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JQME
22,2
A SWOT analysis of reliability
centered maintenance framework
Gajanand Gupta and Rajesh P. Mishra
130 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and
Sciences, Pilani, India
Received 19 January 2015
Revised 11 June 2015
8 September 2015
Abstract
13 October 2015 Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use well-established methodology strengths, weaknesses,
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Accepted 22 January 2016 opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis – in order to identify the important factors for reliability
centered maintenance (RCM) implementation.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper demonstrates a SWOT analysis for different 19
frameworks of RCM to make a strategic decision for implementing RCM in different organizations. The
various 19 frameworks are grouped together into three clusters, namely Group A, Group B and Group
C based on their qualitative or theoretical, quantitative and practical approach, respectively.
Findings – The strengths and weaknesses are identified by internal factors while the opportunities
and threats are identified by external factors of an organization for each group of frameworks. Also, it
was observed that each group of frameworks has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses.
Research limitations/implications – In this paper, the SWOT analysis for RCM implementation is
limited to the comparison of various 19 RCM frameworks which are available in literatures and based
on internal or external factors of an organization.
Practical implications – The SWOT analysis also suggests that the implementation of RCM is not
an easy task for any practitioner and one should weigh in all the opportunities and threats before
arriving at any strategic decision.
Originality/value – A unique approach applied to analysis the frameworks of RCM. The SWOT
analysis of various RCM frameworks will help the practitioner to take any strategic decision for RCM
implementation in an organization.
Keywords Reliability centered maintenance, SWOT analysis, Decision making framework
Paper type Research paper
Abbreviations
RCM reliability centered maintenance RM radical maintenance
SWOT strengths, weaknesses, FMEA failure mode and effect analysis
opportunities and threats PM preventive maintenance
FMECA failure mode effect and criticality FFA functional failure analysis
analysis FFMEA function, Failure mode and
FSI functionally significant item effect analysis
IRCMA intelligent reliability centered MSI maintenance significant
maintenance items
1. Introduction
Along with the increasing expansion of technology and competition among industries,
organizations employ different strategies and policies to increase productivity and
Journal of Quality in Maintenance
Engineering decrease costs. Maintenance is a policy which is used in production industries to decrease
Vol. 22 No. 2, 2016
pp. 130-145
costs, increase productivity and to continue with the global competition. A lot of
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1355-2511
maintenance strategies have been developed during last few years. RCM has been one of
DOI 10.1108/JQME-01-2015-0002 the most recent strategies in maintenance around the world. RCM originated in the airline
industry in the 1960s as a systematic process for development and optimization A SWOT
of the maintenance requirements of a physical resource in its operating context analysis of
to realize its inherent reliability by logically incorporating the maintenance strategies
like reactive, preventive, condition based and proactive maintenance. Around the
RCM
world, it is an imperative technology in the industry maintenance field that framework
can be functional to improve the equipment availability and reliability and reduce
operational and maintenance costs. The theory of RCM is the function of the 131
operating system to recognize the consequences of the failure by the failure analysis and
system function.
Since RCM implementation is a strategic decision and assumes that managers
tend to utilize a framework for implementation, they cannot afford to make a mistake
in selecting a suitable framework. The authors are left with a problem of how to
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choose one particular framework from the list of frameworks. Hence, in this paper, an
effort has been made to overcome the above problem. The paper is structured as
follows: Section 2 describes a brief literature review of RCM and strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis, Section 3 presents the
elements of RCM frameworks, Section 4 enumerates the comparison of elements of
RCM frameworks followed by the used methodology and conclusion of paper in
Sections 5 and 6, respectively.
2. Literature review
2.1 Reliability centered maintenance
Many authors have made attempts for development of RCM concept since 1960.
Nowlan and Heap (1978) first introduce the RCM concept in 1978 as it refers to a
scheduled-maintenance program designed to recognize the inherent reliability
capabilities of equipment. Richet et al. (1995) applied the fundamental principles of
RCM to 15 foundries which were very distinct in terms of type, size, level of technology
and geographical location. Nour et al. (1998) emphasized the importance of careful
analysis of the reliability of machine components in order to optimize the maintenance
program. Pujadas and Chen (1996) formulated a specialized maintenance decision
support system that combines the merits of RCM and FMECA. Goodfellow (2000)
analyzed the opportunities for the application of RCM techniques to overhead electric
utility distribution systems. Reder and Flaten (2000) introduced the application of RCM
techniques for underground distribution systems. Al-Ghamdi et al. (2000) presented the
concepts and implementation steps for RCM and improved an existing time-based
maintenance program at a local plant in Saudi Arabia. Fonseca and Knapp (2000)
developed a new framework for RCM implementation in the chemical process industry.
