Investigating reliability centered maintenance (RCM) for public road mass transportation vehicles

Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Wynne Jones Building, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, England

Abstract

Presently public road mass transportation organisations maintain their vehicles using scheduled corrective maintenance which is carried out at the discretion of the organisation. Operating a corrective maintenance policy means that equipment are allowed to operate to failure and are only repaired or replaced when it fails. Corrective maintenance is generally recognised as an inefficient approach to maintaining equipment as the costs in terms of finance and time can be excessive. In many industries, from aerospace to oil production, a system of reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is utilised. RCM estimates when equipment failure can be expected to occur and ensures that maintenance is performed before it does. Using the RCM approach usually results in assets being more reliable, with low equipment failure rates within its mechanical systems. This often results in significant financial benefit to the organisation as operating equipment become more reliable allowing the vehicles to be in service for longer and achieving higher safety standards. This investigation has predicted that potential equipment failure could take place between the vehicle mileage of 6000 -12000 miles. Using the consecutive reading /sampling method together with a set oil spray diameter size alert value of 130 mm, it was possible to further narrow down the potential equipment failure to a vehicle mileage of 10000 miles.