Reliability Centred Maintenance

Introduction

RCM is a method for maintenance planning developed within the aircraft industry and later adapted to several other industries and military branches. In the following RCM are briefly described. A full report may be downloaded here. This report presents a structured approach to RCM, and discusses the various steps in the approach. The availability of reliability data and operating experience is of vital importance for the RCM method. The RCM method provides a means to utilize operating experience in a more systematic way. Aspects related to utilization of operating experience are therefore addressed specifically. Several railway operators have started a process of utilizing RCM in the planning of preventive maintenance. More information could be found here.

Steps of the RCM process

The RCM analysis may be carried out as a sequence of activities. Some of these activities, or steps, are overlapping in time. The RCM process comprises the following steps:

1. Study preparation
2. System selection and definition
3. Functional failure analysis (FFA)
4. Critical item selection
5. Data collection and analysis
6. Failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA)
7. Selection of maintenance actions (RCM decision logic)
8. Determination of maintenance intervals
9. Preventive maintenance comparison analysis
10. Treatment of non–critical items
11. Implementation
12. In–service data collection and updating