Quick Overview of the SAP Intelligent Asset Management Portfolio –
RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance).
This article provides insights into why is an important methodology for asset-heavy industries. We will also look into how to use SAP ASPM (Asset Strategy and Performance Management) and what it takes to effectively implement RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance).
With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a.k.a. Industry 4.0, it is vital for asset-intensive businesses to have their asset management strategy strengthened with digital tools such as – IoT, Big Data and AI, Analytics, Cloud Networks, Digital Twins, etc.
SAP Intelligent Asset Management offers a suite of products to help manage assets effectively, keeping Industry 4.0 as the vision. Some of the component products of IAM are:
- SAP Asset Intelligence Network to collaborate with business partners throughout the lifecycle of physical assets
- SAP Asset Strategy and Performance Management application to define, plan and monitor the optimal maintenance strategy
- SAP Predictive Asset Insights solution to predict asset behaviour.
SAP Intelligent Asset Management
Capabilities & Solutions
Click here SAP IAM Product Suite to learn more
RCM, its drivers, and how ASPM provides a powerful platform for it.
RCM assessment follows the guidelines of SAE JA 1011. At inception, Reliability-Centered Maintenance was a systematic process used to determine the optimum maintenance requirements for aircraft. As observed in the aircraft failure pattern study, different patterns of failure have different contributions to the overall failure rate, calling for different modes of maintenance.
Pattern | Description | Maintenance type |
| Pattern A | Has a high probability of failure when the equipment is new, followed by a low level of random failures, and then a sharp increase in failures at the end of its life | Predictive |
| Pattern B | Consists of a low level of random failures, followed by a sharp increase in failures at the end of its life | Preventive |
| Pattern C | A gradually increasing level of failures throughout the equipment’s life | Functional Check |
| Pattern D | Starts with a very low level of failure followed by a sharp rise to a constant level | On-Time Changes |
| Pattern E | A consistent level of random failures throughout the equipment’s lifecycle – no pronounced increases or decreases related to the equipment’s age | Defect Elimination |
| Pattern F | A high initial failure rate followed by a random level of failures | Predictive Analysis |
Various methodologies can be used to arrive at the right maintenance plan for each scenario. Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) is highly optimised for creating the right mix of reactive, time or interval-based, condition-based, and proactive maintenance practices for the maintenance process.
Sample RCM Decision Tree guiding towards a precise maintenance approach will look as follows:
Why Organisations should use ASPM?
Reliability Managers often struggle because data needed to make informed decisions to secure the effectiveness of existing maintenance strategies – such as asset master data, historical maintenance data, risk and criticality data, and asset condition data – is maintained in separate applications. That makes the evaluation extremely challenging while the outcomes and recommendations therein become difficult to implement.
In the new world of SAP ASPM, the process is seamless with central availability of all the data, making the assessments like RCM more effective. RCM uses historical data with real-time monitoring (RTM) to give the optimum mix of preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, run-to-failure (RTF), and proactive maintenance techniques.
A closed feedback loop and centralised view for data from several sources provided by ASPM, along with the collaborative abilities enabled by SAP AIN e.g. getting Failure Modes from Manufacturer, makes ASPM a powerful tool for asset management. In the new world of ASPM, the data flows seamlessly throughout the entire process.
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