Belt and Suspenders — IPS Verification and Validation

with Eloise Roche

Next session: June 10th, 2026

Free More Info

Overview

Verification and validation often get lumped together—but in functional safety, confusing them can leave dangerous gaps in your protection layers.

They are not interchangeable. Each serves a distinct purpose, and each addresses different ways human error can quietly turn an instrumented protection layer into something ineffective—or worse, inoperable. Skip one, misunderstand the other, and the integrity of the IPS is at risk.

In this session, Eloise Roche draws on nearly 35 years of industry experience to clearly separate verification from validation, explain why both matter, and show how these complementary activities work together to deliver a truly robust IPS implementation.

Two checks. One goal. Real protection when it counts.

Come join us!

SSE+ 2.7 Demo

with Kushal Parikh

Next session: June 11th, 2026

Free More Info

This webinar introduces the new features of SIL Solver Enterprise+ V2.7!

SSE+ V2.7 supports the different roles and responsibilities of personnel supporting the safety lifecycle, allowing you to control who can view or edit system data and who can add to or modify corporate-wide metadata.

SSE+ V2.7 covers the documentation requirements of IEC 61511 for safety instrumented systems and the impending requirements of ISA 84.91.03 for instrumented protection layers, such as safety interlocks, BPCS, IPL, Fire and Gas, ESD, and equipment protection.

Key capabilities of SSE+ V2.7 include scope and hazard registries, document registry, Functional Safety Assessment (FSA), audits, process requirements specification, SIL verification, Safety Requirements Specification, Application Program Specification, and I/O lists.

Why People Make Mistakes — and How to Design So They Don’t Matter

with Calvin Medders

Next session: June 19th, 2026

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Most industrial incidents don’t start with equipment failure. They start with a human decision made under pressure. Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) gives us a way to understand, quantify, and reduce that risk.

This webinar by Calvin Medders, Senior Consultant, delivers a fast-paced introduction to HRA and shows how human actions influence the reliability of complex industrial systems. Attendees will learn how performance-shaping factors, such as stress, fatigue, workload, ergonomics, and procedural quality, drive operator error, even in well-designed facilities. Regulatory drivers, including COMAH and 10 CFR Part 712, are highlighted, reinforcing why human reliability can no longer be treated as an afterthought in chemical manufacturing and oil and gas operations.

A real-world case study demonstrates how routine tasks can quietly erode layers of protection and escalate into major events. The session closes with practical, field-tested strategies—independent back checks, engineered safeguards, and automated detection—that shift organizations from reacting to human error to designing systems that are resilient to it.

TÜV Rheinland Functional Safety Engineer Certification

with Eloise Roche

Next session: June 22nd to 26th, 2026

$3400 More Info

This 4-day TÜV Functional Safety Engineer preparation course delivers a comprehensive, hands-on refresher on the ISA/IEC 61511 standard, equipping participants with the breadth of knowledge required for exam success.

The course goes beyond narrow expertise to provide a holistic understanding of the safety lifecycle—from hazard identification and safety requirements specification to design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). Participants will review essential terminology, functional safety planning, and updated risk assessment approaches such as LOPA and event tree methods.

Core topics include pragmatic development of the SRS, device approval pathways, design constraints for achieving SIL targets, and mandatory assurance activities across the lifecycle. The course also emphasizes real-world practices for sustaining SIS performance in operations, including managing bypasses, compensating measures, and change management. Supplemented by engaging exercises, attendees will practice critical skills such as allocating safety functions, applying SIL verification techniques, calculating PFDavg with Boolean and Markov methods, and managing lifecycle integrity.

By combining rigorous technical content with interactive application, this course provides an engaging and practical path to mastering functional safety and preparing with confidence for the TÜV certification exam.

The detailed course outline can be found here. 4_5 day TUV

Are your safeguards fast enough to be effective?

with Kedar Kottawar

Next session: June 22nd, 2026

Free More Info

Safeguards must be capable to prevent the hazardous event, and a critical element of that capability is response time. For instrumented safeguards, effectiveness depends on detecting abnormal process conditions and completing the required protective action within the maximum allowable response time.

This webinar by Kedar Kottawar, Senior Consultant, examines how to determine the time available for a safeguard to respond and execute its protective action before an undesirable consequence occurs. It discusses process dynamics, process safety time, maximum allowable response time, and instrumentation and control system contributions to overall response time, including sensor detection, logic solver execution, and final element action.

