What is Reliability Centered Maintenance?
The Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCMCost) module implements the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) procedure for determining maintenance strategies based on reliability techniques and encompasses well-known analysis methods such as Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). RCM procedures have the following objectives:
- Minimize Costs
- Meet Safety and Environmental Goals
- Meet Operational Goals
How can Reliability Centered Maintenance Help?
The RCM process begins with a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) that identifies the critical plant failure modes in a systematic and structured manner. The process then requires the examination of each critical failure mode to determine the optimum maintenance policy to reduce the severity of each failure.
The chosen maintenance strategy must take into account cost, safety, environmental and operational consequences. The effects of redundancy, spares costs, maintenance crew costs, equipment aging and repair times must be taken into account along with many other parameters.
Once optimal maintenance policies have been recorded the Reliability Centered Maintenance process provides system performance predictions and costs, expected spares requirements and maintenance crew manning levels. The RCM process may be used to develop a living strategy with the plant model being updated when new data is available or design changes take place.
What Standards are Included in the RCMCost Module?
RCMCost supports Reliability Centered Maintenance standards such as SAE JA1011, MSG-3 and MIL-STD-2173(AS) by providing a structured method for entering FMECA data and simulating the effects of different maintenance strategies on cost, safety the environment and operational issues.
The RCM decision-making process is therefore substantially enhanced by the ability to quickly simulate the effects of preventive tasks, inspection tasks and condition monitoring taken into account aging, hidden failures, maintenance crew costs, spares costs and availability etc.
Standards and Decision Diagrams
Reliability Centered Maintenance decision diagrams are utilized in SAE JA1011, MSG-3 and MIL-STD-2173(AS) to provide a logical process for workgroups to determine what type of maintenance strategy to adopt for a given failure cause. The diagrams ask questions that often require analysis before a conclusion may be reached.
In addition, these diagrams follow a sequential process that may not be appropriate in identifying the optimal task or combinations of tasks for a given failure cause. However, RCMCost provides the full flexibility required to allow users to quickly compare the effects of different practical maintenance strategies and condition monitoring using well-known scientific methods.
The RCMCost module may be used to produce reports similar to those in the SAE JA1011, MSG-3, and MIL-STD-2173(AS) standards. Reports may contain FMECA data, maintainability data, RCM decision data etc.