Join us in Longview, TX for the Kenexis Process Safety Conference on Thursday October 25th, 2018 Join us at the Hilton Garden Inn in Longview, Texas for a day of sessions focused on process safety, fire and gas detector placement, and cybersecurity. The sessions are listed below. 8:00-9:30am Breakfast – Performance-based Fire & Gas Mapping Session [...]
REGISTRATION IS OPEN for Kenexis Integrated Software Suite - Users Group Meeting Kenexis Houston will be hosting the annual Kenexis Integrated Software Suite - Users Group Meeting 05NOV2018 from 5-8pm. The event will be held online and live at our Houston office near the ISA 84 November meeting location. Kenexis is actually on [...]
There's a lot of confusion about Systematic Safety Integrity in new IEC61511. We are starting to see devices certified for SIS applications to have a rated Systematic Capability (SC) of 2. What does this mean? Is this yet another hurdle I need to jump over to meet a SIL target? Let's shine some light on Systematic [...]
Industrial Control Systems or Operational Technology cybersecurity risk calculations are typically based on threat, vulnerability, and consequence in an equation similar to the one below: risk = threat x vulnerability x consequence If we assign numbers, like 1 to 5, and define each number in the range for each variable, we can probably solve the [...]
Kenexis Receives Accreditation for ISO 9001:2015 Kenexis received accreditation for demonstrating their ongoing commitment to quality by satisfying customer requirements and industry specifications. "Kenexis has demonstrated its commitment to world class quality by implementing and becoming certified to the ISO 9001:2015 standard. They have joined an elite number of organizations worldwide who have achieved certification to [...]
Fire and Gas Practices for LNG Facilities Survey We are looking for survey feedback that we will share the results with all respondents regarding: Kenexis is performing a survey of industry in order to benchmark the practices of operating companies with respect to how their fire and gas systems are designed. The purpose of this [...]
Making the decision to migrate from an existing software platform to a newer more powerful one isn’t always easy. Organizations often have large bases of installed software and may have made large financial commitments based on the best available information at the time of the commitment. However, if there is one [...]
2-factor authentication Most of the people I work with know how I feel about password security. I’m well aware of the password management burden we all face, so I’m always promoting the use of password managers and two-step authentication for any account that supports it. I recently read an article posted on The Register in which a [...]
Earlier this week, we enabled a powerful function in Open PHA™ Premium that allows you to translate all of your work or a site's work into almost any language. This makes it easy for someone at headquarters to read a HAZOP from a site even though the site performed the work in their local language. Now [...]
During Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) of high hazard scenarios, we often rely on a diversity of protections including instrumented and non-instrumented safeguards. Invariably, we run into situations where instrumented safeguards must bear the full weight of risk reduction. Of course, we never want to design a Safety Instrumented Function to a SIL 4 or [...]
Have you ever wondered where the equations that are used to calculate probability of failure on demand for SIL verification came from? In this video, Kenexis CEO Ed Marszal goes the white board to show you. This video will demonstrate how all of the equations are based on the fundamental definitions of availability and reliability. [...]
Kenexis is focusing on helping process companies to reduce costs. SIS testing can have a large impact of costs of turnarounds. When SIS testing prolongs turnarounds because it is performed at the end of the turaround after other work is completed. The duration of time saved can be converted back into production time. This can [...]
Kenexis President Ed Marszal just completed a two-day training class on the SIS safety lifecycle in Nanjing China. The course was attended by more than 40 participants. The Nanjing Eye Bridge. A pedestrian walkway across the Yangtze river. The course was presented by the China Chemical Safety Association in Conjunction with the 5th [...]
We are pleased to announce the addition of the Safety Instrumented Systems Overview and Awareness to the Kenexis Online Training Center. This course provides an online self-paced overview and awareness level of SIS design that is appropriate for all personnel that interact with SIS in any way. The course includes informative examples that highlight [...]
Dispersion of an elevated release Often atmospheric dispersion models are needed to determine the potential for a gas release to impact workers or the public. This is typically encountered during Fire & Gas Mapping. There are quite a few decisions that go into a well-designed dispersion model, not the least of which are [...]
Kenexis is pleased to announce that is has joined the Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center. The Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center is deep in research and education for fire and gas detector placement, and process safety. The Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center and Kenexis share common goals in preventing unnecessary loss of [...]
Today, we remember the 1947 Texas City industrial accident. The picture in our office, reminds us daily that Kenexis exist to prevent these. Learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster
The team at Kenexis has further embraced distance learning and launched a dedicated portal for learning about functional safety and industrial control system cybersecurity. There are currently two courses available on the portal, with several more coming soon. Kenexis had been offering an online course directly on its website. The new architecture will give Kenexis [...]
The Kenexis software development team is proud to announce that the newest application in the Kenexis Instrumented Safeguard Suite, Arbor is now in available for a free trial during our preferred client preview. Arbor is a Fault Tree Analysis application designed by and built for process safety professionals. While Arbor is a full featured Fault [...]
Kenexis President and CEO, Ed Marszal, presented a training seminar in Beijing, China. The seminar occurred during the week of January 16th. The seminar was sponsored and arranged by the China Chemical Safety Association (CCSA). Kenexis is particularly indebted to the work of CCSA Secretary General and SAWS Chairman Mr. Lu, for arranging this event. [...]
Achilles JQS Registered Supplier Kenexis Consulting Corporation is pleased to announce that it is a registered, verified, and compliant supplier on Achilles Joint Qualification System (JQS) for the Oil and Gas Industry in Norway and Denmark. Achilles creates and manages a global network of collaborative industry communities, allowing trading partners to share high quality, structured, [...]
Recently, Jim Gilsinn presented at BSides DC 2016 about cybersecurity work on Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition). His presentation was titled: "What's the Big Deal with Assessing ICS/SCADA?" If you are considering a career in ICS Cybersecurity, this might persuade you to go back to law school. YouTube Link
A prior blog on the Kenexis web site related to the requirements for tight-shutoff (TSO) for valves that are part of a safety instrumented function generated a lot of interest in the engineering community. A link to that blog is shown below. Tight Shutoff Requirements in SRS Blog After writing that blog, Kenexis routinely received [...]
This week, someone attempted to penetrate our systems again. Many of these type of attempts are blast to thousands and some our targeted attempts. Regardless, clicking almost always mean you have been compromised and malware is now on your computer and moving through your organization. This particular email attempt had a file attached from Dropbox and the [...]
Kenexis has accepted an invitation to speak at the China Chemical Safety Association 5th Workshop on Risk Control and Hidden Danger Management of the Chemical Industry. The speaker will be President and CEO, Ed Marszal. Mr. Marszal will be presenting, "A History of LOPA". This presentation will give a personal perspective of how the LOPA [...]
