Safety management for technical plants and critical infrastructures

Technical plants and critical infrastructures must be operated safely, reliably available and demonstrably in compliance with regulations. TÜV NORD supports operators, manufacturers and authorities in systematically identifying and assessing risks and building a robust level of safety throughout the entire lifecycle of the plant.

Digitales Sicherheitsmanagement für kritische Infrastrukturen und vernetzte Anlagen

Technical plants and critical infrastructures are the backbone of modern supply systems – their failure can have far-reaching consequences. Safety management by TÜV NORD makes risks in technology, organisation, people and digital systems visible, uncovers weaknesses and leads to coordinated protection concepts – from planning and operation through to decommissioning.

Your benefits at a glance:

Create transparency regarding risks and weaknesses in plants, processes and organisations
Reliably meet legal, normative and regulatory requirements
Specifically increase availability, resilience and protection of critical infrastructures

People, Technology, Organisation

Safety management – a holistic approach

Safety management means aligning the technical and organisational aspects of a plant – including digital components and data paths – in such a way that risks become transparent and safety can be demonstrably achieved.

TÜV NORD applies an MTO approach (Man, Technology, Organisation) and considers plants holistically – from system architecture and operating procedures through safety‑relevant interfaces to human factors in operation, such as operator behaviour, training and safety culture.

The services are based on established standards such as DIN EN ISO 31000 and 31010, IEC 61508 and 61511, as well as relevant standards for fire, explosion and information protection. The many years of experience in the safety assessment of nuclear facilities are used to develop demanding safety concepts for the chemical and process industries, the energy sector and critical infrastructures.

On this basis, a structured, transparently safe and economically viable level of protection for plants and infrastructure is achieved.

Why structured safety management is indispensable

Networked technical plants, new technologies and stricter regulation are raising the requirements for safety and documentation. A malfunction or failure of critical infrastructures can have significant impacts on security of supply, the environment and reputation.

Professional safety management helps to identify hazards at an early stage, assess risks in a transparent manner and derive effective technical and organisational measures. This creates a level of safety that is technically robust, economically justifiable and demonstrable to authorities and other stakeholders.

Safety management as a structured process

At TÜV NORD, safety management is understood as a holistic, phase-oriented process spanning the entire lifecycle of a plant.

The focus is on an integrated view of technology, organisation, people and digital systems in order to achieve a robust and practical level of safety. The approach is based on recognised standards such as DIN EN ISO 31000 / 31010 and IEC 61508 / 61511, as well as relevant standards for fire, explosion and information protection.

Experience from high‑risk industries is deliberately transferred to conventional industry, the energy sector and critical infrastructures.

Overview of Our Services

We summarise our services in clearly defined modules. This allows you to select precisely the components that are relevant to your system and infrastructure - from analysis and evaluation to implementation and effectiveness checks.

Technikerin im Rechenzentrum prüft Serverinfrastruktur für Anlagensicherheit und IT-Security.

Plant security and IT security

System security and IT security from TÜV NORD protects technical systems against manipulation, failures and unauthorised access with coordinated physical security technology, monitoring and the evaluation of IT and OT interfaces.

Plant security and IT security

Fachkraft überwacht Industrieanlage bei Nacht über Leit- und Überwachungssysteme.

Safety and risk assessments

TÜV NORD carries out systematic risk and safety analyses for plants, processes, infrastructure and organisations - from HAZID/HAZOP, FMEA, FTA and SIL studies to MTO and root cause analyses for traceably safe system solutions.

Safety and risk assessments

Techniker prüft Brandschutzanlagen in industrieller Produktionsumgebung

Fire and explosion protection

TÜV NORD offers preventive and defensive fire and explosion protection for sophisticated technical systems - with property-specific protection concepts, fire and evacuation simulations as well as technical tests and periodic inspections.

Fire and explosion protection

Ingenieurteam prüft Steuerungstechnik für funktionale Sicherheit an einer Industrieanlage.

Control technology and functional safety

TÜV NORD ensures safe plant operation with reliable control and protection systems - by testing the control and instrumentation technology, evaluating functional safety (SIL, PL) and testing electrical protection, emergency and safety power supplies.

Control technology and functional safety

Project phases in safety management

System understanding and analysis

Transparency regarding the plant, infrastructure and operating environment: consideration of plant architecture, redundancies, protection functions and interfaces as well as organisational structures, processes and IT/OT interconnections.

Risk assessment and prioritisation

Evaluation of risks, dependencies and vulnerabilities, taking into account technical, organisational and human factors as well as IT/OT interactions. Objective: a well‑founded prioritisation of safety‑relevant issues.