The session also presents practical engineering methods for establishing process safety time, ranging from expert judgment and simplified engineering calculations to mass and energy balances and first-principles dynamic simulations. Building on these concepts, the webinar demonstrates how strong understanding of process behavior can be used to quantify available process safety time, evaluate safeguard effectiveness, and verify that the safeguard responds fast enough to prevent the hazardous event.

Abnormal Situations Don’t Fail One System—They Fail the System

with Angela Summers

Next session: July 10th, 2026

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Most process safety incidents don’t occur because a single system fails—they occur because the process, control system, alarms, operator, and protection layers fail together. The problem is not a lack of safeguards. It is that their performance as an integrated system is rarely verified under realistic conditions.

Dynamic simulation changes that. By recreating how the process evolves over time while executing real control logic, alarm configuration, operator interfaces, and protective functions, simulation exposes how disturbances actually develop—and whether the system stabilizes or escalates.

This webinar shows how dynamic simulation can be used to evaluate abnormal situation response as a time-dependent, integrated problem. It highlights where performance breaks down: interacting control loops, alarm floods that obscure the initiating cause, delayed operator response, and protection layers that act too late or on the wrong variable.

The result is not theoretical insight—it is actionable verification. Engineers can confirm whether the operator can respond in time, whether alarms support diagnosis, and whether protective functions achieve the required safe state.

If you assume your system will respond correctly, this session will challenge that assumption.

PHA Fundamentals and Facilitation

with Kedar Kottawar

Next session: August 3rd to 4th, 2026

$1500 More Info

PHA Class Overview

This course introduces the fundamentals of facilitating a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), with a strong emphasis on HAZOP methodology, facilitation skills, and practical application in process industries. It walks participants through the key elements of a PHA study, including defining scope, organizing nodes, establishing design intent, identifying deviations, evaluating causes and consequences, and assessing risk using qualitative ranking methods. The course highlights the role of the facilitator in guiding discussions, building team consensus, managing time, setting ground rules, and addressing dysfunctional team behavior to keep the study productive and focused. The training also covers how to identify safeguards, recommendations, and how to document findings in a PHA report. This course covers the fundamentals of how to facilitate a PHA during process design and execution, on operating units, and as part of a management of change review. The course includes hands on workshops to practice and reinforce key concepts.

LOPA Fundamentals and Application

with Kedar Kottawar

Next session: August 5th to 6th, 2026

$1500 More Info

LOPA Class Overview

The course covers the fundamental concepts of Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) process, including initiating events, consequence severity, different risk definitions, independent protection layers (IPLs), enabling conditions, conditional modifiers, how math works, and the management processes needed to validate assumptions. Includes multiple workshops to reinforce key concepts. Attendees will gain skills to determine whether safeguards meet IPL criteria, apply appropriate risk reduction factors, and establish risk tolerance criteria aligned with industry standards.

Safe Automation (16 hr Virtual)

with Eloise Roche

Next session: October 5th to 8th, 2026

$1500 More Info

Safe Automation Overview - 16 hr Virtual

Safe Automation in the Process Industry is a 16-hour virtual course designed to orient users in the principles of safe automation, including the practices and terminology used in the design and implementation of instrumented protective systems (IPS). Experienced personnel will also benefit from awareness of more recent developments in safe automation terminology, updated standards, and techniques on sharing these concepts with newer employees.

This course will introduce the key concepts and practices necessary to design and implement safe automation, including the following topics:

Safe Automation Lifecycle Process
Safe Automation Fundamentals, including Application Program, HMI, Procedure and Personnel systems
Instrument Justification and Alarm Management
Control and Safety System Hardware Selection (e.g., instrumentation, logic solvers, auxiliaries)
Safe Automation Metrics
Controlling Systematic Error in Automation Systems, including Designing for Security

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Classes

Belt and Suspenders — IPS Verification and Validation

SSE+ 2.7 Demo

Why People Make Mistakes — and How to Design So They Don’t Matter

TÜV Rheinland Functional Safety Engineer Certification

Are your safeguards fast enough to be effective?

Abnormal Situations Don’t Fail One System—They Fail the System

PHA Fundamentals and Facilitation

LOPA Fundamentals and Application

Safe Automation (16 hr Virtual)