The System Safety Engineer

Safety Engineering is an engineering discipline requiring:

• professional knowledge and skills in the mathematical, physical, and related scientific disciplines,
• together with the experience  in the principles and methods of system engineering design, integration, and its operational application

to specify, predict, and evaluate the safety of the system [Kritzinger, 2006, Ch13].

Safety is a system property.  This means that safety of the "whole" cannot be argued from the claimed safety of the individual sub-system elements alone.  System Safety is more than the sum of the parts. In most situations, safety is achieved via the integration of a number of systems/sub-systems/ components, which rely on a variety of technologies (be they mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic, programmable electronic, etc), which is then put into an environment where it has to function safely as an operational system [Kritzinger, 2006, Ch8]

To apply successfully, consistently and (most of all) efficiently, Safety Engineering is a skill acquired only after numerous years of practising in the System Safety design and analysis arena. To see the contributions an experienced Safety Engineer can make to System Safety, see illustration.