Everyday RCM

True of False? RCM has serious weaknesses in an industrial environment.

True or False? RCM is only about formulating a Proactive Maintenance Plan.

Humans are often so focused on the complex, that the simple gets overlooked. Even as technology and our equipment gets more complex, we need to be firmly rooted in the basics of maintenance and reliability.

That’s one reasons why the first step of RCM is so important.

Should you implement the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedules? Not without sanity-checking them first.

Be sure you consider your operating environment, which the manufacturer is unable to do.

A common step in a RCM program is to conduct a critical analysis to prioritize further analysis of those parts of the system that are critical to the operation. Yet, is criticality analysis required?

No, it is not.

Let’s explore why this may be so for your situation.

The third step in the RCM process is to identiy failure modes. When a failure mode occurs it leads to a functional failure.

Identifying failure modes correctly and clearly is vital to the RCM process because we manage physical assets at the failure mode level.

Equipment experts are the untapped gold in any organization.

They know where the vulnerabilities lay, and they know what to do about them. Don’t waste this vital resource.

RCM memorializes the expertise and experience of equipment experts.

There are two main ingredients for a successful reliability centered maintenance (RCM) analysis:

1. First-hand knowledge of the asset and its operating environment.
2. Strong understanding of the RCM process and its associated principles.

Let’s dispel five common myths about reliability centered maintenance, including:

1. RCM is a maintenance program.
2. You must choose to do FMEA or RCM.
3. You must choose to do CBM or RCM.
4. If you do RCM, you must do it on all your assets.
5. RCM has serious weaknesses in an industrial environment.

CBM or Condition-Based Maintenance is a maintenance approach that includes these five facts:

1. CBM doesn’t prevent failure.
2. How often a CBM task is done is based on the P-F interval.
3. How often something fails or the criticality of failure does not dictate how often a CBM task is performed.
4. When it comes to CBM task intervals, what matters is how quickly falure occurs once the Potential Failure Condition is detectable.
5. CBM is powerful because it allows impending failure to be identified before the failure occurs so that proactive action can be taken in enough time to manage the consequences of failure.

In this episode, we talk about the more personal (or human) aspect of equipment Reliability. Who is responsible for Reliability? We know the answer is “everyone” – from top management to the experts who operate and maintain our machines. So it’s vital that we understand one another’s perspectives and responsibilities. We discuss how invisible obstacles can personally affect us – Comfort, the Prison of Perfection, Overwhelm, Our Thoughts, The Voices, and Fear. Fear can be the deadliest one of all. In this episode we discuss a simple – yet powerful technique – to manage fear. When we properly manage the obstacles, we free ourselves up to become more productive and effective equipment custodians.

In this episode, we explore what Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) is (aka On-Condition Maintenance). We’ll talk about : – What CBM is – The biggest trap you can fall into when implementing CBM – And what governs how often you do a Condition Based Maintenance task. As asset managers, we know that most Failure Modes occur randomly, and that can seem a little intimidating or maybe even a little scary, but it doesn’t have to be because that’s where Condition Based Maintenance can be very helpful. The whole point of Condition Based Maintenance is to detect a Potential Failure Condition and take action before failure occurs. That interval is called the P-F Interval and that is explained in this episode.

In this episode, we talk about what preventative maintenance is and what two criteria determine if a preventive maintenance task should be assigned. The biggest pitfall that organizations often fall into when defining intervals for preventative maintenance tasks is revealed.

In this episode, we talk about what a Failure Mode is and why Failure Modes are so important to equipment Reliability. As responsible custodians, it’s up to us to identify the plausible Failure Modes that could occur so that we can figure out if and how we should manage each one. If we don’t, it can end up in disaster.

In this episode, we answer two questions: 1) What is Reliability? 2) How do we get the Reliability we need from our machines? Nancy also discusses how we design our Reliability both literally and figuratively. The quality of our proactive maintenance and Default Strategies largely determines the Reliability we get from our equipment. Inherent Reliability is explained.