By: Christian Kepner
Reliability-Centered Maintenance and the Role of HxGN EAM: A Smarter Approach to Maintenance
Why Maintenance Strategy Matters More Than Ever
Every maintenance manager knows the high cost of unplanned equipment failure—not just in dollars, but in lost time, compliance risks, and team morale. In asset-intensive industries like transit, manufacturing, and utilities, a single hour of downtime can disrupt operations, reduce customer satisfaction, and rack up enormous costs. The pressure to do more with less—less budget, fewer technicians, and shrinking lead times—demands more than routine maintenance.
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a structured methodology focused on determining the most effective maintenance strategy for an asset by first preserving its essential functions and then identifying potential failures, their causes, and consequences. It helps maintenance teams move away from solely reactive or overly scheduled preventive work toward a tailored approach that balances performance, safety, and cost.
This article introduces the principles of RCM and shows how maintenance managers can use Hexagon’s HxGN EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) platform to implement RCM effectively. With dedicated modules for defining, analyzing, and managing reliability data, HxGN EAM turns RCM from a concept into a practical, trackable, and auditable process.
RCM in Context: From Aviation to Asset Management
RCM was developed in the 1960s by United Airlines and the FAA to improve reliability in increasingly complex aircraft. Rather than relying on routine maintenance, the approach focused on function preservation and risk prioritization. It quickly gained ground in nuclear, defense, and manufacturing sectors.
Today, RCM remains the gold standard for strategic maintenance—and platforms like HxGN EAM make it easier to embed RCM directly into your team’s daily work.
Understanding RCM: The Core Principles
RCM centers around a logical analysis of each asset by asking seven key questions:
1. What are the asset’s functions (primary and secondary)?
2. How can it fail to perform those functions (functional failures)?
3. What causes each functional failure (failure modes)?
4. What happens when each failure occurs (failure effects)?
5. What are the consequences of each failure (safety, regulatory, operational, etc.)?
6. What can be done to prevent or predict the failure (proactive tasks)?
7. What should be done if no effective proactive task exists (run-to-failure, redesign, workaround)?
Answering these questions allows maintenance managers to build a tailored, risk-based maintenance strategy.
Applying RCM with HxGN EAM
HxGN EAM supports multiple RCM approaches and makes implementation intuitive:
- Risk Assessment: Focused on high-level assets, defines functions, functional failures, and their consequences.
- Risk Analysis: Adds failure mode definitions, used for more detailed equipment.
- FMECA: Defines failure modes and consequences rather than functional failures.
- Classic RCM: Follows the traditional RCM structure—functions, failures, modes, and consequences.
These approaches can be selected by setting the RCM Level on asset or location screens. The RCM tab displays hierarchical data, allowing maintenance teams to:
- Add/edit Functions (primary/secondary, with sequencing)
- Add/edit Functional Failures (including probability for Risk Assessments)
- Add/edit Failure Modes (linked to functions or failures, with probability)
- Define Consequences (linked to severity ratings and consequence categories)
Effect Indicators and Consequences can be described in free text for clarity. HxGN EAM makes this information easy to access, update, and audit.
Risk Frameworks and Calculations
A strong RCM program requires a consistent risk model. HxGN EAM provides this through:
- RCM Projects: Define different frameworks; assignable by organization
- Risk Matrix Setup: Includes:
- Consequence Categories (e.g., Safety, Environment, Profitability)
- Probabilities and their rating/thresholds
- Risk Levels and thresholds (Desirable to Catastrophic)
- Consequence Costs (monetary impact)
Using this structure, HxGN EAM calculates the Risk Priority Number (RPN) by multiplying probability by severity. Risk levels are then assigned based on RPN thresholds, giving teams a clear visual guide to prioritize their efforts.
Failure Mitigation Management
On the RCM Failure Mitigation tab (available for Risk Analysis and FMECA), teams can:
- Define a Mitigated Probability to estimate impact reduction
- View calculated RPN and Risk Levels before and after mitigation
- Indicate whether mitigation is applied, making it active in risk calculations
- Link mitigations to PM Schedules, Plans, Projects, or Inspections
- Use the “Activate Mitigation” button to assign actions quickly
- Track one-time and recurring mitigation costs
This feature allows teams to model the impact of potential strategies before investing resources.
Control Strategy Decision Support
HxGN EAM also includes decision support tools to help determine the appropriate control strategy for each failure mode. On the Failure Mode Control Strategy Setup screen:
- Teams identify if the failure is Evident or Hidden
- Select associated consequence categories (e.g., safety, operational)
- Use a pop-up guide to select control methods (scheduled tasks, on-condition tasks, etc.)
- For hidden failures, calculate the Failure Finding Interval (FFI)
This structured approach ensures alignment between failure types and the most effective maintenance response.
Templates and Libraries to Streamline RCM
To reduce redundancy and speed up implementation, HxGN EAM includes:
- RCM Templates: Capture tree structures and mitigation plans for reuse across equipment
- Failure Mode Libraries: Group generic failure modes (e.g., “leaking”) for standardization and reporting
- Import Capabilities: Bring in RCM data from existing equipment or templates
This ensures consistency and reduces time spent recreating common analyses.
RCM Reporting and Visibility
HxGN EAM provides powerful reporting tools to analyze and act on reliability data:
- Risk Matrix: Displays counts of assets/failures across the matrix
- RCM Risk Levels: Lists equipment with assigned risk scores
- RCM Equipment at Risk: Highlights assets at high risk without mitigation or PMs
- RCM Potential Yearly Savings: Identifies over-maintained assets
- Function/Failure Reports: Review defined RCM structures and track analysis completeness
These insights help maintenance managers communicate needs, justify budgets, and track improvements.
Benefits of RCM Enhanced by HxGN EAM
When supported by HxGN EAM, the benefits of RCM become measurable and repeatable:
- Improved Reliability: Focus on critical failures and proactively manage risks
- Lower Maintenance Costs: Eliminate redundant PMs and target interventions
- Higher Safety and Compliance: Structured risk categorization supports regulatory readiness
- Longer Asset Life: Function-based strategies prevent premature failure
- Standardized Process: Templates and libraries drive consistency across teams
- Informed Decision-Making: Risk scores, dashboards, and reports guide smart actions
Overcoming Challenges with HxGN EAM
HxGN EAM is designed to tackle common barriers to RCM:
- Complexity: Guided screens and standardized inputs simplify analysis
- Data Gaps: Historical data, technician input, and sensor integration build a complete picture
- Adoption Hurdles: Templates, mobile access, and role-based views drive team buy-in
- Change Fatigue: Transparent ROI reports (e.g., yearly savings) show the value of effort
Conclusion: Turning Strategy into Action
Reliability-Centered Maintenance offers a smarter, more effective way to manage asset performance. But RCM only works when it moves from theory into daily practice.
HxGN EAM empowers maintenance managers to do exactly that. From risk scoring and control strategy selection to mitigation tracking and performance reporting, Hexagon’s platform supports every step of the RCM process. It provides the structure, tools, and visibility needed to transform maintenance from reactive to strategic.
Start with your most critical assets. Engage your teams using templates and guides. Use the data to drive decisions, and watch your reliability grow.
With the right framework and the right technology, RCM becomes more than a goal—it becomes your team’s standard way of working. And HxGN EAM is how you get there.
