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 ageing 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.
