Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Scorecard

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RCM 2005 Workshop

Consensus as of 9 March 2005 

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Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Scorecard

RCM 2005 Workshop

Consensus as of 9 March 2005

Introduction

This Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Scorecard provides a “menu” from which a selection of metrics, measures or Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) may be selected for evaluation at various periods before and during an RCM Project. It addresses four distinct aspects that should be considered for any RCM project, namely:

·         Decision whether or not to initiate the project

·         Analysis Phase

·         Implementation Phase

·         Benefits Phase

The relationship between metrics of the items listed above is illustrated in the following diagram (Figure 1).

Time relationships between the items are illustrated in the following chart (Figure 2).

Readiness of an organization to initiate an RCM Project with a reasonable expectation of success is different from the decision to initiate one. Determination of readiness for success of an RCM Project is (to be) addressed separately, since the factors are largely subjective and do not yield to an approach involving evaluation of metrics.

Objectives of a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Scorecard are to:

·         Provide prospective and actual RCM users, participants and other interested parties with a tool to help decision making on whether or not to initiate an RCM Project and  (given the decision to proceed) determine progress in or demonstrate how successful  it is while in progress and was after completion. RCM Scorecard metrics, measures or Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)  use data collected:

Ø      When considering whether or not to conduct an RCM analysis on an asset

Ø      Prior to performing an analysis, (prior to the RCM Analysis Phase) as a baseline

Ø      During the RCM project Analysis Phase

Ø      During and/or after RCM analysis as resulting action items are implemented (RCM Project Implementation Phase)

Ø      From the point after implementation begins and throughout defined period(s) when benefits are realized. (RCM Project Benefits Phase)

·         Provide cognizant managers, supervisors and/or “champions” with a tool to help justify an RCM Project and to measure progress on a given asset or set of systems during analysis and implementation phases. In addition, it provides a basis  for measuring the benefits derived from the overall effort.

·         Provide a basis for comparison of differing approaches to RCM methodology

RCM Scorecard terminology was developed using the following sources:

·         Reliability Centered Maintenance by F. Stanley Nowlan and Howard F. Heap

·         RCM: Gateway to World Class Maintenance by A. M. Smith and G. Hinchcliffe

·         RCM Overview Workshop at 2004 SMRP Conference

·         SMRP Best Practice Metrics document (Draft)

·         Overall Equipment Performance by Robert C. Hanson

·         Glossary of Reliability and Maintenance Terms by Ten McKenna and Ray Oliverson

·         Progressive review and comment by RCM-experienced users and practitioners during the period from May 2004 to January 2005

·         Consensus developed during a workshop attended by over 100 persons conducted 9 March 2005, the day before the RCM Managers Forum Conference in Clearwater Beach, Florida

Definitions for terms and abbreviations used in the RCM Scorecard can be found in the Glossary, starting on page 17 of this document.

To avoid confusion between terms and phrases used in other contexts within the fields of Maintenance and Reliability (M & R) the following notes are provided.

Note 1: Corrective maintenance  in the context of the metrics included in the RCM Scorecard refers to unplanned (unexpected or reactive) maintenance to restore the functional capabilities of an asset. It includes repeat maintenance required because initial attempt(s) at repair were not successful for any reason. It does not include maintenance that results from preventive or predictive (PM and on condition or condition directed., or PdM) tasks, which can be anticipated, pre-planned and scheduled. Corrective maintenance is a subset of Emergency/Demand Maintenance.

Note 2: Corrective maintenance in the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) sense refers to actions taken to modify the asset to improve its performance. The labor hours and material costs for these improvements (as well as those that improve asset maintainability) should be categorized separately and not be included as part of any metric associated with the RCM Scorecard, unless the recommendation of a design improvement results from RCM analysis on an asset.

Note 3: RCM Scorecard maintenance labor hour expenditures do not include those labor hours expended by operators who perform PM and PdM tasks as part of their normal duties, unless the operator position has been created and the number of operating staff personnel was increased exclusively for the purpose of maintenance.

Note 4: In an RCM-based program the analysis process is focused first at the level of functional failures, then at the level of failure modes (ways functional failures occur and their causes) and the tasks that are chosen to mitigate or prevent the failure mode or cause. For purposes of the RCM Scorecard, in order to give all task-related metrics a common base, it is important that each task be related to a failure mode, not to a component. This may be difficult to do for old, pre-RCM program tasks and indeed there may be tasks for which no related failure mode is evident, providing one basis (among several) for consideration of whether or not it should be retained in the RCM-based program.

