Functional safety is the backbone of every automated industrial operation, especially in high-risk, high-output environments like those found across South Africa’s manufacturing and processing sectors. Emergency stops, safety interlocks and light curtains play an important role in protecting people, preventing downtime and ensuring compliance with local and international regulations. Yet, for many South African facilities, the process of verifying these systems remains manual, labour-intensive and incredibly time-consuming. Until now.
The reality of traditional safety testing
Across local plants, whether in FMCG, food processing, mining or automotive, functional safety checks still often rely on teams of engineers manually triggering devices along a line. One engineer monitors the HMI or control panel, while another walks the floor testing devices and relaying instructions. These verbal back-and-forths take an incredible amount of time, are prone to error and require skilled resources. Documentation is often incomplete or inconsistent, especially when time is tight or teams are short-staffed. For operations looking to minimise downtime and improve efficiency, this outdated approach presents a growing challenge.
A smarter option with Sysmac
OMRON’s NX Safety platform offers a modern solution, Online Safety Functional Test Verification, which is a feature built into the Sysmac Studio engineering environment. This intuitive tool allows safety verification to be carried out digitally, with step-by-step guidance and full traceability, all from a single workstation.
Once connected to the NX Safety Controller via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, the system walks the user through each safety test, whether it’s checking an e-stop, light curtain or a door interlock. As each component is tested, the software records the real-time response of the safety program, logging it automatically with a timestamp.
There are no more clipboards or guesswork, and in many cases, no second engineer is needed.
Reliable reporting for safety compliance
For South African companies navigating strict health and safety requirements, audit readiness is non-negotiable. This tool generates a comprehensive, digital test report after each verification cycle, complete with a safety signature, ensuring traceability for inspections or certification processes. This is particularly useful in regulated sectors like pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and petrochemicals. Should a test step fail, it can be flagged, annotated and retested. The tool supports both first-time commissioning and ongoing routine maintenance, helping teams ensure ongoing compliance with standards like ISO 13849-1 (PLe) and IEC 61508 (SIL3).
More efficiency, less downtime
Perhaps most importantly for South African manufacturers working with tight teams and limited resources, the Online Safety Functional Test allows a single operator to manage the process end-to-end. This reduces the need for multiple skilled personnel, shortens testing cycles and ensures consistent procedures, regardless of plant size or shift changes.
Future-ready functional safety
OMRON’s NX Safety platform offers a modular and scalable approach to safety control that meets the needs of both small manufacturers and large, complex installations. With digital safety verification built in, it brings engineering teams a powerful tool to reduce risks, save time and keep operations running safely and smoothly.
OMRON is a global leader in the field of automation based on its core technology of ‘Sensing & Control + Think’. The company’s business fields cover a broad spectrum, ranging from industrial automation and electronic components to social infrastructure systems, healthcare and environmental solutions. OMRON supports manufacturing innovation by providing advanced automation technologies and products, as well as through extensive customer support, to help create a better society.
As a leader in industrial automation, OMRON has extensive lines of control components and equipment, ranging from vision sensors and other input devices to various controllers and output devices such as servomotors, as well as a range of safety devices and industrial robots. By combining these devices via software, OMRON has developed a variety of unique and highly effective automation solutions for manufacturers worldwide. Based on its reservoir of advanced technologies and comprehensive range of devices, OMRON set forth a strategic concept called ‘innovative-Automation’, consisting of three innovations, ‘integrated’ (control evolution), ‘intelligent’ (development of intelligence by ICT) and ‘interactive’ (new harmonisation between people and machines). OMRON is committed to bringing innovation to manufacturing sites by materialising this concept.
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