scope:

Foreword

In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of proactive maintenance techniques by Owners for repair and maintenance of machinery onboard vessels and offshore structures. The resulting preventative maintenance programs developed as a result of applying these techniques are being used by the vessel's crew and shore-based repair personnel. There have been numerous advances in condition monitoring technology, trending and increasingly more powerful planned maintenance software as a result of increased business competition. Since 1978, ABS has cooperated with Owners on developing and implementing preventative maintenance programs. In 1984, ABS issued its first Guide for Survey Based on Preventative Maintenance Techniques with subsequent updates in 1985, 1987, 1995 and then inclusion in the Rules for Survey After Construction - Part 7 in mid 2002.

However, machinery systems have continued to become larger and more complex, requiring skilled operators with specialized knowledge of the machinery and systems onboard. This Guide for Survey Based on Reliability-centered Maintenance was developed to provide vessel and other marine structure Owners, managers and operators with a tool to develop a maintenance program using techniques applied in other industries for machinery systems within a maintenance philosophy referred to as Reliability-centered Maintenance (RCM). With the application of RCM principles, maintenance is evaluated and applied in a rational manner that provides the most value to a vessel's Owner/manager/operator. Accordingly, improved equipment and system reliability onboard vessels and other marine structures can be expected by the application of this philosophy.