Using Weibull Analysis for
Fine-Tunning RCM Decisions

Various "reliability analysis tools" are used for specific situations and purposes. Sometimes we need to react to chronic failure events curtailing the plants ability to attain its performance goals consistently, and you can't wait too long to implement effective solutions to eradicate them. It would help if you acted fast and applied RCA while implementing some contingency measures and finding a way to permanently reduce the risks of such failure events.

On the other hand, if you are looking to develop a comprehensive maintenance strategy for critical assets, it would be necessary to use an appropriate tool. RCM is the best tool for developing failure consequence management strategies for critical assets. It is defined as a process to determine what must be done for assets to do what their operators desire them to do under a specific operational context. A multidisciplinary group, under the direction of a competent facilitator, performs an analysis in conformity with the SAE JA1011 standard to develop such a strategy. Then, the team prescribes maintenance tasks targeting specific potential root causes and prioritizes them according to their consequences while determining changes to the machine, operating procedures, and even work habits hindering assets from performing as expected. When reliability professionals apply RCM to assets in operation, evaluating their failure data at the failure mode level amplifies the analysis and provides a clear view of the predominant failure patterns. That is exactly what Weibull Analysis can do for us. Coupling RCM and Weibull Analyses, when appropriate, boosts the analysis deliverables' effectiveness.

We look forward to sharing some ideas on boosting the effectiveness of your reliability analyses during our upcoming Master Class!