TABLE OF CONTENTS A maintenance policy based exclusively on some maximum operating age would, no matter what the age limit, has little or no effect on the failure rate.
F. Stanley Nowlan and Howard F. Heap
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a methodology for determining the most effective approach for maintenance. Effectiveness is determined by considering both reliability (or probability of failure) and overall cost. RCM focuses on those actions that will assure: (1) that equipment and systems achieve their inherent reliability and safety performance capability; (2) that proper standards are established for restoring equipment to functional capability when deterioration occurs; (3) that information is obtained for design improvements when inherent reliability proves inadequate for functional requirements; and (4) that accomplishes all this at a minimum life cycle cost.1 With this focus, the primary objective of RCM is to preserve system function.2 The methodology can be characterized as follows:
Identify the functions expected of your system (e.g., what's it supposed to do?) Make a list and be very specific, quantifying each functional requirement whenever possible.
Identify the failure modes can result in loss of system function (e.g., what's stopping it from doing that?) Make another list for each function.
Prioritize the functional needs using a criticality analysis of consequences and effects, for each function and each failure mode, (e.g., what's hurting you the most?) Make yet another list for each failure mode and for each function and prioritize based on "what hurts you the most?" in terms of cost, risk, production,...
