Common Weaknesses observed in Functional Safety concepts, and how to avoid them

The Functional Safety Concept is a cornerstone of the ISO 26262 process. In practice the FSCs completed by many companies have weaknesses. In this presentation we will cover the full scope of what is required to produce a FSC in compliance with ISO 26262: 2018 and give insights on the core weaknesses seen. Using the ideas of the theory of constraints (Eli Goldrat), two false assumptions are proposed about the FSC, as the root cause of the weaknesses seen. It will be argued why these assumptions are false. Then a solution will be proposed to address these false assumptions and avoid the identified FSC weaknesses.

About Mark Cousen:

Mark has 25 years of experience in automotive product development. He has worked on all parts of product development, from concept to launch. In Powertrain, Chassis and Electrical Engineering.  He also spent three years helping Tier 1s and OEMs to improve their product development processes, and improve Knowledge Management. Overall Mark has 10 years experience in Functional Safety. During this time he have started by leading teams to apply ISO 26262 to put functional safety critical systems into production. Followed by consulting / training and assessing functional safety. He has dealt with the FSCs of ten OEMs, and more Tier 1 suppliers.

You can watch the full presentation below. You can also download the PDF version of the presentation here

This presentation was prepared for The ISO 26262 Digital Conference, 24-25 March 2021.