Reliability Centered Maintenance, RCM II
RCM II (RCM2, RCM 2, RCM-2, Reliability Centered Maintenance) is a management strategy for fixed production assets, the main principle of which is to prevent deviations of equipment state parameters to the level that lead to violation of the operation of an object or a system in a particular production environment.
The RCM methodology is based on the concept that the goal of the service is not to maintain each piece of equipment in perfect condition but to ensure the reliability of production and technological processes that are critical for the operation of the enterprise.
The first stage of RCM implementation is the classification of all equipment involved in the production process in accordance with the measure of criticality. After analyzing the equipment fleet and determining the most "critical" units, it is necessary to analyze the repair cycle for each one and choose the most effective strategy, i.e. assign one of the four types of services to it:
- Reactive. It means time to failure without maintenance. It is used when the equipment is not critical, is easily replaced, its repair is accompanied by relatively low costs, or it is aging equipment that is practically beyond repair at the final stage of functioning.
- Preventive. It is similar to the preventive-maintenance system. It is prescribed for equipment, the "criticality" of which is low.
- This is determined by such factors as the low cost of downtime for production, the ability to quickly replace parts on a cross point or assembly unit.
- Predictive. It is based on the diagnosis and condition monitoring for daily maintenance. It is used if the equipment rate of use in the production chain is assessed as high.
- Proactive. It is based on finding and eliminating a possible cause of failure. It is used to ensure the highest possible overhaul life of the equipment through the use of modern technologies for detecting and suppressing sources of failures.
Regardless of the type of service chosen, the causes of each failure are analyzed in order to prevent a similar situation in the future.
In the second stage, the assessment of the effectiveness of use is made in terms of overall equipment efficiency. This indicator reflects the real situation in the enterprise, allows improving production and increasing profits.
The transition to RCM is often combined with the introduction of various EAM systems. They allow archiving and analyzing the results of diagnostics for making decisions about repairs, establishing the centralized collection of statistical information on equipment performance indicators, on the basis of which repair decisions are made or maintenance and repair strategies are revised.
The calendar and resource planning of maintenance and repair in the IT-Enterprise system takes place in accordance with the RCM II methodology. This ensures a high level of reliability of each piece of equipment.