5. Conclusions
RCM is a systematic analysis method for planning the preventive maintenance (PM) of technical systems. Reliability and consequences of the relevant system items are assessed in order to identify and determine suitable PM tasks and intervals. Over the years, RCM has gained a solid reputation for being a successful method, but also for having some shortcomings. One of these is traced to the limited assessments of risk and uncertainties.
In this paper we have presented and discussed the RRCM framework: a framework based on the existing RCM, which improves the risk and uncertainty assessments by adding some additional features to the existing RCM methodology. An extended uncertainty assessment is added, to address uncertainties ‘‘hid- den’’ in assumptions of the standard RCM analyses. The un- certainties are then communicated to management through an extended uncertainty evaluation, which integrates the results from the FMECA (and the formal maintenance optimization if optimiza- tion models are established) and the separate uncertainty analysis. An essential feature of the presented framework is the managerial review and judgement, which places the decision process into a broader management context. In this step consideration is given to the boundaries and limitations of the tools used.
A case from the oil and gas industry is presented to demonstrate the applicability of RRCM. The approach is, however, general and could also be used for other types of applications. We believe that by applying the RRCM, an improved basis can be established for informing decision makers compared with the RCM method, as the importance of risk and uncertainties is more adequately taken into account.