Inspection Tasks

Inspections are used in order to uncover hidden failures (also called "dormant failures"); they are also used as part of on condition tasks to detect impending failures so that preventive maintenance can be performed.

In general, no maintenance action is performed on the component during an inspection unless the component is found failed, in which case a corrective maintenance action is initiated. However, there might be cases where a partial restoration of the inspected item would be performed during an inspection. For example, when checking the motor oil in a car between scheduled oil changes, one might occasionally add some oil in order to keep it at a constant level. This sort of restoration is not considered to be preventive maintenance; the deciding factor is that inspection tasks do not use spare parts. Note that an inspection task that triggers a corrective task will not restore the failed block. Only the corrective task will restore the block.

Inspection tasks (including the inspection and associated minor work):

  • May bring the block down.
  • May bring the system down; if the task brings the system down, it also brings the block down.
  • Do not use spare parts.

In addition to the common task properties, the following options are used to configure inspection tasks in the Maintenance Task window:

  • Task Class allows you to specify the kind of maintenance that the task performs: preventive, inspection or on condition. The options available in the Maintenance Task window will vary depending on your choice in this field.
  • Task Scheduling allows you to specify the circumstances under which the task will be performed. (See Task Scheduling.)
  • Task Consequences: An inspection task will not bring the block down unless one of the following options is selected.
    • Does this task bring the system down?: If you answer Yes, when the task is performed, the system will be down, even if the task has a zero duration. If not selected, the task will bring the system down only if it brings the block down and having the block down brings the system down based on the reliability-wise configuration in the diagram. If this option is selected, even tasks with a zero duration will bring the system down. This forces the task to be included in the count of system downing events, regardless of the task's duration.
    • Does this task bring the item down?: If you answer Yes, when the task is performed, the block will be down. Even tasks with a zero duration will bring the block down in this case.
    • Perform this task even if the item failed before this task was scheduled to occur?: If you answer Yes, the task will be performed even if the item has already failed. This option is available only for the following tasks:
      • Preventive tasks and inspection tasks (including the inspection portion of on condition tasks) that are scheduled based on item age. In this case, the item's "clock" is not stopped upon failure, and the item's "virtual age" is used to trigger the task.
      • Inspection tasks (including the inspection portion of on condition tasks) that are scheduled upon system down or events in a maintenance group.
      • The inspection portion of on condition tasks scheduled based on calendar age.

Note that this setting is not relevant when a task is scheduled to be performed as part of a maintenance phase in a phase diagram; all such tasks are performed regardless of whether the item has failed.

  • RCM properties are text-based properties that are used to keep track of details that may be helpful in reliability centered maintenance analysis, but are not used in reliability/maintainability simulations. These properties are shown only if they are enabled for the project via the interface style settings in RCM++.
    • Status: The status of the task (choose from a drop-down list). This setting could be used if you want to keep track of all tasks that have been considered, regardless of whether they end up in the actual maintenance plan (e.g., recommended, rejected, assigned).
    • Proposed Interval: The interval that was initially proposed for the task. This may be different from the interval that is actually assigned to the task. For example, you may wish to use this property if the team originally suggests a particular interval for the task (perhaps the calculated optimum interval) but then decides to assign a different interval (perhaps an interval that is more convenient for packaging a group of tasks).
    • Reference Document: A reference to another document that provides more detailed information about the task (e.g., procedure instructions).
    • Condition: A description of the condition that indicates that a failure will occur (e.g., a threshold for a measurement of wear, vibration, etc). Typically, this field is used for on condition maintenance tasks.
    • Zone: The zone of the system in which the task will be performed. Typically, this field is used for aircraft MSG-3 analyses.
    • Access: The access that will be required in order to perform the task. Typically, this field is used for aircraft MSG-3 analyses

To understand how inspections work during simulation, you should be aware of the following:

  • Multiple non-downing inspections cannot occur on the same block at the same time.
  • A non-downing inspection with a restoration factor greater than 0 restores the block based on the age of the block at the beginning of the inspection (i.e., the task duration is not restored).

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