The Business Case
One-Size-Fits-All Only Works for Socks (and only the really stretchy ones)!
Reliability means something different to each company. Implementing an RCM program depends on your company's current strengths and weaknesses. RCM focuses on preventing costly business consequences from plant and equipment failure. Your new program may not reduce your Repair and Maintenance costs, but may result in greater customer satisfaction. It may reduce your incidence of employee injuries during repair activities or prevent costly fluid spills.
Your Return on Investment (ROI) should be based on your own specific business achievements. These achievements will be founded in the prevention of costly negative business consequences.
Be cautious of One-Size-Fits-All ROI methods. The methods promoted for Reliability frequently rely on very broad assumptions about your business. First, they assume that there is an additional unit of demand for each additional unit of production. Secondly, they often use vague measures of reliability. While Operational Effectiveness and Efficiency (OEE) is valuable as a relative measure, a single year's measure is meaningless. Be sure to use measures that are meaningful, unambiguous, and readily understood by your business managers.