Reliability Centered Maintenance For The Pharmaceutical Industry

Reliability Centered Maintenance was developed in arguably the most demanding maintenance environment of all – Civil Aviation. It has been used extensively in that industry for decades and has helped deliver dramatically improved safety and reliability, and at the same time reduced costs. The RCM process itself can be applied to any asset or process in any industry, and companies worldwide, in a wide range of industries that face similar challenges, have benefitted from applying it to their assets.

RCM has also been used successfully in the pharmaceutical industry – which faces similar challenges and issues as other industries – but could and should be used much more extensively. While the RCM process has a proven track record, in some organisations it fails to achieve its full potential. This is not the fault of the process itself, instead, the failure is invariably organisational – the application of the process and the implementation of the results. This course will give a comprehensive introduction to the RCM process whereby theoretical principles covered in the course are illustrated by real-world case studies from all industries, and backed up by a case study from the pharmaceutical Industry in which equipment at the NIBRT facility is analysed..

A zero-based case study is included so delegates will have the opportunity to apply what they have learnt throughout the course. The equipment to be analysed is the water purification system. Such a system is, of course, fundamental to bio and pharmaceutical processes. Carrying out an RCM analysis is an excellent learning exercise, so, not only does this exercise provide an opportunity to apply the RCM process it is also an opportunity to learn about NIBRT’s state-of-the-art pure water system.

 Learning Objectives 

In addition to providing a comprehensive introduction to the RCM process, this 3-day course will cover all that needs to be done to realise the full potential of RCM and gain real business benefit, by addressing questions such as:

• why reliability is not just about maintenance
• how RCM deals with failures that are caused by factors that maintenance cannot address, such as human factors, design shortcomings and operations and maintenance practices and procedures
• how to determine which assets and processes to apply RCM to
• how to ensure that the best information is captured in the RCM analysis, about what really happens to your assets in their operating context
• how to manage assets that are not subject to full RCM analyses

What you will learn 

• The Operating Context
• Functions and performance standards
• The Failed State – Functional Failures
• Failure modes
• Failure Effects
• The Evaluation of Failure Consequences
• Proactive Maintenance Tasks
• Implementing and applying RCM
• -how to ensure successful implementation of the outcomes of the analysis, including steps that can be taken in the analysis itself to set up for implementation.
• how to ensure that the analysis is kept up-to-date so that RCM can be used to drive genuine Continuous Improvement in conjunction with other techniques such as RCA.
• how to use RCM to support real cultural change – changing the way your people act and think, to ensure improved performance is sustained.

Who should attend

Personnel with responsibility for effective and efficient management of physical assets and processes including Managers, Superintendents, Specialists, Leaders, Supervisors, Foremen, Planners, Technicians, Operators & Engineers.

Assessment & Certification 

Attendees are required to complete an assignment to attain Certification.

A graded Certificate of Attendance with a CPD Credit of 28 hours will be awarded

NIBRT Tour Included

Trainees will enjoy an all-access tour of NIBRT’s state-of-the-art bioprocessing plant, where they will see all the equipment (bioreactors, purification columns, the filling line, etc.) used in the production of biopharmaceuticals.  The tour will also include access to both the NIBRT Clean utilities area (CIP, Clean steam generation, PUW production and distribution) and NIBRT’s fully disposable GE Bioprocessing Suite.

Course Cost: Available on request

Duration: 3 days

Date: TBC

Location: National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), Blackrock

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