Reliability Centered Maintenance: 40 Years Young and as Relevant as Ever

By Tara Holwegner, Learning and Performance SME, SMRP, PMP, CPLP

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is turning 40, but it isn’t “over the hill.” In fact, RCM is just as relevant and strong an approach today as it was when Nowlan and Heap published “Reliability Centered Maintenance” in 1978. The RCM studies, initially developed and applied for the civil aviation industry, revolutionized the maintenance mindset and initiated an evolution in maintenance technology.

Thirty-six years later, in January 2014, the ISO 55000 series of asset management standards cemented asset management as integral to business strategy and performance. The evolution in maintenance technology continues with increased adoption of ISO 55000 principles, improvements in condition-based and predictive technologies, analytics, asset intelligence, and efforts to empower a multi-skilled workforce to support asset availability.

Here are four reasons why RCM isn’t “over the hill”:
• A risk-based RCM approach is strategic to the business
• RCM is an expression of ISO 55000 “thinking”
• RCM favors efficient and feasible proactive tasks
• RCM has published standards, program guides, tools, software, and systems to support planning and implementation

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