Note 5: All tasks for an RCM-based program must be applicable and effective

–        An applicable task will prevent or mitigate the failure, detect onset of failure or detect a hidden failure. It’ll work to assure or restore reliability margin to a tolerable level.

–        An effective task is the most cost-effective option among the technically feasible, applicable candidate tasks.

Baseline “Current” or “Old” M & R Program Metrics

 and Traditional  KPI’s for Decision on RCM Analysis  

Metrics listed in the tables in this section and the Benefits Phase section (beginning on page 14) may not all be available to users of the RCM Scorecard. However, they are provided for possible use as follows:

·         When considering whether or not to conduct RCM analysis on an asset.

·         If the decision is made to proceed with RCM analysis on an asset, many of the same metrics selected may be used as a baseline set for comparison with the new, RCM based program results achieved during the Benefits Phase.

The decision of whether or not to conduct RCM analysis on an asset requires that many factors be considered. Among these are:

·         Importance of the asset to the activity in which it is engaged

·         Hazards involved in operating and  maintaining the asset both to employees and people in surrounding areas and communities

·         Problems encountered in operating the asset, such as its:

Ø      Availability, uptime and downtime relative to demand for most economical operation of an asset such as a production line, transport vehicle or whole plant

Ø      Quality of product or service produced, Scrap Rate

Ø      Cost of operation of an asset as expressed in efficiency (e.g., Heat Rate for a electricity generating plant or cost of energy for a production plant, vehicle or service facility)

Ø      Throughput and Yield or Capacity Factor relative to that needed to meet demand with current assets

Ø      Total Cost of Maintenance or Total Cost of Operations, Cost of Quality or other economic factor of production when it is affected by the maintenance and reliability program

Ø      Stress on maintenance and operating personnel under the current program

Ø      Overall profit margin for the product or service provided with the asset

Other, more direct measures related to the type of tasks employed in maintenance have been found to characterize the most successful organizations.  KPI’s related to tasks may also be useful in reaching a decision on whether or not to engage in RCM analysis for an asset. In addition, if the decision is taken to conduct an RCM analysis, task metrics may be used for comparison of the pre and post RCM maintenance programs. In general, the following statements apply to types of tasks employed in RCM Based and Pre-RCM programs:

·         Non-intrusive maintenance tasks are preferred because there is less likelihood of functional failure caused by human error after  conducting them than there is for intrusive tasks.

·         The more non-intrusive maintenance tasks, relative to intrusive tasks, the more effective a program is in avoiding unscheduled downtime and lost production.

·         The greater the percentage of on condition or condition directed tasks, the lower the overall cost of maintenance due to the fact that no actions other than monitoring are performed until condition directs a repair.

·         Old (Pre RCM) programs, developed under methodologies that predate RCM generally do not recognize many “Hidden Failures.” RCM based programs, which emphasize “Functional Failures” having safety or operational impact, will normally account for all of the important Hidden Failure possibilities.

·         Old,  current or existing (pre-RCM) programs seldom document Run-to-Failure (RTF) or other decisions, whereas RCM-based programs allow for RTF or other decisions (e.g., for statutory or regulatory reasons) under certain conditions. Under RCM methodology, RTF may also be a valid choice when all other task options are more costly and there is no safety and little or no operational consideration involved in allowing a failure to occur and correcting the problem (restoring the function) afterwards.

·         In some cases “old” re-RCM programs specify tasks for which there is no justification, when an attempt is made to align failure modes identified by RCM analysis with “old” program requirements or tasks. This gives rise to the possibility of “old” program tasks not being continued under the new RCM-based program. These non-applicable tasks are cancelled, removed from maintenance schedules and not replaced by other tasks.

  A set of metrics may be used in whole or in part to aid the decision making process and to support obtaining the assets needed to do so. Metrics proposed for these purposes are listed in the table, entitled Table 1 - “Current” or “Old” Maintenance and Reliability (M & R) Program (Baseline) Metrics” on the following page. These metrics, for use in making the decision whether or not to conduct RCM analysis on an asset, are then used for baseline comparison with the new M & R program after RCM implementation has begun to take effect as illustrated in Figure 1 on Page 2.

