Why RCM Services and Training Are Important for Business

Did you know that 34% of facilities are spending over 30 hours per week on scheduled maintenance? This is well over the average time spent on scheduled maintenance, 19 hours per week.

RCM services and training can help companies come up with a maintenance strategy that saves time and money. What are RCM services and how does the process work? Read on to find out.

What Are RCM Services?

Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is a strategy implemented into the maintenance program of a facility or company for optimization purposes. Maintenance strategies are optimized to maintain productivity.

A reliability center maintenance program should include the following four principles:

• An objective to preserve system function
• Identification of failure modes that can affect the system function
• Prioritization of the failure modes
• Selection of applicable and effective tasks to control failure modes

To better understand RCM, you’ll have to undergo training. Click here to learn about some training options. You’ll also need to understand these five key concepts:

1. Function

In a business setting, a piece of equipment gets purchased for a specific function. Every component of the equipment has a specific purpose as well.

In some cases, a piece of equipment or component might have more than one function. The main function is the primary function and other functions are secondary.

Stating the function is of the utmost importance. When you specify the purpose and what you expect it to do, you can figure out if the asset is doing what it is meant to.

This task might not seem like much, but defining the function correctly requires some experience. This is just one reason why RCM training is beneficial.

2. Functional Failure

When an asset doesn’t fulfill its primary function, it is considered a functional failure.

A total functional failure means that the asset does not perform the function whatsoever. A partial failure is when the asset works but not as expected.

An example of a partial failure is when an asset cannot reach the desired speed. For a large company, slow speeds would drastically reduce productivity.

3. Failure Mode

In RCM, there is a differentiation between functional failure and failure modes. Failure modes are the events that produce the functional failure.

When an asset begins performing under the desired value, it’s not fulfilling its function usually because of one or more of these reasons:

• Wearing or deterioration of parts
• Lack of lubrication
• Dirt
• Disassembling components
• Human error

It’s also possible that the asset wears out once the company increases the desired performance to keep up with demands. To deliver these results, the asset will begin to wear out.

For every functional failure, there might be between one and 30 failure modes. This is why details of the assets are necessary and training can teach this.

Failure modes can be managed and preventative maintenance is a good tactic to prevent probable failures in the future.

4. Failure Effects

A failure mod occurs, but it is not an isolated event. Failure effects are what happens to the asset during operation when a failure mode occurs. The information from this will help you analyze the consequences later.

RCM services should include relevant information related to the following:

• Evidence of the failure that occurred
• Threats to people’s safety or the environment
• Impact on operations (delays, rework, defective products, etc.)
• Damages caused by the failure
• Steps needed to repair the asset

Repairing the asset to put it back in operation might not be a tangible goal. You might have to replace the asset altogether.

5. Failure Consequences

When failure consequences are analyzed, a qualitative evaluation is performed to determine the importance of the failure mode relating to the operations. The analysis will discuss how much the failure means to a company.

There are two types of functions, evident and hidden. For evident functions, the asset’s functional failure should be detected by the operator and the consequences might have different levels of importance.

Worker safety and environmental safety are the most important factors to look at. Next, a company will check operational issues with higher costs. Last, non-operational consequences, such as repair costs, are looked at.

In contrast, a hidden functional failure cannot be detected by operators. This is a more complex failure that includes protective devices to minimize consequences.

Instead of determining repair costs, the company must determine the probability of failure.

RCM Advantages

With a maintenance program through RCM services, the above five aspects will create a strategy. So, what are the advantages of this type of program and training?

Implementing RCM increases equipment availability while reducing resource and maintenance costs. In some cases, using this strategy can reduce maintenance costs by up to 40%.

RCM Disadvantages

There are maintenance considerations not factored into the overall costs. For example, additional costs of ownership such as evidence-based maintenance, are not taken into account.

Implementing RCM

Depending on your business, you might choose one method over another to implement RCM services. No matter the method you choose, the five factors, function, functional failure, failure modes, failure effects, and failure consequences are needed for the strategy.

However, the process does not end there. To fully implement RCM services, you need a maintenance tactic for each failure mode. You can choose preventative maintenance or condition-based maintenance tactics.

The most important step of implementation is reviewing the maintenance tactic that you select. RCM services will only be useful to your business if you put these recommendations into practice.

Reviewing the process can ensure that the process continues to work for you.

The Impact of RCM Services

The goal of RCM services is to choose the appropriate maintenance strategy for each piece of equipment you purchase. With a well-executed RCM analysis that includes the five key components, your assets will be more reliable.

When done correctly, an RCM strategy can reduce costs, eliminate inappropriate maintenance tasks, and improve safety.

For more informative articles like this, check out our additional posts on our business blog.