|
by
Douglas J Plucknette – President, Reliability Solutions,
Inc.
Click here for a printable 42k pdf version
Click here for an RCM Blitz iPresentation Tutorial
RCM Blitz™ is a Reliability Tool designed to develop a
complete maintenance strategy for a process or piece of
equipment. When implemented this maintenance strategy
will help to ensure the inherent designed reliability of
any process or asset. Performing an RCM analysis takes
an investment in time and resources to complete so I
always advise my clients to follow the RCM Blitz™
process to ensure the equipment they have selected to
analyze will show a return on their investment dollars.
Typically while performing the first or second analysis
in a given company I am questioned about the feasibility
of copying the information from one analysis and pasting
it into another. “This will save both time and money
and should provide an equal level of reliability across
all of our assets.”
This idea of developing a maintenance strategy for one
asset and applying it to similar assets seems very
attractive, but it’s also often the first crucial
mistake companies make when trying to start an RCM
program. Common sense leads them to assume a pump is a
pump, a motor is a motor and pipe is pipe. If we expect
our pumps, motors and pipes to perform the similar
duties, they should intern deliver the similar levels of
reliability. In the rush to make the RCM cycle faster
they forget to consider just how different these
identical components can be and in the end discover the
maintenance strategy that works well for one asset will
not work at all for another. Worse than this, they
might also believe that it was the RCM process that
failed and tell others “we tried RCM and it didn’t
work”!
Can you ever
template information from one RCM analysis and use it in
another?
Yes, it can be
done and it can save both time and money, but there are
several things that need to be considered before you
copy the maintenance strategy from one analysis and past
it into another. I like to say Reliability-Centered
Maintenance is relatively simple process with several
subtle complexities that lulls people in to making
common mistakes.
In order to template information from one RCM analysis
to another, you need to follow and meet all of these
guidelines:
-
The assets
you intend to template must be identical in make,
manufacture, material and how they are operated.
Example:
Your company
is performing an RCM analysis on a cooling water pump.
The company also has three similar cooling water systems
at this plant site. Before you template the information
from the first analysis to the other systems, make sure
that all three pumps are the same make, manufacturer,
model and material. This is important, different
brands, types and materials may have different failure
modes and different rates of failure. On top of this
the operating context or operating requirements for the
systems may also be different and may also result in
differing failure modes and failure rates. Are the
pumps required to pump identical rates of cooling water
at identical pressures? Is the water in one system
treated with a chemical that’s different from the
others? Take some time to look at requirements of all
three systems and try to determine where each is
different, and what failures may result from these
differences.
-
Assets
where you intend to template information from one
analysis to another should be identical in operating
environment.
Example:
Using the
cooling water systems we described above, imagine the
plant is located in Minnesota that one of the systems is
outside while the other two are inside. Knowing
this, might we have some different failure modes that
require different levels of maintenance? The
Operating Environment of our assets also includes the
age of the assets and the condition of surrounding or
supporting assets. While our first system is located
outside, it has only been in service for five years, the
pump itself is mounted on a manufactures base, the pump
base is grouted and supported by large concrete
foundation. The pump on our third system has been in
service for twelve years and is bolted to the building
floor. What are the chances that these two identical
pumps have identical failure modes and failure rates?
If I performed identical levels of maintenance on these
pumps would they deliver identical levels of
reliability? Of course not!
-
If you
intend to template information from one RCM analysis
to another, remember to consider the specific failure
modes for each location.
Example:
Getting to
the specific cause of failure is a major key in
performing successful RCM analyses. There is a common
tendency when starting Reliability-Centered Maintenance
to begin writing failure modes at specific cause level
and then gradually move to higher levels of failure.
This always results in an ineffective “one size fits
all” maintenance strategy. This does not work if you
are looking to achieve the inherent designed level of
reliability for your assets. It never has and it never
will. Going back to the cooling tower pumps, if we
started our company RCM program looking at the first
outdoor system and discussed this pumps failures at
specific cause level, the product of our RCM analysis
would be a complete maintenance strategy that address
the specific failure modes of the asset. The
implemented maintenance strategy from this RCM analysis
would ensure a high level of reliability for this
asset. Now, to save some money we try to apply this
same maintenance strategy to our second or third
system. Would this maintenance strategy now deliver the
same level of reliability for these assets? Not a
chance! The maintenance strategy developed in the first
analysis most likely would never address some of the
specific failure modes that directly affect the
reliability of the other systems.
When
attempting to template RCM information between like
assets you should ALWAYS remember to consider the
specific failure modes of each asset no matter how much
alike they first appear. The best way to do this is:
·
Make sure you
are using a cross-functional RCM team that is made up of
experts who work with and are responsible for the
maintenance of each asset. They are the only people who
will know the specific causes of failure for your
assets.
·
As a general
rule it should take you 1/5 the time to complete a good
RCM template. This includes gathering information and
history on each system, and performing the analysis.
·
Remember,
there may be some failures and tasks that applied to the
first asset that may not apply to your next. It is also
possible to perform unnecessary maintenance.
·
Common
specific cause failure mode lists can be helpful to
ensure all likely failures are considered.
A
Final Note
Reliability-Centered Maintenance is an outstanding
reliability tool with a proven record of improving,
achieving, and maintaining equipment reliability. The
process works best when you take the time to properly
train people how to facilitate the process, and where to
apply the process to achieve a return on your
investment.
Should you have any questions on when and how to
template RCM, feel free to contact Reliability
Solutions, Inc. at 585-349-7245. |
