5.

Reliability Centered Maintenance

(RCM)

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Introduction
The term “reliability centered maintenance” appeared for the first time
as the title of a report on the processes used by the civil aviation
industry to prepare maintenance programs for aircraft.

Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is a systematic process used to

determine what has to be accomplished to ensure that any physical
facility is able to continuously meet its designed functions in its
current operating context.

RCM is a systematic approach for understanding the function of the

manufacturing system and the failure modes of its components,
and choosing the optimum course of action that would prevent the
failure modes from occurring or to detect them before occurring. It
evaluates a facility’s equipment and resources to best mate a high
degree of reliability and cost-effectiveness.

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RCM is highly reliant on predictive maintenance but also recognizes that
maintenance activities on equipment that is inexpensive and
unimportant to facility reliability may best be left to a reactive
maintenance approach.

Any organization can benefit from RCM if its breakdowns account for
more than 20 to 25% of the total maintenance workload.

The following maintenance program breakdowns of continually top-

performing facilities would echo the RCM approach to utilize all
available maintenance approaches with the predominant
methodology being predictive.
 <10% Reactive
 25% to 35% Preventive
 45% to 55% Predictive.

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RCM Goals and Principles

Some of the important goals of RCM are as follows:

• To develop design-associated priorities that can facilitate
PM
• To gather information useful for improving the design of
items with proven unsatisfactory, inherent reliability
• To develop PM-related tasks that can reinstate reliability
and safety to their inherent levels in the event of
equipment or system deterioration
• To achieve the above goals when the total cost is minimal

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The primary principles upon which RCM is based are the
following:
RCM is system/equipment focused. RCM is concerned more
with maintaining system function as opposed to maintaining
individual component function.
Safety and economics drive RCM. Safety is of paramount
importance, thus it must be ensured at any cost and then
cost effectiveness becomes the criterion.
RCM is function-oriented. RCM plays an instrumental role in
preserving system/equipment function, not just operability
for its own sake.
Design limitations are acknowledged by RCM. The goal of
RCM is to maintain the inherent reliability of the
equipment/system design and at the same time recognize
that changes in inherent reliability can only be made through
design rather than maintenance. Maintenance at the best of
times can only achieve and maintain a level of designed
reliability.
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An unsatisfactory condition is defined as a failure by RCM. A
failure could be either a loss of acceptable quality or a loss of
function.
Reliability centered. RCM is not overly concerned with
simple failure rate; it seeks to know the probability of failure
at specific ages.
Uses a logic tree to screen maintenance tasks. This provides
a consistent approach to the maintenance of all kinds of
equipment.
RCM tasks must be effective. The tasks must be cost-
effective and technically sound.
RCM tasks must be applicable. Tasks must reduce the
occurrence of failures or ameliorate secondary damage
resulting from failure.
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Three types of maintenance tasks along with run-to-failure
are acknowledged by RCM. These tasks are defined as
failure-finding, time-directed, and condition-directed. Run-
to-failure is a conscious decision in RCM.
A living system. It gathers data from the results achieved
and feeds this data back to improve future maintenance. This
feedback is an important part of the Proactive Maintenance
element of the RCM program.
RCM develops maintenance standards for ensuring that a
system or device meets its designed reliability or availability,
even in the procurement and installation phases

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RCM Process
The RCM process is applied to determine particular maintenance
tasks to be performed, as well as to influence item reliability and
maintainability during design. Initially the RCM process is applied
during the design and development phase and then reapplied, as
appropriate, during the operational phase to sustain an effective
maintenance program based on experience in the field.
Any RCM process should ensure that all of the following questions
are answered effectively as per their sequence:
• What are the functions and associated expected levels of the facility
performance in its current operating context?
• How might it fail to meet its assigned functions?
• What are the reasons for each functional failure or failure mode?
• What are the effects of each failure?
• How does each failure matter?
• What remedial measures should be taken to prevent or predict each
failure?
• What measures should be taken in the event of not finding a
suitable proactive task?

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The basic RCM process is composed of the following steps:
•Identify important items with respect to maintenance by
using techniques such as failure, mode, effects, and criticality
analysis (FMECA) and fault tree analysis (FTA).
•Obtain appropriate failure data. In determining occurrence
probabilities and assessing criticality, the availability of data on
part failure rate, operator error probability, and inspection
efficiency is essential. These types of data come from field
experience, generic failure databanks, etc.
•Develop fault tree analysis data. Probabilities of occurrence of
fault events-basic, intermediate, and top events—are
calculated as per combinatorial properties of the logic
elements in the fault tree.

