Living RCM Pilot

Introduction
Three principal initiatives have dominated the maintenance management landscape from
the 1970’s to the present day. They are:

1. Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM),

2. Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), and
3. Condition based maintenance (CBM).

Programs, such as TPM, HAZOPS, RCFA, RBI, ISO 14224, and many others contribute
notably to the continuous, measurable, bottom-line improvement ideal sought by all
maintenance departments. As an antidote to the disorientation brought on by
overwhelming change, RCM, and particularly “living RCM” encourage alignment and
synergy among a seemingly endless variety of maintenance initiatives. RCM grew out of
a serious need in the 1960s by the commercial aviation industry. The RCM project
culminated in mandated processes that address failure and its consequences. In RCM,
the operating context of each asset item dictates the precise methods for the mitigation
of the consequences of failure.

The second major initiative, the CMMS, when first introduced to maintenance
departments, was hailed as a tool for improving asset reliability. Such lofty aspirations
and claims have largely moved aside in favor of the more mundane needs of efficient
work management, budgets, materials allocation, and so on.

CBM, the third initiative, currently fuels a good part of today’s maintenance ideas and
activities. Advances in real time capture, storage, and signal processing have reduced the
per data-unit cost of information while increasing the volume and the quality of acquired
data. Reliability analysis software provides life cycle costing, simulation, and Weibull age-
reliability estimation methods. Recently, innovative software products have added
artificial intelligence to diagnostic capabilities. Thus, an ever-broadening range of new
maintenance technologies keeps us all busily learning and implementing new ideas.

The CMMS, RCM, CBM, and other programs often proceed independently from one
another within the maintenance organization. Different groups of people, responding to
a variety of objectives, manage these separate initiatives. In this article we outline a plan
that will connect the diverse maintenance improvement activities and their related
technologies. Once bound by common principles of living RCMall programs will align with
one another and with the universal goal of reliability, namely, the achievement of high
productivity at reduced cost, safely and without exceeding environmental regulatory
norms.

The simple principles of living RCM unite the maintenance department in the
collaborative process of building a common and valuable intellectual asset. Certainly,
information technology in the maintenance domain has always proclaimed this very goal.
Despite countless iterations and upgrades over three decades, computerized solutions,
on their own, invariably fell short of expectations. Optimism springs eternal, though, and
a never ending supply of newer more advanced technologies makes itself available. And
we try again.

Moving forward
History need not repeat itself endlessly. A surprisingly simple methodology, will
use existing systems

to their maximum
effect. A method,
developed by OMDEC,
unifies the
maintenance
processes. It focuses
analysis to achieving
measurable,
continuous reliability
improvements. The
OMDEC approach
recognizes, as its solid
point of departure, that
structured knowledge
when delivered at a
strategic moment to Figure 1 Living RCM process
those who need it, will
attain for the organization, significant, measurable increases in maintenance efficiency,
morale, and effectiveness. The steps for moving forward to this end are simple ones. But
they must be undertaken, in a pilot project, explicitly and completely.

Step 1 – Management seminar

The success of the living RCM pilot depends mainly on obtaining the manager’s active
support throughout the project. The seminar will:

1. Describe the principles and benefits of living RCM

2. Describe the success indicators that the manager must monitor during the course
of the pilot.
3. Prescribe the motivational actions that the manager must take during the course
of the pilot.

Step 2 – Select the team

Identify individuals within the maintenance and operational group who will participate in
a pilot initiative – called living RCM. Select a planner, supervisor, maintainer, engineer
and business analyst. These will be technically competent people who are open to new
ideas. One of these people will act as the “facilitator”. A OMDEC consultant will mentor
the facilitator throughout this living RCM pilot.
Step 3 – Educate the team

The OMDEC consultant will conduct 3 days of training on the subject of “living RCM”. As
a

result of this training each team

member will acquire a thorough
understanding of the principles and
goals. In practical terms they will
know:

1. How to select the event type

as one of
1. a potential failure,
2. a functional failure,
or
3. a suspension
2. How to identify the
appropriate RCM reference
from the knowledge base
3. How to perform RCM
analysis on-the-fly and
update the reliability Figure 2 Knowledge flow on work order closure
knowledge base
4. How to upgrade the quality of existing historical work order records
5. How to perform basic reliability analysis and to propose improvements to the
maintenance plan in the light of a reliability analysis.
6. How to measure success

Step 4 – Conduct the pilot

The team will proceed to include living RCM activities in their daily activities. They will
complete work orders and update the knowledge base according to living RCM methods.
The facilitator with the assistance of the OMDEC consultant will monitor and guide the
team. Daily meetings will assess the quantity and quality of updates to the knowledge
base and the work order references to the knowledge base. Selected historical work
orders will be updated with the Event type and RCMREF. Reliability analyses will be
conducted on these historical records augmented by new well populated work orders
arriving as a result of the team’s continuing efforts.

The manager will display his active support by communicating directly with the team
participants. Specifically, he will ask these questions of the team:

1. How many new knowledge records have been added?

2. How many corrections to existing knowledge records have been made?
3. How many references to the knowledge base have been made on work orders?
4. How many analyses have been performed?
5. How many recommendations have been made as a result of the analyses?
 6. How many recommendations have been implemented?
7. How has performance improved. Specifically, which indicators show the impact
of the living RCM program?

Step 5 – Summarize progress and plan a wider application of living RCM

After about six weeks, a presentation by a member of the pilot team will be made to the
manager and other interested persons. This presentation will summarize what has been
learned in the trial, its tangible benefits to date, and the potential benefits and pitfalls to
avoid in rolling the process out to a wider community. A plan will be put forward.