10 - The Living RCM Program

Abstract

This chapter discusses the simple steps behind performing a truly effective living Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) program. A Living RCM Program is a three-part process conducted continually over time to (1) validate the preventive maintenance decisions that were made in the RCM baselines, (2) provide for the reassessment of those preventive maintenance (PM) decisions, and (3) make any necessary adjustments to the PM program and the RCM baseline definitions. A Living RCM Program assures continual improvement in the cost-effective operation and maintenance of the plant, but it must also employ some effective metrics to know where the program stands on the above three points. Any change should be reviewed against the RCM-based PM baseline definition to ascertain whether new or modified PM tasks are needed and, in some instances, to delete PM tasks that are no longer applicable and effective. Even if the baseline definition never changes, at a minimum an organization should measure the benefits derived from the RCM program as a part of the routine plant operating reports to management. Management will be particularly interested in how RCM has impacted the bottom line. Changes to the baseline definition should also be measured to assure that the PM task effectiveness criteria have, in fact, been optimized.