2. Performance Centered Maintenance in 4 steps
PCM, based on RBM, is a way of looking at maintenance in
such a way that optimal maintenance is executed given
customer (rolling stock operators) demands on performance and cost. Since customer demands are not static but dynamic
given the time of the year, economic climate etc., maintenance
will also be dynamic.
In this chapter we will present a 4 step approach to deal with
this dynamic maintenance concept.
2.1. Step 1: agree on risks
Risks on safety are obvious, but there are also risks on
reliability loss, availability, image, quality and cost. In fact,
the responsibility for these risks aspects is not NedTrain’s, but
primarily the Transport Operator’s. The first question to be
asked is: ”what risks is the operator prepared to accept”?.
Knowing these risk limits NedTrain is able to set up and
modify the necessary maintenance policy. This first step might
be obvious, but is hard to take in practice.
x In general, rolling stock performance, and thus
maintenance, is contracted on a high level, in terms of
‘number of safety issues’, ‘number of unavailable train
sets’, ‘number of unplanned depot entries’. These KPI’s
are mostly interrelated, but are all these relations known?
And what does this mean in terms of a risk matrix or
other methods such as Fine and Kinney (F&K) [1])? Is
safety equally important as availability or reliability?
x How strong is the gut-feeling on safety, related to image?
When transforming the number of safety issues into
number of fatalities, as is used in the F&K-method, it will
lead to a given acceptance level. When - unfortunately -
an incident occurs, public opinion and politicians will try
to increase this safety level without accepting a higher
cost level for maintenance.
In practice we work with an officially excepted safety risk
matrix between the operator and NedTrain, combined with the
agreed performance criteria and cost, whilst improving the
risk matrix on management level. Important point is that there
is a mutual understanding of the starting point of maintenance.