Systems Engineering Program
Department of Engineering Management, Information and Systems
EMIS 7305/5305
Systems Reliability, Supportability and Availability Analysis
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Analysis
Dr. Jerrell T. Stracener, SAE Fellow
Leadership in Engineering
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Introduction
• RCMA is a disciplined approach to determine systems
Preventive Maintenance (PM) programs.
• Candidate items are selected for analysis as early as
possible, and re-applied when needed.
• For each item, an attempt is made to identify potential
failures that are correlated with usage or time passage.
• PM tasks may result, depending on criticality and
feasibility.
• Calculated intervals for identified PM tasks are
determined using the best-known life characteristics.
• Results are documented.
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Introduction
•Approach
–History of requirements documents
–Key Tenets
–Conclusions
•Sources of information
–WWW
–Military standards/handbooks
–Journal articles
–Experience
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Commercial Documentation History
•MSC-1 (1968, by Boeing Maintenance Steering Group, to
support 747 scheduled maintenance program)
•MSC-2 (1970, by (ATA) Air Transport Association (ATA) of
America and task force of appropriate stakeholders, to support
other A/C)
•Reliability-Centered Maintenance, Stan Nowlan and Howard
Heap, 1978
•MSG-3 (published by the ATA in 1980 to support more-complex
A/C, like the 757/767, and address more-stringent FAA
regulations and economic issues) Latest revision 2001.
•SAE JA1011 (1999) and JA1012 (2002) are “sister” specs
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Military Documentation History
•Early efforts used commercial docs/reqts
•DA PAM 750-40 (USA 1980)
•MIK-HDBK-266 (DOD 1981)
•MIL-STD-1843 (USAF 1985 (cancelled 1995, no superseding doc.))
•MIL-STD-2173 (USN 1986 (cancelled 1999))
•MIL-STD-2173(AS) (USN 1998 (cancelled 1999))
•NAVAIR-00-25-403
•Late efforts tend to use commercial docs/reqts
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Key Tenets
•“This process can only address maintenance preventable
failures, i.e. it cannot defend against unlikely events, nonpredictable acts of nature, etc. ” Wikipedia
•Candidates are identified early in a development using Failure
Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA).
•Each FMEA candidate is subjected to RCMA. An example of
early Army RCM logic tree attached at end of this package.
•RCMA can be used with Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality
Analysis (FMECA) per MIL-STD-1629 to identify and assign
criticality to potential failures.
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Key Tenets (cont)
•Results are documented in some fashion.
-Existing tool
-In-house tool
•Logistics Support Analysis Record (LSAR) is a formal data
documentation process that can be used to collect results of
RCM logic application.
-See cancelled MIL-STD-1388-2B
-Tools developed per US MIL-STD-1388-2B or MoD 0060 can be used rather than developing an in-house tool.
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Key Tenets (cont)
•Application of RCMA may result in:
-Servicing Task
-Lubrication Task
-On-Condition (scheduled inspection) Task
-Hard-Time (scheduled removal) Task
-Failure-Finding (scheduled inspection of hidden function) Task
-No PM Task (if “No PM Task” is unacceptable, then redesign,
operational restrictions, change in maint procedures, etc., may
be necessary).
-Age Exploration
•In short, RCMA results in a PM task of some type, system redesign,
or an item is allowed to fail.
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Conclusions
•Generally applied to aircraft and power plant acquisitions.
•Generally not applied to US acquisitions that are not new significant
systems.
•Applied more heavily to smaller acquisitions by UK, Australia, New
Zealand, Korea, ROC
•RCMA is generally not applicable to electronic items. It applies to
items that have increasing failure rate over time, or have inherent
wear-out characteristics.
•In personal experience, it has not been rigorously applied to any
small US system since approximately 1994.
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References
• Websites
- http://assist.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch
- http://logistics.navair.navy.mil/rcm/library
- http://www.mtain.com/logistics
- http://logistics.navair.navy.mil/rcm
- Wikipedia
• Documents
- MIL-STD-2173, MIL-STD-2173(AS) RCM (cancelled)
- NAVAIR-00-25-403 RCM
- MIL-STD-1388-2B LSAR
- MIL-STD-1629 FMECA
- Logistics Spectrum, Apr-Jun 2002, Richard W. Anderson
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RCM Process Diagram
Reference: NAV-00-25-403 (Navy)
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RCM Logic Diagram
Reference: DA PAM 750-40 (Army). Detailed use instructions are provided (1982).
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Full RCM Program Task Sequence Flowchart
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Full RCM Program Task Sequence Flowchart (cont)
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Full RCM Program Task Sequence Flowchart (cont)
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Full RCM Program Task Sequence Flowchart (cont)
F
STEP 27
Implement
PM tasks
STEP 28
Collect
test and in-service data
STEP 29
Does new data support current FMECA and RCM
entries?
YES
Go to
STEP 28
NO
Go to
STEP 6
NAVAIR RCM website: http://logistics.navair.navy.mil/rcm/guidance.cfm.
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