Reliability centered maintenance (RCM) is a method for maintenance planning
developed within the aircraft industry and later adapted to several other industties and
military branches. This paper presents a structured approach to RCM, and discusses
the various steps in the approach. The RCM method provides a framework for
utilizing operating experience in a more systematic way. The requirements for
reliability models and data are therefore highlighted. The gap between maintenance
practitioners and scientists working with maintenance optimization models is
discussed. together with some future challenges for RCM. 0 1998 Elsevier Science
Limited.-