How did the Boeing 747 impact the need for improved reliability?

The Boeing 747 marked a milestone not only in the development of the aviation industry, but also in the making of a globalized society. The 747 revolutionized commercial flight to what we now see today - a constant stream of aircrafts overhead. In order for those flights to be dependable, there needed to be a more systematized maintenance process. Thus, the creation of a reliability-centered maintenance strategy emerged to increase the dependability of aircrafts.

What is reliability-centered maintenance?

Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a maintenance philosophy that identifies failure management strategies for specific assets. RCM does not only identify maintenance tasks for an asset. Instead, it uses analytical tools and processes to identify long-term strategies that are applicable to certain equipment.

What is the difference between reliability-centered maintenance and preventive maintenance?

Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and preventive maintenance (PM) are both proactive approaches that attempt to increase reliability and reduce failures. The main difference between the two is how they identify the required maintenance procedures for an asset.

PM primarily uses time as a trigger to schedule maintenance events. After a certain number of hours of usage, for example, equipment might be scheduled for routine maintenance procedures. RCM is not always scheduled as easily. The overall maintenance strategy can be different for each type of asset when employing an RCM process. While other assets may be subjected to time-based maintenance tasks, others might require more detailed data, such as failure history and performance patterns.

RCM and PM look at potential cost savings in different ways. By having fixed time-based schedules for maintenance procedures, PM can potentially be inefficient when prompting for maintenance tasks that are not required. RCM, on the other hand, would advise for more efficient maintenance schedules, at the price of higher initial costs required to gather all the necessary data.

What are the tools required to perform RCM?

RCM heavily relies on data to come up with logical decisions. The methods of gathering and analyzing data have progressed dramatically over the years. Various innovations in technology enable RCM to be performed more accurately and efficiently.

SCADA systems, for example, allow real-time monitoring of various points of a facility through a centralized hub. Evolutions of this system make communication between assets even more seamless through the internet. With all the data gathered and analyzed, a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) helps schedule and track the progress of specific maintenance tasks for each asset.

The future of aviation and maintenance

With new maintenance tools emerging every day, only time can tell how the future of aerospace maintenance will look like in the coming decades. Science fiction scenes we only used to watch on TV screens are now becoming a reality – the internet of things, robotic automation, and artificial intelligence to mention a few.

Current trends suggest that the industry is growing with the times and progress will only keep coming.

In fact, the projected employment of aerospace engineers is expected to increase by 7% between 2012 and 2022.