We help assure:

• Missiles don't hit friendly targets
• Passenger planes don't crash
• Trains don't collide or derail
• Medical devices don't kill you
• Nuclear reactors don't melt down
• You don't get sued

Ever wondered why there aren't MORE accidents and MORE lives lost?

Now you know.

Frequently Requested Services

• Webinars
• Answers From An Expert
• Refresher Courses
• On-site Courses
• Process and Product Safety Audits
• Safety Analyses
• Corporate Safety Policies and Corporate Environmental Policies
• System Safety Guidelines - "How To"
• Utilizing our Reputation to Help Leverage Contracts

HCRQ has over 19 years of experience in designing safety into and assessing the safety of complex safety-related systems such as:

• missiles,
• submarines,
• air traffic systems,
• weapons control systems,
• fighter aircraft,
• nuclear reactor control and monitoring systems,
• medical devices,
• space station systems,
• light and heavy rail transportation systems.

• Safety Manager
  • We can provide the system safety or software safety manager role, or assist your manager.
  • We can administer System Safety Programs from end-to-end.
• Safety and Security Manager
  • We can provide the consortium system safety and security role.
    • (i.e., the project coordinator and liaison between consortium and client for light rail systems)
• Safety Working Group/Safety Committee Chairperson
  • We can lead your SSWG/SwSWG or safety committee.
  • We can represent the safety aspect of your project in front of your client.
    • Typically, our safety knowledge and experience will exceed that of your client and their consultants.
      • Think about the implications of this!
• Safety Auditor
  • We can audit products or processes - either your own or your suppliers'.
  • For more information click here.
• Safety Analysts
  • We can perform specific safety analyses for you.
  • We can perform safety analyses concurrent with your system design.
    • We can implement entire System Safety Programs.
  • We can review your or your suppliers' safety analyses and other safety documents.
    • (e.g., PHA , FTA , FMECA , SSPP , Safety Case )
  • We can analyze the safety of an existing design.
    • Some safety-critical systems do not have existing safety analyses.
  • For more information click here.
• RAM Analysts
  • We are experienced in RAM Plans.
  • We are experienced in reliability analysis (allocation, modeling, prediction).
  • We are experienced in availability analysis and demonstrations.
  • We are experienced in maintainability analysis.
  • We are experienced in testability analysis.
  • We are experienced in FMECA.
• Safety Consultation
  • We can advise you.
  • Help is available by phone.
    • For more information click here.
  • Help is also available in person.
    • We can arrange to visit you.
    • You can arrange to visit us.
• Safety Guideline Preparation
  • We can write system safety guidelines for your staff to follow (e.g., how to prepare an SSPP, PHL, PHA, FTA, FMECA, O&SHA, etc.).
  • For more information click here.
• Safety SOW, CDRL & DID Preparation
  • We can write system safety SOW sections and associated DIDs.
  • We once wrote SOW text, CDRLs, and DIDs for a client of ours.
    • This client later told us that the successful bidder wanted to know who the author was.
    • Why?
    • They were so impressed that they wanted to hire us!
  • We can sell you system safety DIDs.
    • For more information click here.
  • We can help you scrub down SOWs and DIDs.
    • We are very good at this.
    • Why?
      • System safety touches many areas of the SOW.
      • We understand system engineering.
      • We understand project management.
      • We understand configuration management.
      • We understand software.
      • We understand reliability.
• Forensic Safety Assessment
  • HCRQ provides around the clock, around the world response to accidents and incidents - professionally, quickly, efficiently and, of course, confidentially.
  • For more information regarding this unique service, starting with our experience with the THERAC-25, click here.
• Safety Training
  • We offer a wide range of excellent courses.
  • We have 16 years of experience in this area.
  • We have repeat clients.
  • We offer open courses, and on-site training (domestically and overseas).
  • We offer customized courses.
  • We offer webinars.
  • For more information click here.
• Policies
  • We are experienced in preparing corporate safety policies.
  • We are experienced in preparing environmental policies.

