Forum: LRCM

At the risk of sounding pretentious, in a word, yes.

The reason I can say this is that LRCM extends RCM by entrenching continuous improvement into the process. The RCM standard JA1011A specifies criteria for ensuring that maintenance will preserve function. This includes safety functions. RCM does not preclude, rather, it encourages the use of the many rigorous methods, software, and procedures elaborated in standards relating to safety, for example:

• IEC 61508
• IEC 61511
• Hazops

Safety considerations and analyses extend rather than supersede the sevem-quetsion RCM structure. For example, complex safety devices called "safety instrumented systems" (SIS) require that regulations impose a "safety integrity level" (SIL). Personnel assigned responsibility for verifying the SIL should understand each failure type and the strategies that can be used against it. This is an essential principle of RCM. IEC 61511 covering safety instrumented systems in process and other industries specifies the management of three failure behaviors: random, systematic, and common cause.

Whatever analytic procedures required to achieve the RCM objective, namely "satisfactory mitigation of the consequences of failure''" must be used.

Murray