Impact of Reliability Centered Maintenance on Equipment Availability and Cost Optimization

This paper aims to clarify the importance of applying the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) methodology on critical systems. RCM is a well-established method in determining and optimizing the preventive maintenance strategies of equipment. The paper shows the importance of having reliable systems in the plant through addressing some case studies, where the number of maintenance orders before and after the implementation of RCM has been remarkably reduced. The associated costs and equipment availability were also observed. The economic benefits out of implementing RCM, the impact of applying RCM, and cost optimization were also demonstrated by presenting four case studies. Appling such reliability tool (RCM) on the critical systems of the plants will enable the organization to ensure the reliability and availability of the equipment in order to achieve the annual production target.