Directory of information management systems for Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Mature maintenance and reliability programs, ones that have the basics covered, look to reliability analysis as a primary path to improved maintenance practice. The analysis efforts are directed toward physical assets and systems whose failure will produce significant negative impact on safety, environmental and regulatory compliance, productivity, or costs.
Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is accepted as the most effective and comprehensive approach to reliability analysis. Also effective is failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) which is an element of RCM that can be practiced independently. In both approaches, the equipment or system is analyzed by a cross-functional team of plant personnel according to a prescribed procedure. The team is led by a trained facilitator.
RCM and FMEA produce a lot of data which can be difficult to organize and maintain. There are a number of data and information management software packages that have been developed to streamline the RCM and FMEA data handling chore. The following information includes a listing of 15 such packages, along with suggestions from the software producers on how to get started with an RCM or FMEA program and how to sell it to management.
Elements of RCM
Evaluation Criteria for Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) Processes (SAE Standard JA1011) states that: Any RCM process shall ensure that all of the following seven questions are answered satisfactorily and are answered in the following sequence:
1. What are the functions and associated desired standards of performance of the asset in its present operating context (functions)? 2. In what ways can it fail to fulfill its functions (functional failures)? 3. What causes each functional failure (failure modes)? 4. What happens when each failure occurs (failure effects)? 5. In what way does each failure matter (failure consequences)? 6. What should be done to predict or prevent each failure (proactive tasks and task intervals)? 7. What should be done if a suitable proactive task cannot be found (default actions)?
Getting started with RCM Maintenance and reliability practitioners and consultants stress the need for appropriate training prior to launching a RCM or FMEA project.
“First time RCM analysts,” notes Anthony “Mac” Smith, RCM consultant, “should use an experienced facilitator to guide them through the initial process. In-house personnel should be involved in making the RCM decisions, not outside contractors. This helps provide buy-in and increases the success and benefits of RCM.”
According to Chris Kelly of Strategic Corporate Assessment Systems, “Practitioners need to have a full understanding of the principles of reliability centered maintenance in order to obtain sustainable outcomes. A maintenance strategy review needs to be undertaken like any other project, i.e., with milestones and expected deliverables. Thereafter, the reliability approach needs to be embedded into daily life for maintenance people.”
How to sell the program When it comes to selling upper management on the benefits of RCM, JMS Software’s Nick Jize suggests that you should “let management know that the process will shift the paradigms of why maintenance is done from a reactive, time-based approach to a proven reliability and condition-based, less intrusive approach. Knowing that, in-house personnel will perform the analysis and thereby increase their expertise on how plant equipment fails and how to prevent it. Most important, show them the cost and benefits of the process. Too often, management sees only the initial costs and does not see the instant payback. They need to understand the process and see the differences in task selection after each system is completed.”
“Nontechnical management must be convinced that maintenance is a business function and integrally linked to production,” councils Kelly. “We need to impart to management that the maintenance function has far-reaching business impacts which include the preservation and extension of the life of expensive assets. We also need to impart a quantification of the business value associated with an increase in reliability, availability, and production associated with an optimized RCM- based maintenance regime.”
“There is a clear business case for the improved reliability that results from a technically sound work identification strategy like RCM or FMEA,” says Ivara’s Ann Christie. “Upper management will be interested in understanding the business case in terms of speed of payback and multiples of return. In addition, senior management will look at nonfinancial business impacts particularly those that reduce risk. For example, in regulated industries improved reliability will enable a company to more easily meet the regulators’ demands. Other impacts such as improved safety and environmental compliance can easily be attributed to improved reliability.”
Reliability software The information on the software listed here was provided by the suppliers of the software. Each description begins with a notation of whether the software developer claims the package is designed to facilitate RCM, FMEA, or both.
If you have used or know of software helpful to managing the information associated with RCM or FMEA other than that listed here, we urge you to notify the editors so that it can be considered for the next edition of this directory. MT
Reliability Toolbox Abbott Analytical Products
RCM + FMEA. Software facilitates FMECA, FMEA, FEA, DZA, fault tree analysis, static and dynamic system analysis, Weibull analysis, Mil-Hdbk-217F, Bellecore, Mil-Std-105D, Mil-Std-781 Life Test, reliability growth, warranty planning, regression analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, burn-in planning/analysis, software testing, and unit test harnesses.
