Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is a sub set of Proactive maintenance, and an “RCM Analysis” is a study done on a piece of equipment in order to understand all of its failure modes and the consequences of any one component failing. With this information about the asset, one can design an optimal maintenance strategy. Condition monitoring may be carried out to monitor for some of the failure modes. Preventive maintenance actions may be carried out on other components that have a known time to failure, while some parts may be run to failure or allowed to fail.
As an example, think of your automobile. You let the headlights run to failure, you change the oil based on the number of miles / kilometers driven or on the number of months since the last oil change – i.e. on a preventive schedule; you frequently check tire pressure which is akin to condition monitoring. You have various sensors including an oil gauge installed that will alert you to changes in condition and a “Check Engine” light that alerts you before a catastrophic failure takes place. While driving you also monitor the condition by listening for strange noises, rattles and squeaks and you monitor how the car handles and feels as you drive. Regarding proactive maintenance, you look at different models of cars, research their recall history and quality problems, consider the manufacturer and finally choose a vehicle that is appropriate for its intended use – i.e. city driving, off road adventuring or hauling.
In other words, for one asset – your automobile – you actually employ a combination of maintenance strategies because different components will have different failure modes, some more critical than others. An “RCM Analysis” is a study of all of these failure modes – the goal being to prevent all failures from happening; especially those with serious consequences.
Rotary Mart perform these studies relating to RCM namely “Acceptance Testing, Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), Criticality Analysis, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) for your Assets and may provide consultancy regarding these with their experts panel of RCM specialists and Level Certified Vibration Analysts.
