RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance)

The RCM strategy, which is gaining popularity today, is fundamentally different from traditional and often outdated preventive maintenance. Equipment reliability-oriented maintenance ensures minimization of emergency risk at maximum possible operational availability of fixed assets taking into account budget constraints and various kinds of risks.

History

• 1960s: The emergence of RCM in military aviation
• 1970s: Introduction of RCM in basic military and space systems
• 1980s: Implementation of RCM in nuclear power plants
• 1990s: Use of RCM in other energy systems, ubiquitous

RCM Properties

There are four characteristics that can be used to define and characterize RCM. Note that these characteristics are not associated with any other maintenance scheduling method that is currently in use.

First property

"Safety of system functions" is the first and most important feature of RCM. It makes it possible to make decisions about the relationship of system functions to specific equipment at further stages of the process systematized, rather than to assume a priori that "every piece of equipment is equally important." In the planning approach ON , this trend is now the most common. At first glance, this concept is difficult to understand, as it contradicts the well-established notion that preventive maintenance (SW) is used to preserve the operability of equipment. In the process of accessing the function of the entire system, we express a desire to know what its production result will be, and in the role of the main task we highlight the preservation of this result, i.e. function.

Second property

Considering that the main task is to preserve the function of the entire system, the second subject of discussion is the loss of its functionality, or functional failure. Functional failures have many parameters and types, and often represent a rather difficult situation. The study of a large number of probable intermediate states is extremely necessary, since some of them may, in the end, turn out to be quite significant. Then the main question is to find out the reason for the functional failure. So, the main principle of the second feature is to make a transition to hardware components by "identifying various kinds of faults that may be the alleged cause of undesirable functional failures." An example of a component and type of malfunction is a flow controller that is jammed in a closed state, where the regulator is a component and jammed is a type of malfunction, which can cause a functional failure "the inability to start the system."

Third property

In the RCM process, "functions are not equal," therefore, all functional failures that occur during operation and, accordingly, the components and types of failures related to them are not the same in importance. Thus, priorities are set for the significance of the types of malfunctions. All of this is accomplished by allocating fault types to a simple three-tiered solution diagram that allows each of the types to be categorized into one of four categories that will be used further to develop a logical rationale for prioritization.

Fourth property

All of the above is essentially the development of a well-organized plan, from which you can see where (component), how (type of malfunction) and in what sequence you need to move when defining specific tasks, ON based on the main task of "saving the function." Thus, in order to identify the list of possible software measures, it is necessary to refer to each of the fault types located in the priority order. At this stage, RCM has another, last characteristic that needs to be determined. Any possible software task should be considered in terms of "applicability and effectiveness." The "applicability" of the task is one of the three reasons for the implementation of the Software in the process of its implementation, regardless of cost. "Efficiency" is the reasonable expenditure of resources on its implementation.

In the case where more than one of the possible tasks is considered as applicable, it is necessary to choose the least costly, that is, the most effective task. There are three criteria for this selection when deciding not to perform a task. The two reasons for not completing a task are that it does not meet the criteria for applicability and effectiveness. The third reason is low priority in the classification.

RCM Tasks

Thus, the RCM tasks are as follows:

• Maintain system functionality.
• Identify the types of malfunctions that may result in disruption of functions.
• Distribution of functional requirements in priority order (by fault type).
• Select applicable and effective software tasks for high priority fault types.

The four characteristics listed above only all together fully describe the concept of RCM. Therefore, any of the maintenance planning processes can only be classified as RCM if it contains all four characteristics.