• Overzealous safety consultants driving projects to their knees
  Their primary goal was making money
• Fault tree analysis based on DFDs
  but the DFDs were not maintained resulting in the FTAs not been representative of the design
• No Corporate Safety Policy
• $80,000,000 in law suits before they brought us on board
• Little, none or out-of-date design documentation.
  How about design documents that don't match the code, and code comments that don't match either of the other two?
• No safety analysis for existing systems where functionality must be added and a safety assessment performed of the changes
• System safety program for defense helicopter of questionable significance
• Horribly over budget on system safety with funds being spent faster than they could be burned
• Significant amounts of time being spent on aspects of questionable significance
• System safety analyses way behind schedule
• Too many projects for too few safety engineers with no time available to perform analyses other than cursory ones
• Preliminary Hazard Analysis at revision 9
• Safety analyses out of sync with the design
• Hazard logging way out of sync with design
• Hazard logs with no traceability
• Practices being followed which don't work
• No minutes of safety meetings
• A design using 4000 global variables
  with a large percentage being safety-related
• Current software version 20. Previous software version 17.
  You will never guess why
• No traceability or poor correlation between safety requirements and design
• Weapons control software with SRS not up-to-date, SDD almost non-existent, coding complete
  System was for a submarine
• Project management and system safety completely out of sync with each other
• No records of peer reviews
• No peer review checklists
• Safety-related software designer. One year previous - kindergarten teacher
• No involvement by system safety in the subcontractor selection process
• Requirements which state that "the delivered system must be as safe as or safer than the system it is replacing"
  yet there is no pertinent data from the existing system

and this is some of what we've heard:

• He is an excellent safety engineer
  {but he is upable to identify hazards}
• Please call me at home
  {from a corporate executive trying to jump ship following an accident}
• The patient did not have long to live anyhow
• Weapons systems are inherently unsafe
• Safety analyses are unnecessary
  Our pilots are used to assuming risk
• That can't happen
• All hazards must be eliminated
• We don't need safety analyses to defend us in court should an accident occur
• When it is time to integrate our software, we receive the modules over our network.
  We're not sure who they are coming from
• We're not allowed to ask for a System Safety Program Plan
• Our system is not safety-critical (air traffic management)
• We perform safety analyses to satisfy the regulations
  We don't use them as a preventative measures
• I am a safety engineer; I have been hired to deflect our customer's safety concerns
  {hired by a defense contractor, their customer was the U.S. Navy}
• We test safety-related software differently than we do other software
  For safety-related software, we unit test it
• I've never heard of quantitative fault trees. What is a minimal cut set?
  {from a "system safety engineer"}
• A hazard log adds no value and is just something else to maintain
• Our system is safe
• The problem with the silent alarm strip is that you don't hear anything when you press it
• We mitigate hacking into our communications network by using CRCs
• Why should we continue to analyze system safety? We have not had any other accidents
  {stated by the manager of a nuclear power plant following the analysis of a Loss Of Cooling Accident}

HCRQ speaks your language ( SSPP , SwSPP, PHL , PHA , HAZOP , SSHA , SHA , O&SHA , FFT , FTA , SFTA , FHA , PSSA , SSA , CCA , ZSA, PRA, CMA, FMEA , FMES , SFMEA , FMECA , SFMECA , SRHA, SDHA, SCHA, HHA , HTDB, HRI, HFE , MIL-STD-882 , SAE ARP4754, SAE ARP4761 , SAE ARP5580, EN 50126, EN 50128, EN 50129, MOD 00-56, IEC 61508, IEEE 1483, IEEE 1228, 49CFR236 Subpart H , 49CFR238.105 , IEC 60880, STANAG 4404, IEC 15026, IEC 60601-1-4, ISO 14971, RTCA DO-178B, RTCA DO-248A, RTCA DO-254, RTCA DO-278, SILs, DALs, Safety Case ).

Our courseware is exceptional.
Many of our attendees are repeat clients because they are comfortable with us and view our courses as the very best.
They appreciate their inherent practical insight and "how to" nature.

• Do you have a challenging contract?
• Do you have a challenging client?
• Do you need training in either system safety or software safety either in general or in specific areas?
• Have you under- or over-specified safety? Many of our clients were victims of either over-confidence or under-estimation.
• Are you pleased with your present safety consultants?
• Are you ready for your client's safety audit?
• Is your client armed to the teeth with consulting engineers ready to bombard you with seemingly never-ending safety critiques?
• Have you experienced a software-related, or worse still, software-caused accident?
• Are you having a difficult time, perhaps in conflict with your client, knowing when you are "done"?

Get HCRQ on your team!

• We will help protect you.
• We will help protect those that use your system.
• We can save you tens of thousands of dollars in your safety budget.
• We can protect you against multi-million dollar law suits.
• We can give you an additional edge over your competition within your bids!

Don't wait too long! One of our clients spent 3 times their safety budget before bringing us in.

Due to numerous requests, we are maintaining and updating our quizzes.
Industry is finding them useful in evaluating the expertise of system safety engineers.

While you are here, check out our web page of useful reference material.