As a general concept, we can say that the activity of maintenance is to ensure that every physical element of a plant or installation performs the desired functions continuously. Maintenance, therefore, is intended to preserve the original state of design or normal operation. It is clear that for this, the equipments must be able to satisfy the functions for which they were selected, and that the selection has taken into account the actual operational condition.
Reliability-centered maintenance is characterized by:
Consider the inherent or proper configuration of the equipment / installation.
- Ensure the continuity of the performance of its function.
- Maintain quality and productive capacity.
- If we want to increase capacity, improve performance, increase reliability, improve production quality, we will need a redesign.
- Take into account the operational condition: where and how it is being used.
The inherent or proper confirmation of a team is determined by its design, manufacturing and the actual operational context.
If the inherent authentication or the equipment’s own capacity, in the actual operational context, exceeds the desired allocation, proper maintenance will achieve such a benefit to the sea reached.
On the other hand, if the inherent authentication is inferior to the desired delivery, there will be no maintenance that will achieve such delivery.
In most cases, before a functional failure occurs, there is some warning that such a failure is beginning to occur. We call potential failure, at the time when such a warning is made detectable, with the means or instruments we have for this purpose.
Human senses (vision, hearing, touch and smell) have been used for a long time to detect potential failures. However, we have also seen that the earlier we can detect such a warning, greater possibility of making corrections that reduce the possibility or prevent functional failure or diminish the importance of its consequences.