Reliability Centred Maintenance Strategy for Dust Processing Equipment

This report focuses on a Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) strategy for dust processing equipment in a factory setting. The report details the seven key steps of the RCM process, including equipment selection, defining system functions and boundaries, identifying failure modes, determining root causes, assessing the impact of failures, selecting maintenance tactics, and implementing and reviewing the chosen tactics. The analysis covers various components of the dust equipment, such as conveyors, mixers, and extruders, and considers potential failure points like friction, mixing ratios, and lubrication issues. The report emphasizes the importance of a systematic approach to maintenance, including condition-based and time-based preventative maintenance, and highlights the need for continuous review and improvement of the maintenance strategy to ensure optimal equipment reliability and availability. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and reinforcing the value of a well-implemented RCM strategy for effective factory operations.

Running Head: RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 1
Reliability Centred Maintenance Strategy
Name
Institutional affiliation

RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 2
Reliability Centred Maintenance Strategy
This is a report paper concerning the reliability centred maintenance strategy for a
factory equipment used in the processing of dust. The dust being fed into this equipment is
from another factory and is then loaded by the use of wheeled shovel into the hopper and then
elevated by bucket elevator and conveyor to the system’s apex. The dust is then disseminated
to the hoppers for storage by a huge conveyor of scraper chain. This report paper focuses on
the maintenance strategy of the dust equipment. The strategy will be contributing to a factory
reliability centred maintenance strategy. The figure below shows the reliability centred
maintenance strategy which should be implemented by the factory for effective maintenance
of the dust equipment (Abdulrohim, 2011).
Figure 1: Reliability centred maintenance strategy (Administration, 2014)
The maintenance is eyed to the identification of the equipment in question, seeking to
maximize the strategies of maintenance to reduce the failure of the equipment and maximize
the availability and reliability of the equipment. The steps involved in the implementation of

RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 3
the reliability centred maintenance above are seven as shown in figure 1 above. These seven
steps have been explained below in regard to the dust equipment (Dixey, 2010).
Step 1: Equipment selection for the purposes of maintenance
The initial step of maintenance in this strategy is the process of equipment selection
that is to be maintained. The selected equipment should be critical in terms of its previous
cost, previous costs of repair, and effects on the general operation of the machine. The parts
of the equipment that can be selected for the purposes of maintenance include making
machine extruder, making machine mixer, machine feed hopper, extract conveyor, dust
hopper, scraper chain conveyor, bucket elevator, and large wheeled loading shovel (Kumar,
2013).
Step 2: Defining the function and boundaries of the systems containing the equipment
selected
The equipment that is to be maintained belongs to a section of the machine which
performs a critical function. The following are the systems in the dust equipment together
with their boundaries and their functions. The inclined conveyor is a system made up of belt
conveyor with idlers that are toughing and is driven using shaft mounted gearbox. Its function
is to raise dust beneath the ground hopper (Shayer, 2010). The collection conveyor, machine
feed conveyor and collection conveyor are belt conveyor possessing toughing idlers and are
driven using shaft mounted gearbox. Their functions are to remove dust from the hopper.
The maintenance difficulty of these belts are easy and their complexities are low. The
making machine mixer has a single shaft mixer with high blades of chrome steel. The
function of the making machine mixer is to mix lime and dust water. The complexity of this
system is very high and it is very difficult to maintain. The making machine extruder has a
high chrome worms and liners and performs the function of extruding the dust products. The

RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 4
products from the machine extrusion are loaded onto bogies of the refractory kiln and
processed by a kiln and dryer (Administration, 2014).
Step 3: Defining ways through which the system can fail
In this stage, the ways through which the system can fail are listed. Some of the parts
of the dust equipment that can fail to operate as a result of effects of friction include shaft
mounted gearbox, belt conveyors, rotating belt, bucket loader, and extract conveyor. The
frictional effects can be brought as a result of the dust getting between the moving parts of
the system. The making machine mixer can fail through wrong mixing ratio of dust water and
lime (Wang, 2012).
Step 4: Identification of the root sources of modes of failure
The identification of the root sources of the modes of failure on the dust equipment
can be one by the experienced operators. This identification of the failure modes can be done
in the factory can be done by reliability centred maintenance expert, experienced technicians,
machine operators, and equipment experts. The root causes of failure modes on parts of the
equipment like incline elevator, belt conveyor, extract conveyor, shaft mixer, wheel gearbox,
and bucket loader can be caused by loosened belts, lack of lubrication on the rotating parts,
and bearing failure (Smith, 2015).
Step 5: Assessment of impacts of failure
In this stage, the impacts of every mode of failure evaluated. There are numerous
methods that can be utilized in giving the assessment of the failure effects so as to provide a
systematic approach, these methods include risk-based inspection, fault tree analysis, hazard
and operability studies, and effect, mode, failure and effects analysis. The question that the
factory should evaluate include; do the mode of failure has implications for safety? And do
the mode of failure will lead to partial or full operation outrage? The answer to the questions

RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 5
above is critical in the analysis of the failure modes for further analysis. Significantly, the
modes of failure which are retained include specifically those that possess an actual
probability of the occurring under realistic conditions of operation (Abdulrohim, 2011).
Step 6: Selection of the tactics of maintenance for every failure mode
In this stage, the most suitable tactic of maintenance for every mode of failure is
evaluated. The selected maintenance tactic should be economically and technically feasible
for the dust factory. The maintenance that id condition-based is selected when it is
economically and technically feasible to identify the onset of the mode of failure. The used or
time-based preventative maintenance is noticed when it is economically and technically
feasible to minimize the failure risk using this technique.
In case of modes of failure which do not have conditions that are satisfactory or
options for preventative maintenance, then a system's redesign should be done to modify or
remove the modes of failure. The modes of failure that were not recognized as being
significant in step 6, at this level, these modes are identified as a perfect candidate for a
maintenance of run-to-failure schedule (Rausand, 2012).
Step 7: Implementation and regular review of the selected tactic of maintenance
Significantly, the methodology of reliability centred maintenance will only be
beneficial if its recommendations of maintenance are put into practice. After doing this, it is
critical that the recommendations are renewed and reviewed constantly as extra information
is gotten (Kumar, 2013).
Conclusion
This is a report paper concerning the reliability centred maintenance strategy for a
factory equipment used in the processing of dust. The seven steps involved in implementation

RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 6
of reliability centred maintenance strategy of the dust equipment include equipment selection
for the analysis, definition of the functions and boundaries of the system that contain the
equipment selected, definition of failure modes, identification of the root causes of failure
modes, assessment of the effects of failure modes, selection of the tactic for maintenance,
implementation and frequent review of the selected tactic maintenance.

RELIABILITY CENTRED MAINTENANCE STRATEGY 7
References
Abdulrohim, A. (2011). RCM Concepts and Application. Colorado: International Journal of Industrial
Engineering.
Administration, T. N. (2014). Reliability-Centered Maintenance Guide for Facilities and Collateral
Equipment. New York: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Dixey, M. (2010). Putting Reliability at the Center of Maintenance. Michigan: Professional
Engineering.
Kumar, D. (2013). FLM to Select Suitable Maintenance Strategy in Process Industries Using MISO
Model. Perth: Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering.
Rausand, M. (2012). Reliability-Centered Maintenance Resources Planning. Michigan: Robotics and
Computer Integrated Manufacturing.
Shayer, J. (2010). Development of Computer-Aided Maintenance Resources Planning. Paris: A Case of
Multiple CNC Machining Centers.
Smith, M. (2015). Reliability-Centered Maintenance. Moscow: McGraw-Hill.
Wang, J. (2012). Selection of Optimum Maintenance Strategies Based on a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy
Process. London: International Journal of Production Economics.