What is Reliability Centered Maintenance?

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a maintenance method that analyzes potential failures in the functionality of each asset and determines the best type of maintenance to prevent each failure. Instead of implementing a sweeping maintenance strategy across an entire organization, RCM maintenance accounts for the needs of individual assets and adjusts each maintenance plan accordingly.

This strategy is more cost-effective than other maintenance strategies because it considers and addresses potential faults and failures in assets, prioritizing those that will have the greatest impact on the organization. Not every asset benefits from regularly scheduled preventive maintenance (PM), and so performing this type of maintenance on every asset can cause wasted time and money. But for those assets that benefit from preventive maintenance, keeping them on the planned maintenance schedule ensures they will continue working as expected.

When executed properly, RCM maintenance planning can be an extremely effective way to manage assets and reduce costs throughout the organization.

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Basic Principles of Reliability Centered Maintenance

A successful reliability-centered maintenance program:

  1. Is scoped and structured to preserve system function. Instead of focusing on preserving the asset itself, it’s focused on preserving the function the asset provides.
  2. Identifies failure modes. Failure modes encompass the ways something might fail. Failures are any errors or defects, especially ones that affect the customer. These can be potential failures or actual failures that have occurred in the past.
  3. Addresses failure modes by importance. The most critical failures should be prioritized above other failures.
  4. Selects the appropriate maintenance tasks. Defines applicable maintenance task candidates and selects the most effective one in the case of important failure modes.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Reliability Centered Maintenance

Some advantages of reliability-centered maintenance include:

  • Cost savings: Selecting maintenance strategies specifically for each asset ensures assets aren’t over-maintained.
  • Improved asset longevity: When assets are maintained properly, the asset lifecycle can be extended.
  • Improved performance: The RCM maintenance plan looks at the functionality of assets and the maintenance plan is implemented to improve functionality. This results in improved performance and safety.
  • Improved decisions: With the data and insight gained from RCM maintenance schedules, decision-makers can make better choices about what type of maintenance to perform or whether to replace assets.

While there are many advantages of reliability-centered maintenance, it has its disadvantages as well:

  • Extensive setup time: It takes a significant amount of time to analyze each potential failure and implement the correct maintenance plan to mitigate the most critical failures. This is especially true for companies that don’t have historical maintenance records to reference.
  • Complexity: With different assets on different maintenance plans, it can be difficult to keep track of what each asset needs.
  • Continuous improvement: Even after investing the time to create the initial RCM maintenance strategy, schedules need to be continuously adjusted and improved to have the greatest impact on functionality.

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How is RCM Different From Other Maintenance Strategies?

Reliability-centered maintenance differs from other types of maintenance because it focuses on personalizing maintenance for each asset and improving reliability. Each asset and its potential failures are analyzed in depth, and a type of maintenance is chosen that best aligns with the asset’s criticality and the organization’s needs. RCM maintenance doesn’t involve implementing a sweeping maintenance program across the organization; instead, the maintenance methods are carefully selected and may not be the same for every asset or even for every function of an asset.

There are several maintenance strategies, and each can be effective in its own way. Run to failure, corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, and predictive maintenance are some of the other maintenance strategies.

Here’s a brief overview of other types of maintenance:

  • Run to failure, or reactive maintenance, is a method of allowing an asset to run until it fails before performing maintenance or replacing parts. While this may work well for certain non-critical assets, it can have disastrous consequences when used as a strategy for assets that are critical to the organization.
  • Corrective maintenance involves performing maintenance or repairs on equipment when an issue is noticed by a technician during an inspection or during other maintenance. While the equipment hasn’t failed yet, the identified issue may lead to failure if it’s not corrected. This involves planning and performing regularly scheduled maintenance to extend equipment lifespan and help avoid unplanned downtime. It works well for certain types of assets, such as those that need maintenance based on usage time or the calendar. It can involve tasks like changing filters, performing lubrication, or replacing certain parts.
  • Preventive maintenance involves planning and performing regularly scheduled maintenance to extend equipment lifespan and help avoid unplanned downtime. It works well for certain types of assets, such as those that need maintenance based on usage time or the calendar. It can involve tasks like changing filters, performing lubrication, or replacing certain parts.
  • Predictive maintenance uses sensors to help predict when an asset may need maintenance or be nearing failure. For example, vibration or temperature sensors on the equipment may connect to a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and notify users when vibrations or temperatures are out of the ordinary, indicating that the asset requires maintenance. This is effective for critical assets that would cause a major disruption if they’re allowed to fail.

Each of these maintenance methods could be chosen for an asset or function after RCM is put into place. Organizations that use RCM maintenance also implement continuous improvement, meaning that the maintenance method or schedule will be continuously changed to ensure the best outcomes.

How Do You Implement a Reliability Centered Maintenance program?

There are three phases of a Reliability Centered Maintenance program and seven steps within these phases to ensure the program is fully implemented. The three phases are Decision, Analysis, and Act.

Phase I: Decision

Justification and planning based on need, readiness, and desired outcomes.

1. Analysis Preparation

Reliability Centered Maintenance analysis is only as effective as the team behind it. The most effective cross-functional teams include maintenance employees, project leaders, subject matter experts, and even executive leadership.

