Reliability Centered Maintenance
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a method used around the world by Mechanical Engineering manage rotating equipment. RCM focus on Maintenance task development based on equipment reliability condition. The first RCM was applied by United airlines to reduce the number of maintenance tasks on the aircraft with satisfactory results ie aircraft flight & safety increased. Although born in aircraft companies, Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) can be implemented in the process industry with little modification.
Application of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method will give advantages that safety and environmental integrity become more preferred, improved operational performance, lower operating cost, and maintenance effectiveness, improved equipment availability and reliability, longer component life, more comprehensive database, individual motivation larger, and good cooperation between the parts in an installation. what is reliability centered maintenance mean?
“The probability that a system will perform satisfactorily for a given period of time under stated conditions.” (Dimitri Kececioglu)
“…the level of reliability achieved with an effective maintenance program. This level is established by the design of each item and the manufacturing processes that produced it. …” (Nowlan and Heap )
So many forms of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) definitions from various references, but the main purpose is to maintain system function by identifying failure modes and prioritizing the importance of failure mode and selecting effective and workable preventive maintenance measures.
Equipment Failure Pattern
To run RCM well must recognize the following terms:
- What is the item supposed to do and 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 task can be performed proactively to prevent, or to diminish to a satisfactory degree, the consequences of the failure?
- What must be done if a suitable preventive task cannot be found?
Availability is the ready condition of a machine/equipment both in quantity and quality in accordance with the requirements used to carry out the operation process. Such readiness can be used to assess the success or effectiveness of the maintenance activities that have been performed.
Ideally, Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) assessment result needs to be implemented on Planning & Scheduling and also equipment data management software like CMMS. By applying Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) we will increase the performance of Equipment. The concept of RCM has been applied to many industry like oil and gas industry, petrochemical and also steel industry. By systematically applying the RCM methodology, failures, failure causes and effects on the system are analysed. To preserve the system function, PM categories are suggested for various failure modes in the components such as (1) time directed (2) condition directed (3) failure finding (4) run to failure.