A reliability business case your finance team can audit
Expected annual loss, avoided loss, payback and NPV — with assumptions, ranges, and limitations written down.
A reliability business case turns failure history into a memo finance can audit: expected annual loss, a stated risk reduction, program cost, payback, and NPV. The math is the same family of ideas insurers use for frequency and severity. It is not a guarantee of savings, and it is not financial or insurance advice.
Scope
Together we agree the asset or failure-mode set, the period of history to use, and how downtime cost per hour will be built (contribution margin on unrecoverable throughput, idle labor, and fixed event costs — see how to calculate downtime cost per hour). Frequency is estimated from your counts and observation time. Expected annual loss is frequency × expected severity. Reduction factors are ranges you accept as assumptions, not promised percentages. The write-up follows the risk-quantification method.
Timeline and confidentiality
A typical engagement is a short kickoff, a data review, a working session on assumptions, and a written memo you can forward. Plant data stays yours; see the confidentiality note below. Price is confirmed in a written proposal. The published figures remain the $1,200 on-site day rate and the assessment starting fee; a packaged business-case fee will be listed here if one is set.
A synthetic excerpt
Four events in two years, six hours of downtime at $1,500/h plus $3,000 fixed: expected annual loss $24,000. With a 25% frequency reduction and a 20% severity reduction, assumed, residual loss is $14,400 and avoided loss is $9,600 a year. Those figures are the calculator’s published unit-test case, not a plant result.
You can run the same numbers, ungated, in the RCM ROI calculator. A business-case template is available as a free, email-requested download. A Reliability Assessment is the better offer when you still need to find the top risks before you write the memo.
Scoped per job. No retainers, no mystery.
- A conversation, freeYou describe the asset, the pain, and what “fixed” looks like. You get an honest answer on whether the work is a fit and what it takes.
- A scoped proposalDeliverables, timeline, and price in writing before anything starts. You approve the scope, not a blank check.
- The work, with your teamSessions and analysis done alongside your people, so the method stays in the building when the engagement ends.
- Deliverables you can act onA task list, a business case, or an investigation report — in your format, ready to use.
Work can be purchased by purchase order or invoice. A W-9 is available on request. Use the PO / invoice form, or email inquiry@apexreng.com.
Everything you share stays yours. Plant data, failure history, drawings, and production numbers are never disclosed without your express written permission.
Questions that usually come up
How do I justify an RCM program to finance?
Translate failure history into expected annual loss (frequency × severity), estimate a risk reduction as a range, subtract program cost, and present payback and NPV with the assumptions written down. The method page and calculator on this site follow that sequence.
What inputs do you need?
Failure counts or work-order history for the assets in scope, a reasoned downtime cost per hour (or the ingredients to build one), fixed event costs, and the one-time and ongoing cost of the program you want funded.
What does it cost?
The engagement is fixed-scope and priced in a written proposal. The public day rate is $1,200 on-site plus travel; many business-case engagements can be done largely remote if the data can be shared securely.