The RCM process is characterized by the seven questions of Reliability Centered Maintenance. These questions were initially formulated by Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap and are designed to systematically evaluate the maintenance needs of a system.

7 Questions

1. What are the functions and associated desired standards of performance for the asset in its present operating context?
2. In what ways can the asset fail to fulfill its functions?
3. What are the events that cause each functional failure?
4. What happens when each failure occurs?
5. In what way does each failure matter?
6. What systematic task can be performed proactively to prevent, eliminate, or reduce the consequences of each failure mode?
7. What must be done if a suitable proactive task cannot be found?

These questions guide the RCM analysis team through a structured process of identifying and analyzing failure modes, consequences, and maintenance tasks. The goal is to develop an effective and optimized maintenance strategy for ensuring the reliability of critical systems.

The RCM Process & The SAE Standard

The international standard for RCM is SAE JA1011: Evaluation Criteria for Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) Processes.

RCM is a process that systematically answers the 7 Questions while meeting the criteria defined in SAE JA1011.

There are many books and organizations that provide specific material to perform RCM, but if you are answering the 7 Questions according to the standard's criteria, you are doing RCM.