For a large infrastructure client, E.S.M. conducted a comprehensive Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) study for a safety-critical asset type.
In conducting the study, E.S.M. analysed over 4,500 recorded defects that had been reported over a ten year period and then made a series of recommendations to modify maintenance practices with the aim of reducing the rate of future defects.
The study began by creating a data model which successfully combined client asset information, maintenance records, defect reports as well as environmental and geographical information to reveal patterns and statistics on defect occurrence in the field.
This data model was then used in the reliability centred maintenance study to perform a retrospective Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) of all observed modes of functional failure for the asset type. Using the data model, the average asset age and the average time since maintenance was last performed at which the defect occurred for each failure mode was calculated.
Following the RCM process, E.S.M. was then able to classify each failure mode and make recommendations to the client to modify, as required, the tasks and timing of asset maintenance to reduce the rate of future defects.
