At its core, RCM is built on common sense. Maintenance has to be capable of preventing or predicting a failure, and it has to be effective in eliminating or at least reducing the consequences of failure. Effort is focused on failures that matter, while fewer resources are devoted to failures that don't.

That approach is based on these principles.

• Failures don't matter; consequences do
• Failures don't all matter in the same way
• Beyond time-based maintenance
• Risk isn't fixed by equipment design
• Detailed reliability studies aren't essential

Around this core, RCM provides a set of robust, effective and auditable methods for analysing equipment failures and developing maintenance schedules that address them.