Reliability centered maintenance

Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is a method for maintenance planning developed within the aircraft industry and later adapted to several other industries and military branches. This paper presents a structured approach to RCM, and discusses the various steps in the approach. The RCM method provides a framework for utilizing operating experience in a more systematic way. The requirements for reliability models and data are therefore highlighted. The gap between maintenance practitioners and scientists working with maintenance optimization models is discussed, together with some future challenges for RCM.