Penrose (2005) applied RCM techniques on electric motors. Dehghanian and Aminifar
(2013) proposed a method to adopt the principles of RCM in power distribution systems
in the form of a practical RCM framework. Cheng et al. (2008) proposed a framework for
intelligent RCM analysis. Gang and Michael (2009) presented condition-based
maintenance framework integrated with reliability centered maintenance. Li and
Gao (2010) proposed the concepts and analysis of RCM by considering radical
maintenance in a petrochemical industry. Fore and Mudavanhu (2011) developed a
framework for implementation of an RCM approach in a chipping and sawing mill.
Chen and Zhang (2012a, b) described the implementation of reliability centered
maintenance in China’s nuclear energy field. Liang et al. (2012a, b) applied the concepts
of RCM to evaluate the reciprocating compressor. Literature review shows that RCM
includes all historical records such as the list of FSI, FMECA information (Cheng et al.,
JQME 2008) and achievements of RCM applications on the overhead lines (Goodfellow, 2000),
22,2 underground systems (Reder and Flaten, 2000), chemical industry (Fonseca and Knapp,
2000) and processed oil and gas industry (Guevara and Souza, 2008).
3. Rausand (1998)
1. Study preparation
2. System selection and definition
3. Functional failure analysis (FFA)
4. Critical item selection
5. Data collection and analysis
6. Failure mode effect and criticality analysis (FMECA)
7. Selection of maintenance actions
8. Determination of maintenance intervals
9. Preventive maintenance comparison analysis
10. Treatment of non-critical items
11. Implementation
12. In-service data collection and updating
4. Deshpande and Modak (2002)
1. System selection and information collection
2. System boundary definition
3. System description and functional block diagram
4. System functions and functions failures
5. Failure mode and effect analysis
6. Logic tree analysis
7. Tasks selection
5. Gabbar et al. (2003)
1. Asset assessment
2. Assess failure
3. Decide maintenance strategy
4. Decide maintenance tasks
5. Optimize maintenance tasks
6. Check and validate
6. Smith et al. (2003)
1. System selection and Information Collection
2. System Boundary Definition
3. System Description and Functional Block Diagram
4. System Functions and functional failure
5. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA)
6. Logic Tree Analysis
7. Task Selection
7. Penrose (2005)
1. Set boundaries and create a functional block diagram with partitioning of the system under review
2. Determine functional failures
3. Determine functionally significant items of the system Table I.
The elements of
various frameworks
(continued ) of RCM
JQME 4. Perform a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
22,2 5. Perform a logic tree analysis in order to determine the effectiveness of maintenance tasks for the
FMEA
6. Determine servicing and lubrication tasks
7. Set maintenance requirements for the system
8. Draft and evaluate maintenance procedures
9. Determine tasks for inactive equipment and, Develop corrective maintenance processes,
134 procedures and specifications
8. Cheng and Jia (2005)
1. Identification of functionally significant items
2. Retrieval of structure tree of FSI of the similar equipment from equipment case base
3. FMEA
4. RCM logic decision analysis
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Table I. (continued )
13. Kianfar and Kianfar (2010)
A SWOT
1. System selection and information collection analysis of
2. System boundary definition RCM
3. System descriptions and functional block diagram
4. System functions and functional failures framework
5. Failure modes and effect analysis
6. Ranking of failure modes
7. Task selection 135
8. Implementation
14. Selvik and Aven (2011)
1. Identification of Maintenance significant items (MSI)
2. PM task assessments
3. PM interval assessments
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4. Packing of PM tasks
5. Uncertainty analysis
6. Uncertainty evaluation & presentation of results
7. Managerial review and judgment
8. Preventive maintenance program
15. Chen and Zhang (2012a, b)
1. Boundary definition
2. Function analysis
3. Function failure & effect analysis
4. Identification of the critical equipment
5. Critical equipment failures and strategies application
6. PM evaluation of the non-critical equipment
7. Comparison analysis of maintenance tasks
8. Maintenance tasks list
16. Liang et al. (2012a, b)
1. System division and Identification of FSI
2. FMEA of FSI
3. Criticality analysis or Risk analysis or identify the level of FSI
4. RCM logic, making maintenance strategy
17. Dehghanian et al. (2013)
1. system boundary identification
2. Critical component identification
3. Failure mode determination of critical components
4. Critical failure mode recognition
5. Failure cause specification of critical failure modes
6. Failure rate modelling of critical components
7. Load point/system reliability evaluation
8. Outlining possible maintenance strategies
18. Prabhakar and Raj (2013)
1. Reliability audits and analysis
2. Identifying Likely failure modes
3. FMECA on critical equipment
4. Feedback and measurement
19. Yssaad et al. (2014)
1. Define the system-identify levels of indenture
2. Define ground rules and assumptions
3. Construction equipment tree
4. FMECA
5. Assign maintenance focus levels based on criticality
6. Apply RCM decision logic
7. Identify maintenance tasks
8. Make recommendations and package final maintenance program
9. Feedback – continuous re-evaluation and improvement Table I.
JQME and the sequence of elements are different. Based on the definition of each element
22,2 which is defined by their respective authors in respective framework, similar elements
compared and clubbed in Table II, which is shows a matrix of numbers, which
represents the order of each element (given row-wise), as mentioned in the
corresponding frameworks (given column-wise). The order of each element
represents the sequence of that element in the respective framework.
