The Seven Questions of Reliability Centered Maintenance by Bill

Keeter and Doug Plucknette, Allied Reliability

Abstract
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a phrase coined thirty years ago
to describe a cost effective way of maintaining complex systems. The RCM
method uses the answers to seven very basic questions to help determine
the best maintenance tasks to implement in an Equipment Maintenance Plan
(EMP). This paper focuses on those seven questions and how they help
determine the EMP.
Introduction
On December 29th, 1978 F. Stanley Nowlan and Howard F. Heap published
report number A066-579, "Reliability-Centered Maintenance". The report
was the culmination of several years of work aimed at determining a new,
more cost effective way of maintaining complex systems. The called it
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) because programs developed
through RCM "are centered on achieving the inherent safety and reliability
capabilities of equipment at a minimum cost". RCM is a time consuming,
resource intensive process. Many practitioners have tried to reduce the
amount of time and resources required to accomplish RCM projects with
varying degrees of success. The most successful ones have focused on
understanding the basic goals of RCM, and on the seven basic questions that
need to be asked about each asset. In this paper we will concentrate on
understanding each of the seven questions and how the answers to those
questions help determine a Reliability-Centered approach to asset
management.
The Definition of Reliability
In the book Maintainability, Availability, and Operational Readiness
Engineering Dimitri Kececioglu defines reliability as:
"The probability that a system will perform satisfactorily for given
period of time under stated conditions."
Nowlan and Heap define Inherent Reliability as:
"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. "

In The Fault Tree Analysis Guide a system is defined as:

"A composite of equipment, skills, and techniques capable of
performing or supporting an operational role, or both. A complete
system includes all equipment, related facilities, material, software,
services, and personnel required for its operation and support to the
degree that it can be considered self-sufficient in its intended
operational environment."
When we look at these definitions in conjunction it becomes very evident
that any asset management program must address system development
through all phases of a systems life. There is no maintenance program that
can improve the reliability of a poorly designed system. Additionally,
whatever maintenance program is developed is determined by the design of
the system and the goals of the organization.
The Goal of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)
The primary goal of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) should therefore
be to insure that the right maintenance activity is performed at the right
time with the right people, and that the equipment is operated in a way that
maximizes its opportunity to achieve a reliability level that is consistent with
the safety, environmental, operational, and profit goals of the organization.
This is achieved by addressing the basic causes of system failures and
ensuring that there are organizational activities designed to prevent them,
predict them, or mitigate the business impact of the functional failures
associated with them.
The Seven Questions of RCM
There are seven basic questions used to help practitioners determine the
causes of system failures and develop activities targeted to prevent them.
The questions are designed to focus on maintaining the required functions of
the system.
1. What are the functions of the asset?
2. In what way can the asset fail to fulfill its functions?
3. What causes each functional failure?
4. What happens when each failure occurs?
5. What are the consequences of each failure?

6. What should be done to prevent or predict the failure?

7. What should be done if a suitable proactive task cannot be found?
What Are The Functions of the Asset?
Every facility is uniquely designed to produce some desired output. Whether
it is tires, gold, gasoline, or paper the equipment is put together into
systems that will produce the end product. Each facility may have some
unique equipment items, but in many cases common types of equipment are
just put together in different ways. Within every RCM analysis we have two
types of functions. First, the Main or Primary function, this function
statement will describe the reason we have acquired this asset and the
performance standard we expect it to maintain. Second, are the Support
Functions, which list the function of each component or maintainable item
that makes up the system. The Support Functions are provided by the
bottom level of equipment in most facilities such as pumps, electric motors,
valves, rollers, etc. Each of those maintainable items has one or more easily
identifiable functions that enable the system to produce its required output.
It is the loss of these functions that lead to variation in the Main or Primary
function of the system and the safety, environmental, operational, and profit
output of the facility.