The OMF project: Development of methods and tools for reliability-centered maintenance

This paper retraces the development of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) procedures in the nuclear industry. It describes the pilot study undertaken by EDF in the framework of its OMF project (Optimization de la Maintenance par la Fiabilite: RCM). The approach is now being applied to some thirty systems. Simultaneously, research and development is being pursued to improve analytical methods for better selectivity. These methods involve the use of models developed in probabilistic safety analyses, enhancing selectivity in the search for components which are critical in terms of safety, and heightening coherence among maintenance and safety studies. They further involve more elaborate analysis of feedback, calling for example on a Bayes approach combining the judgment of the expert with feedback data. Finally, they involve a functional and structural representation of the installation. Such a double representation describes both the functions that maintenance will render possible and the components which perform these functions. The last part of the paper briefly presents the objectives of the future OMF workstation and its integration into the EDF information system