RCM Archives - Conscious Asset

Understanding Conditional Probability is Key

2020-06-102020-12-05

Understanding conditional probability is key to determining the right maintenance and how it impacts your reliability. This article is to address the difference in the conditional probability of failure patterns, and the impact on how best to maintain assets based upon those differences.

Definition: Conditional probability of failure is defined as the likelihood an item will fail in the next period, assuming it has not yet failed. Editor’s note: for a bit more information on Conditional Probability of Failure and Hazard rates, please refer to this article by our colleague, Mr. Murray Wiseman. Read more “Understanding Conditional Probability is Key” →

Asset Management

Myth busting 29: You can integrate your EAM /…

2019-06-112020-06-20

Reliability Centered Maintenance is an analytical process used in decision making about how best to manage equipment and system failures, and their consequences. Much of its output comprises maintenance tasks with assigned task frequencies. Those tasks will ultimately be managed in your Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM). You don’t need software to perform RCM analysis, but it is helpful. Read more “Myth busting 29: You can integrate your EAM / CMMS with RCM” →

Asset Management

Myth busting 28: RCM is expensive

2019-05-312020-06-20

Many of you may be surprised to learn that Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) was actually developed with cost cutting in mind! Aircraft maintenance costs were huge. For example the Douglas DC-8-32 aircraft (a four engine narrow body jet liner built from 1958 to 1967 that carried 150 passengers) required upwards of 4,000,000 man hours of maintenance work for only 20,000 hours of flying time! Read more “Myth busting 28: RCM is expensive” →

Asset Management

Myth busting 27: RCM is only for new assets

2019-05-272020-06-20

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) was developed in the airline industry to be used for developing maintenance programs for new aircraft. There’s no doubting it – originally RCM was intended for new designs and arguably where the results of failure could be catastrophic, specifically the loss of life and where costs of maintaining had grown ridiculously high. Read more “Myth busting 27: RCM is only for new assets” →

Asset Management

Myth busting 26: I’ve read the book, now I’m…

2019-05-272020-06-20

3 Minute Read. Educational institutions realize that we all learn differently and combinations of learning styles will reach most of us. Some of us learn by seeing (reading), some by doing (tactile), some by hearing (aural). Most of us have a bit of each of these and rarely only one is enough. In college and university there is reading as well as assignment and lab work. We need both, so, how do we learn once we leave the academic world?

We learn a lot from reading, but we don’t remember much of it for long. But reading alone is rarely enough to truly get that deep knowledge needed to be competent – we also need practice. Read more “Myth busting 26: I’ve read the book, now I’m an expert!” →

Asset Management

Myth Busting 25: We need engineers to do RCM

2019-05-032020-06-20

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is method for determining the most appropriate failure and consequence management strategies. It deals with your physical assets in your current operating context. The first four questions in the RCM method, are defined in standard, SAE JA-1011, “Evaluation Criteria for Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Processes.” They utilize the time proven engineering method, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Read more “Myth Busting 25: We need engineers to do RCM” →

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Myth Busting 24: Basing your reliability program on Root…

2019-04-262020-06-20

Root Cause Failure Analysis (also called, Root Cause Analysis) is great for eliminating the causes of failures. It’s usually used where there are major production, cost, safety, or environmental consequences. But it only deals with failures that have already happened – it is usually triggered by the very consequences you would have been better off avoiding altogether. Read more “Myth Busting 24: Basing your reliability program on Root Cause Failure Analysis” →

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Myth busting 23: We need lots of failure data…

2019-03-042020-06-20

Reliability Centered Maintenance has been around since the 1970’s and it has proven to achieve amazing results wherever it has been used properly. As a reliability method, it guides decision making based on available evidence about past, and expected future, failures. It makes sense that failure data be part of that evidence. But do you need a lot of data?

A common mis-perception about RCM is that it requires a lot of data. Read more “Myth busting 23: We need lots of failure data to do RCM” →

Asset Management

Utility Asset Risk Management with RCM

2019-02-212020-06-20

Reliability is a key to successful risk management in any industry. It is particularly important in electrical utilities where the service must be “always on”. Failures can result in power outages and major disruptions to many customers, some of whom are providing critical services like hospitals, banks, stock exchange computers, traffic signals, mass public transit, and so on. Read more “Utility Asset Risk Management with RCM” →

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Myth Busting 20: We must follow manufacturer’s recommended maintenance

2019-02-042020-06-20

Manufacturers always publish recommended maintenance for users of their products. There are a few myths about this maintenance – one is that it will result in reliable operation of the equipment. In some cases it does, but in most, it does not. Why?

The myth is that the manufacturers always know best how to maintain their designs. Think about that for a minute. How many manufacturers actually use and maintain what they sell? Read more “Myth Busting 20: We must follow manufacturer’s recommended maintenance” →

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