Topics:
What is SwitchBox’s high-level process?
What is the foundation of a functional safety project?
Where does SWBX come in to help?
What is the ISO 26262 standard?
Why is ISO 26262 important in the automotive industry?
Who should be interested in functional safety?
How can I learn more?
What is SwitchBox’s high-level process?
We attack the problem of distilling the safety plan down to requirements development and ultimately validated software and hardware functionality. SwitchBox typically acts as the safety team for clients, developing and guiding the ISO26262 standard work products. We work closely with the safety manager and system teams to ensure intimate system-level understanding and provide functional safety analysis that reflects the appropriate design aspects that already exist and helps define those that do not. SwitchBox's System Engineering team is certified and experienced in ISO26262 and ready to support and ensure quality work products that adhere to the spirit of the ISO26262 process.
With projects focused on the left side of the V, SwitchBox leads clients through Sections 2, 3, and 4 to ensure Safety Management, Item Definition, and Concept Development are done per the standard. In a future post, we’ll cover how we help clients on the right side of the V and dive into Section 5 and 6!
What is the foundation of a functional safety project?
Safety Management: The critical functional safety documents are the DIA, Safety Case, and Safety Plan. SwitchBox comes to the project with plan templates and expertise to support proper safety plan documentation and tracking. Within the 12 sections of ISO26262, we typically start with a customer in Section 2 in determining the safety management. It is essential to document and understand what the overall safety plan is, who the key players are, and how the work will be accomplished.
Item Definition: Item definition is the first look at each system and architecture. It provides the technical information necessary to start the functional safety analysis and work products.
The HARA: The Hazard and Risk Assessment (HARA) systematically determines safety goals and associated Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) ratings at the user level.
The key to completing an effective HARA is to be prepared with a plan. The HAZOP provides a systematic analysis to develop the hazard list for each item. Preparing a library of operational situations supports a more thorough review through the HARA. SwitchBox maintains a robust HAZOP library that can serve as a foundation for our client's HARA efforts.
Tools: The key to tool selection is traceability. Functional safety requirements must be traceable to the upstream and downstream requirements development throughout the entire process. We can use the client's preferred tools, or help the client select a proper tool. We have different types of customers that require the use of different tools. For example, we have experience with Code Beamer, Helix, ALM, Polarion, and Preevision.
Where does SWBX come in to help?
Guidance through the work products: Switchbox can start anywhere within the customer's process and provide the leadership and experience to get the client on track and confident with the ISO26262 process. For example, we often find that customers come to us with a HARA drafted, but they may not have the experience or confidence in it. We start with reviews and recommendations, applying best practices to item definitions, HARAs, and safety goals. We then proceed to work through the full concept phase and support reviewing or creating a DFMEA, fault tree analysis (FTA), and get as far as the technical safety concept (where we start to allocate requirements to the component level) and design test cases for verifying the safety requirement is met. This is an iterative process where we work closely with clients to ensure the analysis and the architecture pieces are continuously updated and traceable throughout the design cycle.
Gap and Impact Analysis In many cases, the customer receives a safety goal list or a list of FSRs from the OEM and needs to understand differences from their independent functional safety analysis. We help by taking a systematic approach to review the work products and system architecture and identify if there is sufficient coverage or potential gaps. We do this by sticking to the fundamentals and following the ISO26262 process.
Supplier interactions are especially relevant if supplier components are still on the development path or are looking to achieve a Safety Element out of Context (SEooC) rating. We support clients by providing technical recommendations, requirements, and analysis based on the functional safety concept needs to ensure suppliers are meeting the requirements of the system.
What is the ISO 26262 standard?
ISO 26262 is a series of standards that guide the automotive industry in developing vehicle electrical systems and products and ensuring safety compliance from requirement development through implementation, verification, and validation. The 12 sections cover a comprehensive framework to build a safe system with traceable development and change management.
Why is ISO 26262 important in the automotive industry?
Functional Safety and the ISO26262 standard are critical because as automotive systems and technology develop, new and more complex electronics add advanced features, but also add risk to the vehicle platform. Implementing functional safety is a way to systematically build good requirements around the electronics software and hardware that will mitigate that risk to an appropriate residual level. This means if we are mitigating the systematic failures, all that remains are random hardware failures. From identifying hazards and safety goals to writing good requirements, and implementing and verifying them, ISO26262 guides the way.
Who should be interested in functional safety?
Typically, companies in product development beyond a design validation (DV) level. Functional safety touches all parts of the V across a standard product development cycle, from the system level down to component-level requirements and implementation.
How can I learn more?
If you have a project that requires functional safety, a project that might require functional safety but you're unsure, or are just a functional safety nerd who likes to talk all things FuSa, please reach out. SwitchBox can schedule an introductory meeting to better understand your unique project needs and work to assist you on your functional safety journey. Also, stay tuned to this space as future posts will expand on FuSa topics.
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