RCM is the process of logical fact-gathering and decision-making for equipment by a small selection of people who have engineering and equipment understanding. Together they determine the best schedule for equipment maintenance so that a business might optimise the life and use of that equipment and maintain high standards in its operating condition.

What is reliability centred maintenance?

RCM is able to do this through the consideration of three main factors;

1. The condition of the environment the equipment is being kept in and how those background conditions might impact it
2. What the consequences are of failure should it stop functioning and how much will they matter
3. What you want in terms of safety, quality of product, environmental concerns, customer service and output

When RCM is applied you can then create a maintenance schedule that only contains those tasks that are needed to keep the equipment working to complete the tasks you want at the rate, scale and quality you want. It helps to avoid equipment failure or at least reduce the chances and you can be completely confident that you are not spending more than you need to on your equipment maintenance budget.

The advantages of Reliability Centred Maintenance

When companies employ RCM there are several advantages or positive outcomes including;

• The equipment does not break down as much
• The consequences of the equipment failing are avoided or reduced
• The use and need for spare parts is reduced saving money
• The need for maintenance and the down time for maintenance when it happens is reduced
• Save money on paying for maintenance with that reduction in hours
• Companies who have better RCM meaning understanding can see more success with things like predicting failures and being able to prevent them rather than just waiting for it to happen
• Less need to overhaul the equipment completely and have to strip it down to work out what it wrong with the equipment
• The scheduled maintenance actually gets done as planned rather than signed off but not completed
• There is less of a sense of them and us between staff that operate the equipment and staff that maintain it
• The schedule for maintenance can be revised and adjusted when operations change so this means if things expand or indeed are reduced in the future it is easy to adapt
• You have a better and more detailed guide on each piece of equipment that anyone can refer to
• The equipment is safer to maintain and to operate causing fewer accidents and making operators a lot happier

Conclusion

When you apply RCM properly you have a lot of gains you can enjoy as a business including better equipment reliabilty, saving money, better products, improved production, happier staff and more. In order to best apply RCM to your company though it takes people who know what they are doing and you will need help with training so that means looking for experts who are professionals in RCM training.