Reliability Centered Maintenance

Abstract

The maintenance function must ensure that all production and manufacturing systems are operating safely and reliably and provide the necessary support for the production function. Furthermore, maintenance needs to achieve its mission using a cost-effective maintenance strategy. What constitutes a cost effective strategy evolved over time? In the past, it was believed every component of a complex system has a right age at which complete overhaul is needed to ensure safety and optimum operating conditions. This was the basis for scheduled maintenance programs. The limitation of this thinking became clear when it was used to develop the preventive maintenance program for the “new” Boeing 747 in the 1960s. The airlines knew that such a program would not be economically viable and launched a major study to validate the failure characteristics of aircraft components. The study resulted in what became the Handbook for the Maintenance Evaluation and Program Development for the Boeing 747, more commonly known as MSG-1 (Maintenance Steering Group 1). MSG-1 was subsequently improved and became MSG-2 and was used for the certification of DC 10 and L 1011. In 1979 the Air Transport Association (ATA) reviewed MSG-2 to incorporate further developments in preventive maintenance; this resulted in MSG-3, the Airline/Manufacturers Maintenance Program Planning Document applied subsequently to Boeing 757 and Boeing 767.