ICTT-RCM-AMP Service

Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) is an established approach to planning system maintenance programs, based on the goal of achieving the reliability targets for the maintained systems. In its most current (RCM3) form, this approach to analysis and planning is used by enterprises across a wide variety of business types and technologies.

RCM Analysis is related to its design process ancestor, Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). Whereas design FMECA processes aim to analyze and improve upon designs (from a predicted failures and effects perspective), RCM processes aim to improve maintenance of a system after it is designed, again from the perspective of predicted failures and effects. Somewhat similar to FMECA, RCM presents some challenges your organization may have encountered:

Sometimes those working to carry out a RCM analysis process feel more “arbitrary” than systematic, whereas high confidence is needed in the coverage this process provides for system risks. Sometimes systems generate failure modes that were not predicted or considered in the RCM process. Did we find everything we should have? How do we know?
Sometimes team members working to carry out RCM sessions report they don’t look forward to them, citing the investment of large blocks of time and effort, or a sometimes “numbing” effort.
As a result of the above, management sometimes reports it is difficult to carry out RCM analyses programs over all existing systems at the rate that is needed to achieve targeted goals.

None of this is a matter of disrespect of RCM as a well-established process fulfilling a vital need. To address these challenges, ICTT System Sciences offers the Reliability-Centered Maintenance Analysis Models & Patterns (RCM-AMP) Service. This service does not replace or perform the entire RCM analysis process. Rather, it produces the standard initial failure analysis tables in a typically more productive and complete fashion, using model based system requirements to generate functional failure data. This provides a stronger foundation for the subsequent RCM analysis stages, and at a lower effort, using advanced techniques developed for complex systems applications. These include Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Pattern-Based Systems Engineering (PBSE), and Intelligence-Based Systems Engineering (IBSE).

Typical results of using these techniques include:

A more clearly systematic approach to coverage/discovery of the “logical failures” and “impact effects” of a system, using Models.
More rapid generation of fault analyses from Patterns.
More systematic approaches to mitigation strategies, using EI Patterns.
Ability to perform RCM analyses more independent of “from scratch” consultant analyses, using enterprise-owned Patterns.