Reliability-Centered Maintenance
(RCM)
RCM, developed in the 1960s for US commercial aviation (United Airlines' MSG-1, then MSG-2, MSG-3) and adapted to process industry through John Moubray's RCM II (1997), is the structured methodology that determines what maintenance work is genuinely required to preserve asset function. SAE JA1011 (Standard) and JA1012 (Guide) define the seven core questions any process labelled 'RCM' must answer — functions, functional failures, failure modes, failure effects, failure consequences, preventive tasks, default actions. The discipline distinguishes itself from time-based maintenance through consequence-categorisation (hidden, safety / environmental, operational, non-operational) and task-selection logic (predictive / condition-based monitoring preferred over scheduled overhaul where applicable). Modern execution integrates RCM with API RP 580 RBI for static equipment (so RCM doesn't duplicate inspection logic), ISO 14224 reliability-data conventions for failure-rate libraries, and CMMS / EAM platforms (SAP PM, Maximo, Infor EAM) for execution. The hardest part of RCM remains team discipline — preventing the workshop from drifting into preserving legacy PM tasks rather than challenging them on JA1011 logic.
