RCM: Unraveling the Mysteries

Mankind has been managing assets for thousands of years. Whether farming, using fire, or smelting brass, it is natural for people to manage assets. However, managing assets and managing them well can be, and often are, two different things.

The task for asset managers is to change the paradigm of asset management from maintenance to reliability. This means the paradigm must change from thinking about machines to thinking about functions.

Reliability Centered Asset Management (RCAM) guides the reader through this journey by:

• Providing an understanding of reliability and asset management from a cultural perspective.
• Explaining the functional approach to asset management.
• Examining the asset lifecycle and how the reliability-centered functional approach is used to get maximum value from assets.
• Exploring the fourth generation of asset management, a reliability-centered view of processes and procedures.

Each chapter begins and ends with a vignette that illustrates the central points of the chapter. The vignettes follow the fictional The Asset Company (TAC) through the journey to truly effective RCAM.