It is stressed that only a few of the metrics in the following tables in this section and the Benefits Phase Section may be meaningful to a given organization, and that those presented are not the only ones available. For example, in M & R Programs suspected of having too many or too burdensome maintenance requirements, Maintenance Backlog is often very high and compliance with the current PM program is very low. The metric that may be most useful in this case is PM Compliance. In the consensus workshop it was suggested, without any objection, that as few as 6 or 8 metrics may be all that are needed to make the case for an RCM Project and to determine benefits derived from it.

Where applicable, the time period for the collection of some of the metrics or KPI’s in the tables that follow will vary from organization to organization and differ between industries and various types of facilities, activities, services or missions. In some applications metrics may be affected by seasonal factors. For these reasons, no specific time frame is provided other than to recommend that those timelines selected provide a representative baseline for later comparison, should the decision be made to go forward with an RCM Project. In some cases a graphical or tabular representation of the metric or KPI over time may be more meaningful than a single number. It is important, however to ensure that the metrics collected be for the same asset or combination of assets before and after implementation (during the Benefits Phase of an RCM Project).

Table 1 - “Current” or “Old” M & R Program (Baseline) Metrics

Note 1: Where a metric involves labor hours, it may be useful to break out subsets by trade category (e.g., Electrical, Mechanical, etc., )

Note 2: It has been useful in some instances to distinguish between labor hours and replacement parts cost for repair of the primary asset to be subjected to RCM analysis and conversion to a new program and labor hours and replacement parts cost for or collateral damage in secondary assets beyond the primary.

In addition to the metrics for an asset listed in Table 1, some more “traditional metrics” may be used to decide whether or not to conduct an RCM analysis on an asset. The table on the following page, entitled Table 2 - “Traditional (Baseline) KPI’s  for Decision on RCM Analysis” lists the types of measures typically being tracked already in many facilities. However, a special effort may be required to obtain metric values focused on the asset or assets of concern.

Table 2 - Traditional (Baseline) KPI’s  for Decision on RCM Analysis

RCM Project Analysis Phase Metrics

The tables for this phase on an RCM Project list sets of metrics that are useful in determining the nature of maintenance tasks in the new program to be put in place (or now in place) compared to the old program for a given asset selected as a candidate for RCM analysis.  During the analysis itself, progress may be reported in terms of total tasks of each type that have been determined to be needed at the points in the analysis process when the reports are made.

An example of a table of metrics comparing new with old programs in terms of tasks and run-to-failure decisions and entitled Table 3 - “Tasks and Decisions Profile” is shown below.

Table 3 - Tasks and Decisions Profile

To these are added two additional metrics described in the table below that will be useful when implementation begins. These metrics in the table below entitled Table 4 - “RCM Based Decision Metrics,” like those above, should be readily available from the RCM analysis report or analysis software package.

Table 4 - RCM Based Decision Metrics

The numbers for each category of action item (Task, RTF or Other Decision, Design Modification, Operational Procedure (change or addition) Recommendations) to be implemented under the new program should be used in RCM-based program implementation progress reports. See page 12 for Implementation Phase metrics.

The  set of metrics describing Pre and Post RCM Programs in terms of tasks and decisions is presented in the following table, entitled Table 5 - “Task Similarity and Decision Profile Metrics.” Some of the metrics described in this table should be used as a target against which progress towards conversion to an RCM based program is reported. These reports should keep track of how many action items in each category have actually been acted upon during the Implementation Phase. For purposes of the Analysis Phase, this is a one-time set of metrics to provide an understanding of the nature of changes that must be made to implement the new (RCM Based) program.

Table 5 - Task Similarity and Decision Profile Metrics

# Percentage of total decisions should add up to ~100

Note: Total changes = Sum of all Modified Old Tasks + New RCM tasks +RTF or Other Decisions + Old program Tasks to be Cancelled + RCM Program Tasks that are different than Old Program Tasks for the same failure mode.

Another set of data, Table 6 - “RCM Project Commitment Metrics,” may be useful to sustain momentum during early phases of an RCM project and to gain acceptance of the new program from personnel unfamiliar with RCM and its benefits.

Table 6 - RCM Project Commitment Metrics