RCM Implementation with Nancy Regan

It is my pleasure to welcome back Nancy Regan to the podcast, the founder of RCMtrainingonline.com.

In this episode we covered:

What is an RCM implementation?
What challenges do you see within organizations as they go to implement the findings from their analysis?
What do you believe is the most important outcome from an RCM implementation at the end of it all?

What is an RCM implementation?

Carrying through with instituting the results of an analysis. Reliability Centered Maintenance is getting everyone involved from the outset explaining why we’re going to do reliability centered maintenance, its benefits, and why it’s so important that everyone is involved.

How does that differ from an RCM analysis?

With RCM analysis, the implementation comes in where the validation team has to go through recommendations and approve which ones are going to be implemented. That’s often when RCM falls short, where a great analysis is done, but the results are not implemented for a bunch of different reasons, e.g. not everyone was brought on board to begin with. Implementing to us means editing the proactive maintenance plan, putting in the new tasks, making all the changes and implementing any of those default strategies that may need to be done because really we could do the best RCM analysis in the world. But if it sits on a shelf and doesn’t make its way to the people who need those results, then it really was a waste of time.

Now why do we have to start that implementation before we even start the analysis?

One of the misconceptions is that you have to do it on all of your equipment, you don’t. So you can choose a piece of equipment. We all hear the term reliability culture and really fostering a culture of reliability is making sure people understand what reliability even is. RCM usually starts with upper management. If we don’t educate and bring in everyone, who’s involved, they’re left out, then implementation is going to suffer. It could start from a few different places, but it’s important to get everyone involved. Highlight what the process could do for them.

What challenges do you see within organizations as they go to implement the findings from their analysis?

The biggest roadblock I see is if people don’t understand why the changes are being made. Another issue is I think from a budget perspective and from a time perspective. Budget the planners time and their workload and make the space available to get this new stuff implemented.

Why do organizations fail to budget for all this extra stuff?

I would say it’s a maintenance, unreliability philosophy that is rooted in the reality of failure. I think making sure people within an organization really understand the basics of maintenance and reliability is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. Starting from the outset where we don’t necessarily just train people who are going to do the analysis.

You said we start small, grow it, we train people, engage stakeholders, anything else we need to ensure a successful implementation?

RCM is common sense applied to physical assets, it can be done relatively quickly and relatively easily. It’s not easy to carry out because people often don’t go about it the right way with making sure people are trained. Have a firm understanding about how it’s implemented, don’t go it alone.

What do you believe is the most important outcome from an RCM implementation at the end of it all?

The most impactful outcome I have seen is how much an organization learns about their equipment. Do an FMEA – Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and formally document it so that you've got that knowledge. I would absolutely recommend a facilitated working group approach and not just one person sitting behind a computer screen doing it.

How does equipment fail? How can we detect these warning signs?

Talk about random failures, you can potentially do condition-based maintenance by detecting potential failure conditions. It’s very important that people understand the basics because that’s what RCM implementation really is all about. So it’s very important that we promulgate that knowledge within an organization.

What is the one action you want our listeners to take away from what we’ve talked about today?

Don’t be biased with what you’ve heard about it. Learn what reliability centered maintenance really is for yourself from a reputable place, and then decide for yourself. Don’t think that you have to do RCM on everything. Don’t get overwhelmed that you have to start an RCM program. Just start off small, but keep taking those steps.

Where can people find out more about you, your training events and activities?

They can just go to RCM training online.com. And if you want to take my free course just go to RCM training, online.com/training. I’m also really active on LinkedIn.

Do you have any resources that you want to share with our listeners?

One of my favorite books is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon hill. Embodied in that book is a formula that if we do it pretty much as human beings, we can achieve anything we want to do.

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