An investigation into the benefits obtained by introducing Reliability Centred Maintenance in industrial organisations

Abstract

Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) is a well-known maintenance process developed in the aviation industry. It has yielded great success and hence was adapted to be used in more industrial environments, such as the process developed Coetzee (2015) called ProaktivTM and the process developed by Moubray (1997) called RCM2. The RCM process is considered by many to be a very effective and comprehensive maintenance process that can, if implemented correctly, improve reliability and plant availability substantially. However, many maintenance practitioners and maintenance experts who have used RCM believe that it is an overcomplicated process that is difficult to implement. In many cases the process is abandoned and left incomplete due to the amount of resources required and the slow results it delivers initially. This dissertation investigates the benefits of implementing RCM on a mineral sizer at Sierra Rutile in Sierra Leone. In that regard, key performance indicators (KPI) of the sizer were recorded before and after the implementation of RCM. The main KPIs taken into consideration were: • Availability • Overall equipment effectiveness • Hazard rate • Productivity • Mean time to failure (MTTF) • Cost of maintenance per ton This research centres mainly on the maintenance strategy improvement plans derived from the RCM process and the improvements to the production process that resulted from that exercise.