Embracing Remote Technology in the System Safety World

The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic that began at the end of 2019 accelerated technology to support remote work environments. While the technologies were not new, the capabilities of those technologies significantly increased. The number of users embracing the remote working technologies significantly increased within a very short timeframe. The expanded remote work capabilities have enabled new collaborating mechanisms that will carry-forth in the future, pandemic or not. SAE ARP 4761 [1] provides guidelines to perform a safety assessment. The Zonal Safety Assessment (ZSA) is one of the tools described in ARP 4761. An aspect of ZSA is an audit (or inspection) of the physical article. The remote work capabilities, along with cameras and software presenting a virtual environment, can allow individuals to participate in the physical audit without traveling to the site of the physical article.