Plant safety and security – time for a rethink

If the future of process really is digital, that will create many opportunities for plant operators to enhance efficiency, increase flexibility and make their plants future-proof.

However, there is a downside: threats to plant security arising from rapidly growing and increasingly sophisticated cyber criminality, as well as increased risk of unintentional security incidents within. Safe automation must now encompass more than just emergency shutdown and worker protection, but also provide effective protection against cyberattacks and manipulation.

Expert insights

All of these issues will be addressed by a panel of experts during a ‘Talking Industry’ webinar on ‘Plant Safety and Security’, which takes place at 10:00am UK/GMT on Tuesday, 9 March, 2021.

Click here to register.

Panellists will include:

Eve Edwards, machinery safety specialist at Fortress Interlocks.

Eve Edwards is a member of ISO TC 199 Working Group 7 – Safety of Machinery – Interlocking Devices, and sits on the ANSI Z244.1 Lockout/Tagout committee in the USA.

In the last 12 months, she has presented over 80 webinars on a wide range of machinery safety topics, covering Australian, Indian, ISO, US and European Standards, written a monthly newsletter on key safety topics and co-starred in a YouTube show ‘Eve and Malc’s Safety Show’. She has also developed and presented the B11 Licensed Machinery Safety Specialist course in the USA, the first course of its kind offering a formal qualification in the B11 standards.

Martin Kidman, market product manager (UK & Ireland) – Safety Solutions, SICK Sensor Intelligence.

Martin Kidman started his career back in 1999 after gaining his B.Eng. (Hon) and M.Sc. (Eng) working for a notified body, testing equipment to the Low Voltage Directive. After a four-year break to gain his Ph.D. at the University of Liverpool, he has been involved in industrial automation since 2006, working for various manufacturers of sensors. He has been at SICK since January 2013, providing services, support and consultancy for industrial safety applications.

Jason Reed, account manager, Pilz Automation

Jason Reed is an electromechanical engineer, who has been involved in the machinery safety industry for over 16 years, including participation in relevant standards committees. He has experience in projects across a wide variety of industries and applications, and is well versed in the current issues manufacturing companies face and need to consider in order to comply with the latest safety legislation and standards.

The panellists will focus on three broad areas:

Rethinking the relationship between safety and security

·         How safety and security are interlinked in a digital age

·         Beyond emergency shutdown and worker protection

·         Effective protection against cyberattacks.

Increasing productivity through safety

·         Collaborative robots

·         Automated guided vehicles (AGVs)

·         Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

Safety in large systems, integrated machines and production lines

·         Designing risk out of a system from the start

·         Risk assessment and functional safety

·         Adding personnel authentication and authorisation

·         Use of safety keys and interlock blocking.

All attendees can apply for CPD (Continuous Professional Development) certification for the hours they spend taking part in the ‘Talking Industry’ webinar/webinars.

Registration is now open.