Additionally, documenting procedures and your project plan can be vital to keeping your team on track. The beginning of an RCM project is a great time to outline your organizational goals, project management concerns, budget and timeline, and potential obstacles.

2. Select Equipment for Reliability Centered Maintenance Analysis

Equipment selected for RCM analysis should be critical to operations, subject to the cost of repair vs. cost to replace debate, and included in previous spending on preventive maintenance. To select the best equipment for RCM analysis, answer these questions:

  • Could failure be difficult to detect during normal operation and maintenance?
  • Could failure affect safety?
  • Could failure have a significant impact on operations?
  • Could failure have a significant impact on spending?

If the answer is yes to most or all of these questions, RCM is likely the best type of maintenance for that asset.

3. Identify Functionality

Create a complete list of a piece of equipment’s functionality, including as much data as possible. It is important to specify your desired asset performance levels, rather than actual performance, as it may reflect an operational or maintenance issue. System functionality drives the required functions of the equipment supporting the system functions.

Phase II: Analysis

Conduct the reliability-centered maintenance study in a way that provides a high-quality output.

4. Identify Functional Failures

Functional failure is the inability of an asset or system to meet acceptable standards of performance. Failures can encompass poor performance, over performance, performing unnecessary or unintended functions, or complete failure. For example, when a motor bearing is failing because of a lack of lubrication, a total functional failure would entail the motor not rotating and the motor failing to function.

5.  Identify and Evaluate the Effects of Failures

Next, your team should document what actually happens when failures occur. What can be observed? What is the impact of the failure on production? Is there a significant safety impact?

6. Identify Failure Modes

Once you identify your equipment and systematic functional failures, failure modes must be considered. One of the most common techniques to approach discovering failure modes is Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). FMEA is a step-by-step approach for identifying all possible failures in a design, a manufacturing or assembly process, or a product or service. Understanding the effects of failure involves asking questions such as:

  • What are the safety concerns with this failure?
  • What impact does this failure have on operation/production?
  • Does this failure mode result in full or partial outages?

A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) offers automation tools that reduce missing scheduled work and equipment failures, making PM optimization as efficient and streamlined as possible. PM Task Generation, PM Scheduling, and Inspections features facilitate continuous improvement and can support your organization’s preventive maintenance program.

Phase III: Act

Act on the study’s recommendations to update asset and maintenance systems, procedures, and design improvements.

7. Select Maintenance Tasks

At this point, the most appropriate maintenance action can be identified based on the failure mode information. Failure management techniques can be grouped into two categories:

  • Proactive tasks: Preventive and predictive maintenance techniques are performed to prevent failure of a piece of equipment or system. Preventive maintenance is calendar or usage based, and helps to reduce the risk of failure, while predictive maintenance can detect the failure before it begins. Predictive maintenance is also known as condition monitoring.
  • Default actions: Reactive maintenance, or firefighting mode, deals with failures after the fact. Run to failure maintenance is a tactic where equipment is run until it fails, and then work is performed. A classic example of a component commonly run to failure is a lightbulb.

Selecting the right strategy for failure management is rooted in an understanding of failure modes, criticality of equipment and the economic impact of failure.

What Are the Goals of An RCM Program?

The goals of RCM include the ability to evaluate, categorize, prioritize, and understand how to intervene in the impact of failures. Ultimately, by performing RCM analysis, your organization will develop unique maintenance schedules for each critical asset.

Successful implementation of an RCM maintenance process, coupled with CMMS software, will increase cost-effectiveness, asset reliability, and equipment uptime. An RCM maintenance program can enhance your organization’s understanding of risk and improve decision-making. Maintenance is not a one-size-fits-all practice, and a reliability-centered maintenance program involves a detailed and tailored analysis.

Industry Professionals Have Described Reliability Centered Maintenance As:

  • “The best way to develop a maintenance improvement program improvement program.”– A. M. Smith
  • A process that “uses a cross-functional team to develop a complete maintenance strategy designed to ensure inherent design reliability for a process or piece of equipment.” – Doug Plucknette
  • A way “to identify components whose functional failures can cause unwanted consequences to one’s plant or facility.” – Neil Bloom

When is a Maintenance Program Considered Reliability Centered Maintenance?

A Guide to the Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) Standard (SAE JA1012) identifies the basic requirements a program must meet before it is truly an RCM program. It begins with these seven questions:

  • What is the item supposed to do and what are its associated performance standards?
  • In what ways can it fail to provide the required functions?
  • What are the events that cause each failure?
  • What happens when each failure occurs?
  • In what way does each failure matter?
  • What systematic tasks can be performed proactively to prevent, or to diminish the consequences of the failure?
  • What must be done if a suitable preventive task cannot be found?

Reliability Centered Maintenance implementation with a CMMS

A properly implemented CMMS can support the RCM process. CMMS software helps maintenance programs develop goals for cost tracking, benchmark data, and monitor the bottom line.

For example, with eMaint’s reporting and analytics dashboards, organizations can easily and consistently document work order history, failures, costs, and trends. A CMMS collects and centralizes the data you need to perform the analyses that reliability-centered maintenance requires.

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