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• Apply decision logic to critical failure modes. The decision logic
is designed to lead, by asking standard assessment questions, to
the most desirable preventive maintenance task combinations.
The same logic is applied to each crucial mode of failure of each
maintenance-important item.
• Classify maintenance requirements. Maintenance requirements
are categorized into three classifications: on-condition
maintenance requirements, condition-monitoring maintenance
requirements, and hard-time maintenance requirements.
• Implement RCM decisions. Task frequencies and intervals are
set/enacted as part of the overall maintenance strategy or plan.
• Apply sustaining-engineering on the basis of field experience.
Once the system/equipment start operating, the real-life data
begin to accumulate. At that time, one of the most urgent steps
is to re-evaluate all RCM-associated default decisions.

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RCM Components
Reactive Maintenance: Reactive maintenance can be practiced
effectively only if it is carried out as a conscious decision, based on
the conclusions of an RCM analysis that compares risk and cost of
failure with the cost of maintenance needed to mitigate that risk
and failure cost.
Preventive Maintenance:
PM Task and Monitoring Periodicity Determination (MTBF),
Item/Equipment Monitoring (Failure anticipation from past
experience, Failure distribution statistics, Conservative approach)
Predictive testing and inspections (PTI): Condition monitoring/
Predictive maintenance:
Using performance data, nonintrusive testing techniques, and visual
inspection.
Proactive Maintenance: improve maintenance through actions
such as better design, workmanship, installation, scheduling, and
maintenance procedures.
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Figure: Components of RCM

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It is important to both define the equipment criticality and cost of down-
time when determining the optimal mix of maintenance elements. Once
defined, the equipment can be prioritized in the developing a functional
RCM program.

Table: Reliability centered maintenance element applications (NASA2000)

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RCM PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS MEASUREMENT
Many management indicators to measure the effectiveness of an RCM
program have been developed. The numerical indicators or metrics are
considered the most useful because they are objective, precise,
quantitative, and more easily trended than words, as well as consisting
of a benchmark.
Equipment Availability (96%)

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Emergency Percentage Index (10% or less)

PTI Covered Equipment Index (100%)

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Table: Criticality/Severity categories for failures

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Figure: Logic tree analysis structures

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Successful implementation of RCM results the following benefits:
1. Increased reliability leading to fewer equipment failures and,
therefore, greater availability and lower maintenance costs.
2. Reduction of total maintenance cost as failures are prevented and
preventive maintenance tasks are replaced by condition monitoring.
3. Increasing Efficiency and Productivity as a result of the RCM
approach to maintenance that ensures that the proper type of
maintenance is performed on equipment as needed.
4. Reducing lifecycle costs including acquisition phase and operation
phase since decisions made early in the acquisition cycle profoundly
affect the life-cycle cost. Savings of 30–50 % in the annual operations
and maintenance costs are often obtained overtime through the
implementation of a balanced RCM program.
5. Improving maintenance sustainability as RCM planning involves
decisions made at all phases of equipment life cycle.

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Generally, the application of RCM has many benefits, including
improvement in safety and environmental protection,
improvement in product quality, improvement in the useful
life of costly items, a maintenance database, improvement in
teamwork, improvement in maintenance cost-effectiveness,
greater motivation of individuals, and higher plant availability
and reliability.

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Because RCM is so heavily weighted in utilization of predictive maintenance
technologies, its program advantages and disadvantages mirror those of
predictive maintenance.
Advantages
 Can be the most efficient maintenance program.
 Lower costs by eliminating unnecessary maintenance or overhauls.
 Minimize frequency of overhauls.
 Reduced probability of sudden equipment failures.
 Able to focus maintenance activities on critical components.
 Increased component reliability.
 Incorporates root cause analysis.

Disadvantages
 Can have significant startup cost, training, equipment, etc.
 Savings potential not readily seen by management.

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How to Initiate Reliability Centered Maintenance
The road from a purely reactive program to a RCM program is not an easy one.
The following is a list of some basic steps that will help to get moving down this
path (NASA 2000).
1. Develop a Master equipment list identifying the equipment in your
facility.
2. Prioritize the listed components based on importance or criticality to
operation, process, or mission.
3. Assign components into logical groupings.
4. Determine the type and number of maintenance activities required and
periodicity using:
a. Manufacturer technical manuals
b. Machinery history
c. Root cause analysis findings - Why did it fail?
d. Good engineering judgment
5. Assess the size of maintenance staff.
6. Identify tasks that may be performed by operations maintenance
personnel.
7. Analyze equipment failure modes and impacts on components and
systems.
8. Identify effective maintenance tasks or mitigation strategies.
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