Glossary · Functional safety
Safety lifecycle
Also known as: safety life cycle, overall safety lifecycle
German: Sicherheitslebenszyklus
In functional safety, the safety lifecycle is the sequence of safety activities from concept and design through operation, maintenance, modification, and decommissioning. It makes safety a managed property of the whole life of a system, not a one-time design result.
- Functional safety
- Systems engineering
In one sentence
The safety lifecycle frames every safety activity, from concept to decommissioning, so that safety claims stay managed after release.
Example
For a robot cell, the safety lifecycle runs from the risk assessment and safety requirements through validation and commissioning to periodic proof tests, a controlled modification of the gripper, and final decommissioning.
How it applies
- Functional safety: IEC 61508 structures the work into lifecycle phases with defined inputs, outputs and verification activities. IEC 62061 and ISO 13849-1 apply the same idea to machinery control systems.
- Technical documentation: Each phase leaves records: risk assessment, safety requirements, design, validation reports, operating and maintenance information. Plan where each record lives and who owns it.
- Evidence: Operation, maintenance and modification are lifecycle phases too. A change after release must pass through change control and may reopen earlier phases.
- Integrated systems: When machines are combined into a line, the lifecycles of the parts must be aligned with the lifecycle of the whole.
Safety lifecycle vs. product lifecycle
The product lifecycle describes commercial and engineering stages. The safety lifecycle describes the safety activities attached to those stages and the evidence each must produce. A product can be "released" while safety activities such as proof tests and field monitoring continue.