OPTIMISING COMBAT TRACKED VEHICLE MAINTENANCE WITH RCM

Abstract

The article deals with the application of the RCM methodology in this case of combat tracked vehicles used in the Czech Republic Armed Forces and with the problems which appeared during the project, and it describes procedures how to solve them. A practical application of the methodology is demonstrated with the example of the vehicle drive-train. Using the RCM methodology, relatively simple design adjustments were recommended and a package of preventive maintenance tasks was developed to effectively reduce the intensity of the drive-train’s failures and its maintenance costs. The results of the analysis of the drive-train failures also showed that the time schedule of some time-directed tasks of preventive maintenance is not established well. Based on the results of the vehicle monitoring, a model describing the LCC dependence on the duration of time interval to the accomplishment of such preventive maintenance tasks was presented. The proposed model then enabled one to optimise the periodicity of scheduled preventive maintenance. In practice, a set of suggested measures in the area of design and preventive maintenance was implemented. The results of the subsequent monitoring of the vehicles in service show that the implementation of the recommended measures resulted in the improvement of vehicle availability as well as in the reduction of its LCC.