Defining Maintenance Strategies

for Critical Equipment With

Reliability-Centered Maintenance
(RCM)

This chapter is included to expose the planner/scheduler to the concept of reliabilitycentered maintenance (RCM). Some professionals believe that the so-called classical
RCM has been made much more complicated than it needs to be. Nonetheless, RCM
was first introduced in the field of commercial aviation. It made its way to the nuclear
industry in the mid-1980s, then spread to other organizations. In all, it is been estimated
that more than 60% of all RCM programs initiated have failed to be successfully implemented. According to Neil Bloom (2005) in his book Reliability Centered Maintenance
Implementation Made Simple, RCM became overly complicated in its transfer from the
airlines and history. Also, it is his belief that the successful application of the process is
inversely proportional to the complexity it has acquired. Bloom also stated that some consultants employ an elixir of obfuscation to allow them sole possession of understanding
the process, and hence a continued income stream.
Bloom (2005) clearly stated that RCM is not a preventive maintenance (PM)
reduction program. It is a reliability program. RCM will indeed identify those
unnecessary PMs that may become candidates for deletion. RCM is almost always
described as a process of identifying critical components whose failure would result
in an unwanted consequence to ones facility. As a planner, your organization may
have experienced some of the following reasons for lack of success or it may have
a successful. You may be what is needed to get the RCM analysis on the right track.
Many times, one or more of the following occurrances cause a lack of success:
1. Lost of in-house control
2. An incorrect mix of personnel performing the analysis
3. Unnecessary and costly administrative burdens
4. Fundamental RCM concepts are not understood
5. Confusion determining system functions
6. Confusion concerning system boundaries and interface
7. Divergent expectations
8. Confusion regarding convention
9. Misunderstanding hidden failures and redundancy
10. Misunderstanding run-to-failure
11. Inappropriate component classifications
12. Instruments were not included as part of the RCM analysis
Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-397042-8.00009-7
Copyright 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling

My goal for this chapter is for the planner/scheduler to understand item 4the
fundamental RCM concepts. Let us start with a definition and then a question. First,
RCM can be defined as a process that is used to determine the maintenance requirements of any physical asset in its operating context. It provides a detailed process to
answer this question: What must be done to ensure that any physical asset continues to
do whatever its users want it to do in its present operating state?
RCM can be defined as the seven key elements as shown in Figures 9.19.17.

Figure 9.1 The seven key elements of RCM.

Figure 9.2The principles that define and characterize RCM.

Defining Maintenance Strategies for Critical Equipment With Reliability-Centered Maintenance

Figure 9.3 RCM is typically implemented in seven steps.

Figure 9.4 RCM is typically implemented in seven steps.

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Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling

Figure 9.5 Functions and performance standards.

Figure 9.6 Functional failures.

Defining Maintenance Strategies for Critical Equipment With Reliability-Centered Maintenance

Figure 9.7 Functional failures.

Figure 9.8 Failure modes.

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Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling

Figure 9.9Failure effects.

Sub-System:
EXAMPLE: FAILURE MODES AND EFFECTS ANALYSIS (FMEA)
Exhaust System
FUNCTIONAL FAILURE
FAILURE MODE
FAILURE EFFECT
(Loss of Function)
(Cause of Failure)
What happens when it fails?
1. To channel all the A. Unable to channel gas 1. Silencer
Silencer assembly collapses and falls to bottom of stack. Back
at all.
mountings
pressure causes the turbine to surge violently and shut down
hot turbine air
corroded away. on high exhaust gas temperature. Downtime to replace silencer
without restriction
to a fixed point
up to four weeks.
10m above the
1. Part of silencer Depending on the nature of blockage, exhaust temperature
B.
Gas
flow
resticted.
roof of the turbine
may rise to where it shuts down the turbine. Debris could
falls off due to
building.
damage parts of the turbine. Downtime to repair silencer up to
fatigue.
four weeks.
C. Fails to maintain the
1.
Hole
in
flexible
The joint is inside turbine hood, so leaking exhaust gases would
gas.
be extracted by the hood extraction system. Fire and gas
joint from
detection equipment inside hood is unlikely to detect an
corrosion.
exhaust gas leak, and temperatures are unlikely to rise enough
to trigger the fire wire. A severe leak may cause gas demister
to overheat, and may melt also melt control wires near the leak
with upredictable effects. Pressure balance inside the hood are
such that little or no gas is likely to escape from a small leak, so
a small leak is unlikely to be detected by smell or hearing.
Downtime to replace joint is 3 days.
2. Gasket in
Gas escapes into turbine hood and ambient temperature rises.
ducting
Buliding ventilation system would expel gases through louvers
improperly fitted. to atmosphere. So concentration of gases is unlikely to reach
noxious levels. A small leak at this point would be audible.
Downtime to repair up to 4 days.
3. Hole in upper
bellows due to
corrosion.

The upper bellows are outside the turbine building, so a leak

here discharges to the atmosphere, Ambient noise levels may
rise. Downtime to repair, a few days to several weeks.

2. To reduce exhaust
1. Silencer material Most of the material would be blown out, but some might fail to
A. Noise level exceeds
noise to ISO
mesh retaining the bottom of the stack and obstruct the turbine outlet causing
ISO Rating 30 at 50m.
Rating 30 at 50m.
corroded away. high EGT and possible turbine shutdown. Noise levels would
rise gradually. Downtime to repair about 2 weeks.

151

Figure 9.10 Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA).

Defining Maintenance Strategies for Critical Equipment With Reliability-Centered Maintenance

System:
5MW Gas Turbine
FUNCTION

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Figure 9.11 Failure consequences.

Figure 9.12 Evaluating consequences with an RCM decision diagram.

Defining Maintenance Strategies for Critical Equipment With Reliability-Centered Maintenance

Figure 9.13 Proactive maintenance.

Figure 9.14 The PF Interval.

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Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling

Figure 9.15 Areas of the bathtub curve

Figure 9.16 Common equipment failure patterns.

Defining Maintenance Strategies for Critical Equipment With Reliability-Centered Maintenance

155

Figure 9.17 Default actions.

Further Reading
Bloom, Neil B., 2005. Reliability Centered Maintenance; Implementation Made Simple.
McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Moubray, John, 1997. Reliability-centered Maintenance. Industrial Press.
Smith, Anthony M., Hinchcliffe, Glenn, 2004. RCM-gateway to World Class Maintenance.
Elsevier-Butterworth-Heinemann.