Enabling Tools

The RCM process identifies what must be done to any asset to ensure that the user’s requirements continue to be met. In general, this means generating outputs that describe what needs to be done, when and by whom (or more specifically, what skills are required).

These outputs need to be compared with available resources to establish what changes are needed to implement an RCM programme effectively. To help with this comparison, Rmada is able to provide a number of enabling tools and processes:

RCM consolidation process

It is commonly, and mistakenly, believed that an RCM analysis must be carried out at the level at which maintenance is carried out; the result of this approach is that the analysis is often much larger than necessary (and therefore takes longer) and is evidenced by a plethora of repeated failure modes. This causes problems for the long-term management of the analysis and of the maintenance tasks.

A business process has been developed that allows such analyses to be consolidated within the support software environment. This process has been successfully validated against a number of RN RCM analyses and is also useful when incorporating legacy maintenance into an otherwise RCM-derived regime.

Manpower Optimisation Support Tool

This tool has been developed to show the RCM-derived maintenance resource requirements over a specified period and the extent to which those resources are matched by those already available. The tool allows a platform usage profile to be set up and to show the extent to which RCM-derived resource requirements are met based on the data from the RCM and Scheduling.

The tool is being successfully used within a number of ongoing projects including Future Frigate (Type 26), and Queen Elizabeth Class (CVF) and has shown the ability to support any platform being supported within the Integrated UMMS Environment (IUE) in the Royal Navy.

Spares prediction process

Rmada has a business process for predicting the spares requirement to support an RCM-derived maintenance strategy. The process has been successfully deployed on a number of military assets where electronic systems predominate. These studies have all identified potential for improvements in operational availability at reduced cost.

Summary: Rmada has the capability of providing a range of tools and processes which are tailored to support RCM analysis and which allow the interpretation of RCM outputs in a form that is relevant to the user. These tools extend the reach of RCM and enable extra value to be derived from the RCM effort.