136
5. Methodology
Since implementation of RCM program is a strategic decision, it is necessary that
managers/practitioners of different organizations should identify a suitable framework
and they cannot afford to make a mistake in the selection process. But a greater hurdle
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137
Downloaded by Birla Institute of Technology & Science At 02:33 22 April 2016 (PT)
Table II.
Comparison of
elements of various
RCM frameworks
(continued )
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22,2
138
JQME
Table II.
(continued )
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framework
RCM
analysis of
A SWOT
Table II.
139
JQME Groups Authors/consultants Remarks
22,2
Group A Nowlan and Heap (1978), Rausand (1998), Smith and Theoretical or qualitative
Hinchcliffe (2004), Cheng (2005), Niu and Pecht RCM approach
(2009), Singh et al. (2010), Kianfar and Kianfar (2010),
Selvik and Aven (2011), Prabhakar and Raj (2013)
Group B Yu and Zhao (2005), Bertling et al. (2005), Quantitative RCM approach
140 Dehghanian and Aminifar (2013), Yssaad et al. (2014)
Group C Srikrishna et al. (1996), Deshpande and Modak Practically applied
Table III. (2002), Gabbar et al. (2003), Penrose (2005), Chen and frameworks in various
Grouping of RCM Zhang (2012a, b), Liang et al. (2012a, b) industries like small scale,
frameworks nuclear and power plant, etc.
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6. Conclusion
This paper presents a SWOT analysis of various RCM frameworks which exist in
literature and extensively used by industries around the globe. An extensive study of
19 RCM frameworks has been done to identify the key steps involved in each of these
frameworks. The study of RCM frameworks revealed that the approaches followed by
different frameworks can be utilized to categorize them into three different groups –
Group A, B and C. Group A frameworks involved qualitative RCM approaches, Group
B frameworks were based on a quantitative approach and Group C frameworks
employed practical approaches which are majorly used in small scale industries,
nuclear power plants, etc. A comparative study was done for these groups involving
different RCM frameworks on the basis of the SWOT analysis of each group. The
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for each of these groups have been
successfully identified and presented in the paper. The findings of each group
frameworks as follows:
• Group A: these frameworks can be used for planning the preventive maintenance
based on continuous improvement. These frameworks provide a proper way to
Strengths Weakness
A SWOT
Widely accepted framework Limited assessments of risk and uncertainties analysis of
Systematic analysis for planning the preventive Lack of quantitative reliability analysis RCM
maintenance of technical systems Strategies are only rudimentary
Supports adaptive and dynamic maintenance Strategies are made on an ad hoc basis
framework
strategy A process where PMs are only widely
Provides way to select the appropriate maintenance carried out 141
strategy Lack of understanding of RCM concepts by top
Team-based improvement process management
Maintenance expenses are planned and controlled Lack of in-house training facilities
Continuous improvement Contradiction of management activities
Establish documented improvement methods Long time required for implementation
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Opportunities Threats
RCM process can be directly link to design phase of Resistance from employees
equipment Management may not be easily convinced
Needs to integrate RCM with other continuous Savings potential not easily seen by
improvement programs management
Reduces maintenance tasks for equipments or machines Need of highly skilled maintenance personnel
Development of innovative designs for maintenance required for implementation
prevention Availability of system failure data
Improves safety and reduces accidents
Reduces the investment on new equipments as present
equipment will be more reliable
Changes the attitude of the employees toward
continuous improvement
Helps maintenance personnel to become multi-skilled
Optimize the maintenance procedures of bottleneck
operations Table IV.
Reduces item/equipment replacement SWOT analysis of
Builds teamwork and cooperation among employees Group A frameworks
Strengths Weaknesses
Practically use of qualitative failure analysis Lack of quantitative reliability analysis
in various industries Focussed on practical use of RCM approach to
Use of computer aided RCM individual equipments rather than entire system
Other strengths are more or less similar to Practical use of RCM approach limited to nuclear
Group A plant, power plant or power distribution industries
Other weaknesses are more or less similar to Group A
Opportunities Threats
Quantitative analysis approach can also be Threats are more or less similar to Group A
used for the same equipment or industry
Can be utilize for manufacturing or process
Table VI. industries also
SWOT analysis of Other opportunities are more or less similar to
Group C frameworks Group A
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