Concept development and measures

Derivation of technical, organisational and process‑related measures – e.g. protection concepts, emergency and crisis structures, process adjustments, as well as requirements for qualification, training and safety culture.

Implementation and integration

Integration of the defined measures into existing operational and management systems, with clear responsibilities, practical workflows and seamless interaction between technology, organisation and human behaviour.

Review, testing and improvement

Regular inspections, tests, exercises and evaluations to ensure effectiveness. Findings from operations, incidents, audits or changes in regulations are continuously incorporated into the ongoing development of safety management.

Business Continuity Management zur Sicherstellung kritischer Geschäftsprozesse

Emergency management, crisis management and Business Continuity Management (BCM) for critical infrastructures (CI)

Operators of critical infrastructures face stringent requirements regarding resilience, availability and demonstrability – for example due to NIS2, the BSI Act and sector-specific regulations. Emergency management, crisis management and Business Continuity Management (BCM) complement each other to ensure organisational capability.

Emergency management focuses on the immediate response to events such as technical failures, cyber incidents or fires and serves to protect people, the environment and assets as well as to stabilise the situation quickly.
Crisis management controls exceptional, complex disruptions with strategic impact and ensures leadership structures, situation assessment, prioritisation of measures and communication – including with authorities and supervisory bodies.
Business Continuity Management (BCM) aims at maintaining or promptly restoring critical business and supply processes. It is based on the identification of critical processes and resources as well as restart concepts in line with standards such as ISO 22301 and BSI Standard 200-4.

TÜV NORD supports CI operators in consistently embedding emergency management, crisis management and BCM into an integrated safety and resilience management system – from the analysis of critical processes through scenario analyses to tests, exercises and robust documentation.

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Why choose TÜV NORD for your safety management?

With TÜV NORD, a partner is available who assesses safety issues independently and impartially, operates in compliance with standards and regulatory requirements, contributes experience from high-risk industries and critical infrastructure (CI) sectors, and combines deep technical expertise with strong methodological competence. This expertise includes risk and safety analyses such as HAZOP, FMEA, SIL, MTO, and root-cause analyses; the application of relevant standards and regulatory frameworks—such as DIN EN ISO 31000, IEC 61508/61511, IEC 62443, ISO/IEC 27001, as well as applicable DIN and EN standards for fire and explosion protection—and support throughout permitting, verification, and supervisory processes. This results in robust decision-making bases and transparent, verifiable safety documentation for operators, planners and authorities.

Anyone seeking to design plants, processes, and infrastructure in a safe and future-proof manner should engage in dialogue at an early stage. TÜV NORD reviews the request, clarifies requirements through direct exchange, and works collaboratively to develop the appropriate path toward a sustainable level of safety.

Frequently asked questions

Safety management in technical plants refers to a systematic and transparent approach to dealing with risks over the entire lifecycle of a plant – from planning and construction through operation and maintenance to modifications and decommissioning. The aim is to identify hazards at an early stage, assess risks in a structured way and define appropriate technical, organisational and personnel measures. Effective safety management ensures that safety requirements are not only implemented, but also documented, verifiable and permanently effective – in particular with regard to regulatory requirements, operator obligations and evidential demands.

Professional safety management is especially relevant for operators of technical plants with increased hazard potential or specific legal and normative requirements. This includes companies in industry and the process industry, the energy and utilities sector, operators of critical infrastructures (CI) as well as infrastructure and high‑technology facilities. Wherever failures, disturbances or malfunctions can have significant impacts on people, the environment, security of supply or the economy, structured safety management is a central component of operator responsibility.

The design of safety management is based on recognised standards and regulations. Commonly applied are, among others, DIN EN ISO 31000 / 31010 for risk management, IEC 61508 / 61511 for functional safety, IEC 60812 and IEC 61025 for systematic analysis methods, as well as IEC 62443 and ISO/IEC 27001 for the security of industrial and information technology systems. In addition, DIN and EN standards for fire and explosion protection, sector-specific regulations and national requirements – for example from the CI and BSI environment – are applied.

The time required to establish or further develop a safety management system varies from case to case. It depends, among other things, on the size and complexity of the plant, the existing safety level, the available documentation and on regulatory deadlines and evidential obligations. In general, implementation is carried out step by step and plant‑specific. The necessary scope and a realistic timeframe can be estimated in a structured manner at the beginning of a project.

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With holistic safety management, risks become manageable, regulatory requirements are met and the resilience of technical plants and critical infrastructures is increased.

TÜV NORD EnSys GmbH & Co. KG Sicherheitsmanagement

bcm@tuev-nord.de

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Safety management for technical plants and critical infrastructures

Safety management – a holistic approach

Why structured safety management is indispensable

Safety management as a structured process