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Reliability Centered Maintenance Explaination

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a corporate maintenance strategy that identifies the critical functions of assets and optimizes maintenance techniques to improve reliability in a cost-effective manner. The RCM process involves defining asset functions, failure modes, root causes, and failure consequences before selecting appropriate predictive or preventative maintenance tactics to control the most important failure modes. The goal is to minimize asset failures and maximize availability through maintenance strategies determined using a systematic 7-step methodology.

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267 views6 pages

Reliability Centered Maintenance Explaination

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a corporate maintenance strategy that identifies the critical functions of assets and optimizes maintenance techniques to improve reliability in a cost-effective manner. The RCM process involves defining asset functions, failure modes, root causes, and failure consequences before selecting appropriate predictive or preventative maintenance tactics to control the most important failure modes. The goal is to minimize asset failures and maximize availability through maintenance strategies determined using a systematic 7-step methodology.

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Reliability Centered Maintenance Definition

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a corporate level maintenance strategy that


is implemented to optimize the maintenance program of a company or facility. The final
result of an RCM program are the maintenance strategies that should be implemented
on each of the assets of the facility. The maintenance strategies are optimized so that
the functionality of the plant is maintained using cost-effective maintenance techniques.
There are four principles that are critical for an RCM program.
1.

The primary objective is to preserve system function

2.

Identify failure modes that can affect the system function

3.

Prioritize the failure modes

4.

Select applicable and effective tasks to control the failure modes

The Goal of RCM

Equipment reliability and availability, achieved by minimizing the probability of system


failure is the focus of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). With this maintenance
strategy, the function of the equipment is considered and possible failure modes and
their consequences are identified. Maintenance techniques that are cost-effective in
minimizing the possibility of failure are then determined. The most effective techniques
are then adopted to improve the reliability of the facility as a whole.

The 7 questions that need to be asked for RCM

An effective RCM implementation examines the facility as a series of functional


systems, each of which has inputs and outputs contributing to the success of the facility.
It is the reliability, rather than the functionality, of these systems that are considered.
The SAE JA1011 has a set of minimum criteria before a maintenance strategy can be
called RCM (Gulati). The seven questions that need to be asked for each asset are:
1.

What are the functions and desired performance standards of each asset?

2.

How can each asset fail to fulfill its functions?

3.

What are the failure modes for each functional failure?

4.

What causes each of the failure modes?

5.

What are the consequences of each failure?

6.

What can and/or should be done to predict or prevent each failure?

7.

What should be done if a suitable proactive task cannot be determined?

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Value Proposition
Reliability Centered Maintenance identifies the functions of the company that are most
critical and then seeks to optimize their maintenance strategies using applicable and
cost-effective techniques. The most critical assets are those that are likely to fail often or
have large consequences of failure.

Advantages of RCM
Jardine and Tsang give some indicative effects of implementing RCM. These include
increased availability of a packaging line of 10%, reduced maintenance costs of
between 30% to 40% for a utility company, and reductions in costs of oil filters for a
mining company by $150000 (US).

Disadvantages of RCM
RCM does not readily consider the total cost of owning and maintaining an asset.
Additional costs of ownership, like those considered in Evidence Based Maintenance,
are not considered, and are therefore not factored into the maintenance considerations.

The 7 Steps for implementing RCM


There are several different methods for implementing RCM that are recommended by
different organizations. In general, however, they can be summarized by the following 7
steps.

Step 1: Selection of equipment for RCM analysis

The first step is to select equipment for RCM analysis. The equipment selected for RCM
should be critical, in terms of its effect on operations, its previous costs of repair and
previous costs of preventative maintenance.

Step 2: Define the boundaries and function of the systems that contain
the selected equipment
The equipment belongs in a system that performs a function that is important to the
process. The system can be as large or small as necessary, but the function of the
system should be known as should its inputs and outputs. For example, the function of
a conveyor belt system is to transport goods. Its inputs are the goods and mechanical
energy powering the belt, while its outputs are the goods at the other end. In this case,
the electric motor supplying the mechanical energy would be considered as part of a
different system.

Step 3: Define the ways that the system can fail - the failure modes
In step 3 the object is to list all of the ways that the function of the system can fail. In the
case of the conveyor belt it can fail by being unable to transport the goods from one end
to the other, or it can fail if it does not transport the goods sufficiently quickly.

Step 4: Identify the root causes of the failure modes


With the help of operators, experienced technicians, RCM experts and equipment
experts, the root causes of each of the failure modes can be identified. Root causes for
failure of the conveyor could include a lack of lubrication on the rollers, a failure of a
bearing, or an insufficiently tight belt.

Step 5: Assess the effects of failure


In this step the effects of each failure mode are considered. The effects include the
effects on safety, operations and other equipment. Criticality of each of these failure
modes can also be considered.

There are various recommended techniques that are used to give this step a systematic
approach. These include:
1.

Failure, mode and effects Analysis (FMEA)

2.

Failure, mode, effect and criticality analysis

3.

Hazard and operability studies (HAZOPS)

4.

Fault tree analysis (FTA)

5.

Risk-based inspection (RBI)


The most important failure modes will be determined at the conclusion of the systematic
analysis of each failure mode. This will be determined by asking questions such as
"Does this failure mode have safety implications", and "Does this failure mode result in a
full or partial outage of operations?". It is these important failure modes that are then
prioritized for further analysis. Importantly, the failure modes that are retained include
only those that have a real probability of occurring under realistic operating conditions.

Step 6: Select a maintenance tactic for each failure mode


At this step, the most appropriate maintenance tactic for each failure mode is
determined. Importantly, the maintenance tactic that is selected has to technically and
economically feasible.
Condition Based Maintenance is selected when it is technically and economically
feasible to detect the onset of the failure mode.
Time or Usage Based Preventative Maintenance is selected when it is technically and
economically feasible to reduce the risk of failure using this method.
For failure modes that do not have satisfactory condition based maintenance
or preventative maintenanceoptions, then a redesign of the system to eliminate or
modify the failure mode should be considered.
Failure modes that were not identified as being critical in Step 6 may, at this stage, be
identified as good candidates for a run-to-failure maintenance schedule.

Step 7: Implement and then regularly review the maintenance tactic


that is selected.
Importantly, the RCM methodology will only be useful if its maintenance
recommendations are put into practice. When that has been done, it is important that
the recommendations are constantly reviewed and renewed as additional information is
found.

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