Industry 4.0 for the Process Industry: Using OPC UA to Implement an Information Model for Follow-Up of Safety Instrumented Systems

Assurance of functional safety of safety instrumented systems includes monitoring of reliability performance throughout the operational phase. Currently, collecting and analyzing failure data and re-calculating reliability performance are manual and work-intensive tasks. The main objective of this paper is to present a new information model that structures equipment and failure data so that the analysis can be more automated. In addition, some practical challenges in implementing the model with OPC UA, an Industry 4.0 technology platform, and underlying source systems. The work presented has been part of the research-based innovation project ”Automated process for follow-up of safety instrumented systems,” involving several industry partners. The paper gives a novel contribution to the Industry 4.0 strategy, and the results can be transferable to other sectors.