RCM + FMEA. Software works with a data warehouse that is integrated with a CMMS or ERP system to load plant maintenance data, historical work orders, and failures and feed back criticality numbers and maintenance tasks into the CMMS or ERP. The RCM tool can automate both classical and streamlined RCM.
FMEA. Software complies with M1629 and SAE standards, includes Next Brother Effect, propagates failure modes automatically to next-higher effects via all functional blocks. It helps to trace top-down failure causes for diagnostic procedures and includes testability analysis. It calculates detection and isolation capabilities of built-in tests and ATE and provides nondetected and nonisolated failure modes.
RCM + FMEA. Software ranks components into four RCM risk classes by failure risk. Users then select and apply template-based PM tasks to component tags with a visual interface. Making PM interval adjustments (based upon service, duty cycle, etc.) completes analysis. Users load PM results (with traceability) into CMMS PM tables, relationally.
CORE, Inc. 5915 Braun Way Arvada, CO 80004-3700 (888) 211-1770
PREMO XPERTS Fractal Solutions
RCM + FMEA. Software is a full cycle equipment reliability package. The user can perform initial analysis using RCM, risk-based analysis, or PM templates, archive the approved results, and reuse the results with PM optimization during reanalysis. It also outputs PM performance feedback questions to PDAs, automatically retrieves the findings, and trends the results of PM effectiveness.
RCM + FMEA. Software incorporates predictive and condition-based maintenance capabilities that support a reliability-based approach to asset management. It is used day-to-day by maintenance and operations to manage the health of their assets and to identify the right work at the right time, optimizing asset reliability and driving business results fast.
RCM + FMEA. Software can perform both the classical and abbreviated RCM analysis process. It performs all key steps required by RCM standards including system selection, functional analysis, FMEA, logic tree, and task selection. In addition, a task packaging step is provided to help users organize tasks by craft, frequency, and asset type.
JMS Software P. O. Box 23131 San Jose, CA 95153 (408) 365-1975
FMEA Facilitator Kinetic, LLC
FMEA. FMEA Facilitator will help FMEA teams recognize and evaluate the potential failure of a product or process and its effects. The fully documented analysis will identify actions which could eliminate or reduce the chance of the potential failure occurring.
Kinetic, LLC 5697 Fulton St. E Ada, MI 49301 (530) 618-4697
Optimizer+ MaintControl International
RCM + FMEA. Software supports the complete process to develop risk-based maintenance plans leading to the realization of a company’s business objectives. The key functionalities are a library of failure data and maintenance activities, a risk analysis based on FMECA and RCM principles, Monte Carlo simulation, optimization, and interfacing with common CMMS programs.
RCM + FMEA. Software is an easy-to-use yet powerful reliability program designed to hold, manipulate, and analyze reliability centered maintenance or FMEA data in an intuitive, structured, and flexible way.
RCM + FMEA. Software facilitates analysis, data management, and reporting for FMEA and FMECA. The software supports all major standards (AIAG FMEA-3, J1739, ARP5580, MIL-STD-1629A, etc.) and provides extensive customization capabilities for analysis and reporting, allowing configuration of the software to meet an organization’s analysis and reporting procedures.
RCM + FMEA. Software facilitates the processes of PMO and RCM. It facilitates the upload of existing maintenance programs, the review of each individual task (relative to RCM/PMO methodolgy), and creation of work plans via grouping, ordering, and workload smoothing functions. Work plans are output that can be electronically linked to CMMS or manually printed.
OMCS International 7/92 Railway St. South Altona, Victoria, 3018, Australia +61 3 9315 0330
QSE FMEA APQP 7.3 Quality Systems Engineering (QSE)
FMEA. Software is a procedure and tool to measure the gap between a product’s actual performance and its potential performance. It is used to rank, prioritize, and report risk, thus directing the user toward changes that will improve quality. It automates the mundane tasks associated with flow diagrams, FMEAs, control plans, etc.
RCM + FMEA. Software provides expert decision support methodology for applying the principles of RCM. It incorporates all the functions to take an organization from where it is today to new, optimized RCM-based maintenance schedules ready for implementation in the CMMS.
RCM. Software is a tool for maintenance analysis applying the RCM method. RCM is used to determine the optimum maintenance requirements of a physical asset in its operating context. The RCM method can be used to develop entirely new maintenance regimes or to get improved operating performance from existing regimes.
Brent Nelson is the Director of Product Development for Industrial Services for Donaldson, Bloomington, MN (donaldson.com), a global manufacturer of filtration products and solutions, is our guest for this […]
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