1
May
How can we apply a safety standard intended for the development of electronics and control systems on automobiles to the creation of safety solutions that will ensure that customers, associates and personnel can return to work safely?
Here’s how:
| Aspect of ISO-26262 | ISO-26262 as normally employed | ISO-26262 as applied to COVID-19 Back-to-Work |
|---|---|---|
| Quality Control as a foundation | Commitment to Total Quality Management (TQM) ensures that products and systems are consistent across all production and deliver predictable, identical performance. | Predictable, identical performance by customers, associates and personnel is required to ensure safety (no holes, omissions, or oversights) as they go about their business. |
| Platform upon which the safety solution is built (interfaces) | Applies to hardware used in safety-critical systems within automobiles | Think of facilities, parking lots, rest rooms, cafeterias, coffee stations, equipment, workstations and desks as ‘infrastructure and interface hardware’. |
| Platform upon which the safety solution is built (control) | Applies to hardware used in safety-critical systems within automobiles | Think of people as the ‘control hardware’ that execute the instructions ensuring safety (the ‘software’, see below). |
| Instructions for creating and maintaining safety | Applies to software running on the hardware used in safety-critical systems within automobiles | Think of the instructions that customers, associates and personnel must follow to ensure safety as ‘software’. (Remember that all software is simply a set of instructions. Thus instructions given to people for successfully avoiding COVID-19 infection are merely another form of ‘software’.) |
