In Frescura, quality and reliability are known as the RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) METHOD
By introducing TPM concepts, our maintenance function has made a quantum leap in quality, passing from the narrower concept of protecting the integrity of a component, to broader considerations involved in quality, machine productivity and overall improvement of the company.
Implementing the FMECA (Failure Mode Effect Criticality Analysis) method and RCM techniques has led, at the same cost, to an enormous increase in system availability, lowering the still-too-high costs of inefficiencies.
By activating RCM techniques, we have been able to implement a reliable planned maintenance cycle that has led to huge improvements in machine availability, with prior identification, component by component, of potential failures that might have affected system efficiency.
With RCM techniques, we are thereby able to assess:

• At-risk function and components;
• Their possible failures;
• Their causes;
• Their consequences with regard to machine standstills, productivity and costs;
• The maintenance interventions that must be made;
• Classification of the procedures and time intervals for their implementation.

1. RCM analysis is not done to consider the technical aspects of a failure but, above all, to avoid or reduce its consequences, of whatever nature. It is worth recalling once again the consequences associated with a hidden failure: hidden failures, linked to hidden functions, do not have a direct impact but they expose possible, if not probable, multiple failures which can often lead to catastrophic consequences. The aim of a maintenance plan relating to hidden failures is to prevent and reduce the probability of multiple failures, using resources and attention appropriate to the consequences of those failures.
2. Operational consequences: they often occur when a failure has a negative impact on production;
3. quantity;
4. quality;
5. production line productivity;
6. service level;
7. added operational costs;
8. repair costs.

With RCM methodology, it is possible to make a distinction between the different types of intervention from which we are able to choose the most appropriate, for a certain maintenance policy:

1. scheduled restoration interventions: whose frequency is determined by the age of the machine and the probabilities of failure;
2. scheduled replacement interventions: a certain component is replaced at fixed time intervals and therefore regardless of the condition of the component;
3. failure-finding maintenance interventions: in the event that it is not possible to identify a preventative-type intervention (1 and 2), the activity to be undertaken is determined by the consequences of the failure of the machine. In these conditions, a failure-finding intervention is undertaken at fixed time intervals.