Independent safety assessment

viattech Q&S is accredited by the Belgian ministerial authority as a type A inspection body in accordance with the criteria of ISO / IEC 17020: 2012 (accreditation certificate Nr 571-INSP). The company has the skills to perform regulatory assessments and inspections as an AsBo (Assessment Body) in the various areas of the railway system :

• Infrastructure
• Command-Command & Signaling (Trackside and Onboard)
• Rolling stock
• Traffic operation and management
• Maintenance
• Telematics applications
• Fire and smoke protection system in tunnels
• Overall consistency of risk management and safety integration of the assessed system within the railway system as a whole

The approach of our inspectors is to assess the entire development process and its effective application. By not being limited to an exclusively documentary review, this approach allows the identification of potential risks in a proactive manner through audits.

The pragmatic approach adopted at viattech Q&S is not limited to verifying compliance with national, European or international safety standards. Indeed, we aim to understand and review the actual process followed by the development team and its justification.

This approach is similar to the guidance and best practice rules recommended by the standards. In the event of non-compliance, we provide a high added value judgment in which we explain to what extent the approach followed could make it possible to achieve or not the safety objectives set by the project.

Our professional independent assessment activities are structured as follows :

• Safety Audits to assess the extent to which safety plans and procedures are applied, their compliance with applicable standards or with best practice rules. These audits consist of the plans analysis and the holding of interviews with the development team key players at each project phase.
• Safety Assessments to determine to what extent the hazard risks associated with the product or system developed are reduced to an acceptable level, and to provide the necessary recommendations for possible corrective actions. The assessment activities consist of the in-depth technical examination of key project documents, dependability analyzes (RAMS), the risk management process (Hazard Log) as well as the safety case.

The results of these activities are documented in audit reports, an observation log and a detailed safety assessment report. At the end of this process, an assessment certificate is issued to the customer.