2-5 Overall Safety Management
Introduction
Being ISO26262 compliant is not compulsory whatsoever. The main goal however is to provide a solid ground which can be used to provide legally sound proof that a reasonable amount of effort has been put into creating a functionally safe product. The safety activities should be managed to ensure the correctness and completeness of the safety case and to provide overview which is useful while implementing ISO26262 into the development process.
It is assumed that it is not possible for the average SME's to acquire 100% ISO26262 compliance within a reasonable amount of time as this requires too much money, time and effort. Nevertheless the processes described in ISO26262 do add value because they can significantly reduce the amount of design errors and create awareness of the risks and hazards introduced by the item and it's design. This information is crucial in creating a functionally safe product.
For this reason it is advised to look at the implementation of ISO26262 as an ongoing process, rather than a step. Part 2 of ISO26262, Safety Management, is a critical part in the success factor of the introduction of ISO26262 in your company.
Important is to be aware of the first two requirements as posed in ISO26262-2 4.1:
When claiming ISO26262 compliance, each requirement (!!!) shall be complied with, unless one of the following applies:
a) Tailoring of the safety activities has been planned, or
b) A rationale is available that the non-compliance is acceptable
Both prerequisites need to adhere to the rules of ISO26262. These exceptions make it possible for SME's to become ISO26262 "compliant".
This part of the ISO contains mainly requirements for the organization. The following list provides a summary of those requirements:
Requirements to the Overall Safety Management:
- Safety Culture (Link to indicators)
- Competence Management
- Quality Management (according to preferably the ISO/TS 16949, or ISO9001)
- Project independent tailoring of the safety lifecycle
- Functional Safety as a company objective
- Company-specific policies and processes
- Resource management
- Continuous Improvement Process
- Escalation process for FS
- Authority of safety managers, responsible parties
As can be seen in the list a proper quality management systems is required. It is strongly advised to have a quality management system in place before starting the implementation of ISO26262. It is a common mistake to take QM for granted which introduces a lot of issues later, as ISO26262 regards QM as it's foundation to build upon. For more recommendations, please take a look at the download section below.
Hint: Annex B of ISO26262-2 also provides an example table with indicators of bots poor and good safety cultures.
Work products are:
- Organization-specific rules and processes for functional safety, resulting from ISO26262-2 Chapter 5.4.3 and 5.4.5
- Evidence of competence, resulting from ISO26262-2 Chapter 6.4.3.4
- Evidence of quality management, resulting from ISO26262-2 Chapter 5.4.4
Downloads
