitoring.

September 2021 – Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced a major upgrade to its Exaquantum Safety Function Monitoring (SFM) software, an OpreX™ Asset Operations and Optimisation solution that helps identify whether actual operating performance meets safety design targets. Improving health and safety is one of Yokogawa's six sustainability focus areas. SFM R3.35 provides continuous monitoring and evaluation of safety data to highlight deviations or failures in plant safety system performance.

Already in use across the globe in industries such as oil and gas, SFM collects all safety-related data to track and analyse key performance metrics, including safety instrumented function (SIF) activations and maintenance (proof testing), independent protection layers (IPLs), and initiating causes and overrides. This new version now supports the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61511 standard and includes several new features to help SFM users identify potential safety issues, optimize maintenance activities, and improve overall safety solution design.  

SFM R3.35 enables users to monitor the effectiveness of the performance of defined safety instrumented systems against their design targets. 

Development Background Safety systems are designed to ensure that process plants are operated within tolerable limits, reducing risks to humans, the environment, assets, and production continuity. To sustain the required safety integrity level, processing facilities must have a means for verifying the performance of their safety instrumented systems (SIS) during operations. Procedures need to be established and information must be collected that will ensure the quality and consistency of proof testing, demand rates, and failure data of SIS. The challenge is determining if the realtime operating data can be verified against the analysis, design, and assumptions to highlight deviations or failures in safety system design performance. 

Yokogawa recognises the continuous challenges that plant owners face in trying to efficiently maintain process safety integrity over the entire life cycle of their plant facilities. As one component of a sustainable SIS solution, SFM automatically monitors operational safety data to quickly determine whether real-time operating data meets safety design targets and to track and analyse key safety performance metrics. Proof tests are recorded to track when they took place and identify when they reach their expiration date. SFM assists plant managers by identifying any potential safety issues, reducing unnecessary maintenance activities, and improving the overall safety solution design.