3/16/2019 Reliability Centered Maintenance: What is RCM?

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Reliability centered maintenance (RCM)

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What is RCM (Reliability-centered maintenance)?

De nition

Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a corporate-level maintenance strategy that is implemented to optimize the maintenance program of a
company or facility. The nal result of an RCM program is the implementation of a speci c maintenance strategy on each of the assets of the facil
maintenance strategies are optimized so that the productivity of the plant is maintained using cost-e ective maintenance techniques.

There are four principles that are critical for a reliability-centered maintenance program.

1. The primary objective is to preserve system function

2. Identify failure modes that can a ect the system function

3. Prioritize the failure modes

4. Select applicable and e ective tasks to control the failure modes

7 questions that need to be asked for RCM

An e ective reliability-centered maintenance implementation examines the facility as a series of functional systems, each of which has inputs and
contributing to the success of the facility. It is the reliability, rather than the functionality, of these systems that are considered. The SAE JA1011 ha
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 ful ll 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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Reliability-centered maintenance identi es the functions of the company that are most critical and then seeks to optimize their maintenance stra
minimize system failures and ultimately increase equipment reliability and availability. The most critical assets are those that are likely to fail often
large consequences of failure. With this maintenance strategy, possible failure modes and their consequences are identi ed; all while the functio
equipment is considered. Cost-e ective maintenance techniques that minimize the possibility of failure can then be determined. The most e ect
techniques are then adopted to improve the reliability of the facility as a whole.

Advantages
Implementing RCM increases equipment availability, and reduces maintenance and resource costs. Jardine and Tsang give an example of a uti
company who reduced maintenance costs by up to 40%

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

The RCM process: 7 steps to implement reliability-centered maintenance

There are several di erent methods for implementing reliability-centered maintenance that are recommended, summarized in the following 7 st
Step 1: Selection of equipment for RCM analysis

The rst step is to select the piece of equipment for reliability-centered maintenance analysis. The equipment selected should be critical in terms
e ect on operations, its previous costs of repair, and previous costs of preventive maintenance.

Step 2: De ne the boundaries and function of the systems that contain the selected equipment

The equipment belongs to a system that performs a crucial function. The system can be large or small, but the function of the system, and its inp
outputs, should be known. For example, the function of a conveyor belt system is to transport goods. Its inputs are the goods and mechanical en

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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 con
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as part of a di erent system.

Step 3: De ne the ways in which the system can fail (failure modes)

In step 3 the objective is to list all of the ways that the function of the system can fail. For example, the conveyor belt may fail by being unable to tr
the goods from one end to the other, or perhaps it does not transport the goods quickly enough.

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 ide
Root causes for failure of the conveyor could include a lack of lubrication on the rollers, a failure of a bearing, or a loosened belt.

Step 5: Assess the e ects of failure

In this step, the e ects of each failure mode are considered. Equipment failures may a ect safety, operations, and other equipment. The criticalit
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 modes and e ects analysis (FMEA)

2. Failure, mode, e ect 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 this systematic analysis. Ask yourself questions such as “Does this failu
have safety implications?”, and “Does this failure mode result in a full or partial outage of operations?”. Your answer is the most important failure
that should be prioritized for further analysis. Importantly, the failure modes that are retained include only those that have a real probability of o
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. The maintenance tactic that is selected must be techn
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 preventive maintenance is selected when it is technically and economically feasible to reduce the risk of failure using this m

For failure modes that do not have satisfactory condition-based maintenance or preventive maintenance options, then a redesign of the system
eliminate or modify the failure mode should be considered.

Failure modes that were not identi ed as being critical in Step 6 may, at this stage, be identi ed as good candidates for a run-to-failure
maintenance schedule.

Step 7: Implement and then regularly review the maintenance tactic selected

Importantly, the RCM methodology will only be useful if its maintenance recommendations are put into practice. When that has been done, it is im
that the recommendations are constantly reviewed and renewed as additional information is found.
The bottom line: What impact does RCM have on reliability?

Since the end product of a well-executed RCM analysis is that an appropriate maintenance strategy will be selected for each piece of equipment, t
impact is an overall improvement of reliability. RCM aims to reduce costs, improve safety, and eliminate maintenance tasks that are not e ective

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appropriate for a given piece of machinery. Implementing RCM processes allows you to avoid a one-size- ts-all mindset that could waste valuable
and resources. Products Pricing Solutions Resources Support Company Login Free tour Book a de

More to discover

Maintenance, Replacement, and Reliability: Theory and Applications. Andrew K.S. Jardine, Albert H.C. Tang
Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices. Ramesh Gulati
Reliability-Centered Maintenance Second Edition. John Moubray

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