What is RCM? The seven questions in SAE JA1011
Reliability Centered Maintenance is a way of deciding, for a specific system in a specific operating context, what must be done to keep the functions you care about. It is not a list of generic PMs, and it is not a software package. SAE JA1011 sets out the criteria a process must meet if it is going to be called RCM. SAE JA1012 is a guide to those criteria. This page walks the seven questions. It does not claim that any particular engagement is “JA1011-compliant” or certified.
The seven questions
- What are the functions and associated desired standards of performance of the asset in its present operating context?
- In what ways does it fail to fulfill its functions?
- What causes each functional failure?
- What happens when each failure occurs?
- In what way does each failure matter?
- What can be done to predict or prevent each failure?
- What should be done if a suitable proactive task cannot be found?
Questions 1–4 are the analysis. Question 5 is the consequence evaluation — hidden, safety, environmental, operational, or non-operational. Questions 6 and 7 are task selection: on-condition, scheduled restoration or replacement, failure-finding, or a default action such as redesign or a conscious run-to-failure decision. The order matters. A task list written before consequences are understood is just another PM program with a new label.
If you want to try one analysis with a workbook, see the RCM Analysis Workbook. A complete instructional example is the worked boiler-feed-pump analysis. Facilitation with your team is described under RCM analysis and facilitation.