Welcome to the Safety and Reliability Group (SRG) webpages.

The 2010 programme of events is yet to be completely finalised; if you are interested in upcoming SRG events please contact us.
 
Chairman's Note
In 2009 we ran four successful seminars throughout the UK, as well as our annual summer lecture, the lessons learnt from the GE19 bridge collapse which occurred in May 2008. We are planning a similar number for next year and in addition several in co-operation with other IMechE Divisions and Groups including a major event in Scotland which will examine issues of safety, reliability and through life dependability for marine energy projects – there is no “free lunch”. We are playing a major role in stimulating and developing more effective co-ordination between safety related institutions and bodies in the UK, not just in engineering. See here for more information from the SRG Chairman.

About the Safety and Reliability Group
The SRG is here to promote the development of safety and reliability and to educate engineers in its application in the process, manufacturing, utility and public service industries. Learn more about the principal aims of the Group and the Technical Working committees.

Position Statement
The Government, responding to public opinion, has made it a criminal offence to sell goods, provide services or jobs that have an adverse effect on people’s health, safety or the environment. In most cases, harm is caused by failure of machines or systems, often due to poor management decisions.

In other cases, the unreliability of machines or systems result in reduced productive output and profitability. This incurs significant financial losses and affects the return on investment for organisations, and the nation’s economic survival against low-cost economies abroad.

This statement presents the Safety & Reliability Group's current views on these issues and identifies the technologies that need to be understood and applied.

Please click here to download the full statement.

A continuous process through life approached formally but never prescriptive.

“Bad luck”, “Computer glitch” etc. are evidence of failure to manage risks increasingly inadmissible legally. This process is based on a suite of comprehensive standards to that point a clear path through appropriate analysis and assessment to “Dependability”, an overarching term covering all aspects of confidence in hardware, software and the human/machine interface.

Clear realistic definitions of “success” and “failure” using evidence gleaned from relevant experience, development, test and manufacture through operations allowing timely mitigation of risk within the contractual cycle. Poor performance, foreshortened useful life and breached financial containment can be managed out but problems stem from imprecise objectives, unrealistic aspirations, uncontrolled changes or failure to take a realistic view. Poor communications between and within purchaser and suppliers also increases risk but worst of all is dismissing the need for considering it at all.

The Fire and Explosion at the Buncefield Oil Terminal: The Basic Causes and the Impact on Industry