Special feature article

Risk-based Maintenance
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Shinsuke Sakai
1 Recent Trends in Maintenance
I would like to start by covering some recent trends in maintenance in the
industrial field I am relatively involved with. The concept of maintaining
safety of mechanical structures was dramatically changed after the
introduction of the “maintenance standard” to the concept of maintenance
for mechanical equipment for nuclear devices about ten years ago. The
maintenance standard is a standard for the maintenance stage after service.
Accordingly, design standard that regulates the design phase for mechanical
structures and the maintenance standard that regulates the service phase are
clearly separated.
There are many uncertainties regarding load and damage mode in
the design stage, and we often have to rely on predictions. On the Profile
other hand, we can confirm the accuracy of design stage predictions 1953 Born in Tokyo
by compiling inspection data and defect information in actual use of 1975 Graduated from Department of Mechanical
mechanical structures in the service stage. As a result, we can reduce Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The
the degree of uncertainty, so the safety factor does not necessarily have University of Tokyo
the same value in design and service stages. Above all, we can say 1977 Master’s degree in Marine Engineering from
that integrity assessment of flaws and damage detected at inspections the Faculty of Engineering, The University of
being conducted in the service stage and acceptance of flaws in some Tokyo
cases is a major change. 1980 Doctorate in Marine Engineering from the
Deterioration is unavoidable for mechanical structures, just as humans age. School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Flaws are thus more or less detected at inspections. But we developed a system 1981 Associate professor, Department of Marine
of structural integrity assessment and are applying suitable countermeasures. Engineering, The University of Tokyo
The maintenance standard is being introduced to maintenance of various 1995 Associate professor, Department of Mechanical
industries other than nuclear field, too. Irrationality of maintenance in the Engineering, School of Engineering, The
service stage is greatly reduced as a result, but issues regarding flexibility of University of Tokyo
maintenance still remain. Introduction of risk measures for maintenance 1997 P r o f e s s o r, D e p a r t m e n t o f M e c h a n i c a l
has thus been gaining attention in recent years. Engineering, School of Engineering, The
Fiscal 2010 was, in some ways, a very meaningful year for Japan in University of Tokyo
the field of maintenance. The reason is that a standard for risk-based
maintenance (RBM) will be issued by the High Pressure Institute of Major positions
Japan for application to maintenance of pressure equipment. I have been Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers fellow, High
participating in the establishment of this standard as a project manager Pressure Institute of Japan chairperson, Japanese
from the initial stage of the project, which has taken approx. nine years till Society for Strength and Fracture Materials chairperson
today. By introducing RBM, prioritization becomes possible in planning
of maintenance inspection programs, allowing concentrated inspection
of parts that truly need maintenance. That is advantageous in terms of
cost, in addition to safety. Many issues need to be overcome, however, in

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 Special feature article
introducing RBM. First of all, establishment of standards is the product of the probability of failure occurring to the
important, and we can expect that application to industry will inspected area and the consequence of failure to the
be accelerated by issuing private-sector standards. surroundings. In other words, risk is the expected value of
RBM was introduced first in the chemical engineering and the degree of impact. Fig. 1 shows the concept of distribution
petroleum refining fields, and is expanding to a broad range of of risk held by devices in a system.
industrial fields with application proceeding to shipbuilding, A to S on the horizontal axis are the devices in a system and
gas, electric power, steelmaking and rocket ground facilities. I the vertical axis is the relative risk each device holds. The graph
believe that such industrial trends related to maintenance will shows that 80% of the total risk of the system is concentrated
also be of reference for the railway field as well. in just 20% of the devices. In that case, it would be irrational
to inspect all devices with the same level of priority. It is thus
important to identify the 20% of devices and raise their priority
2 Concept of Risk-based Maintenance
level in the inspection program. That is the basic concept of
Items such as scope of inspection, degree of inspection, risk maintenance technology. This concept is called the 80-20
frequency of inspecting areas and the non-destructive rule (Pareto principle). When putting emphasis particularly
inspection method to use need to be determined in maintenance on the viewpoint of inspection, the concept is called risk-based
planning. Risk is adopted as an index for clarifying priority inspection (RBI).
in risk maintenance technologies. That risk can be given as In final decision-making, decisions to mitigate risk are made

Relative risk
upon adding factors such as cost, and the concept is called risk-
based maintenance (RBM) when the process up to this stage is
included. Fig. 2 shows the general procedures for RBM. First
of all, data and other information needed for evaluation are
collected. Based on the data, risk evaluation is made for each
part. Risk is evaluated as the product of consequence of failure
and probability of failure. Based on the results of risk evaluation,
a decision is made on priority for inspections. The inspection
plan is then created based on that decision. As a result, how
Device to mitigate risk is indicated and proposed. Reassessment is
done for the proposal by comparing to factors such as current
laws and regulations, and the operation is repeated from the
Fig. 1 Conceptual Image of Distribution of Risk in a System beginning if problems are detected.

Risk evaluation

Evaluate
consequence of
failure

Give ranking Create Propose

Collect data and inspection mitigation
information to risks
plan measures
Evaluate
probability of
failure

Reassessment

Fig. 2 General Procedures of RBM

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3 Why RBM is Needed Now In other words, it is clear that concentrating inspections on
parts truly in need of inspection would be rational from the
The inspection method where inspections are made by standpoint that resources which can be allocated to maintenance
predetermined procedures using predetermined devices on such as human resources and machinery are limited. It would
predetermined locations at predetermined intervals is called be difficult to predict all damage and defects in advance, so the
uniform inspection in this paper. Uniform inspection where concept of optimizing the inspection program based on signs
predetermined things are rigorously practiced fits well with of damage observed in inspection could be extremely effective.
the diligent national character of Japanese people, and it is RBM is thus a system for flexibly reconsidering the inspection
a concept that can be widely accepted by them. Mechanical program upon evaluating inspection priority based on signs of
inspection in Japan can be said to have been for the most part damage.
uniform inspection. However, it was recognized in the West at A flexible inspection method through RBM can lead to
an early stage that practicing maintenance only by this method shortened inspection time, so it can be expected to have an
leads to various problems. effect of leading to increased capacity rate for mechanical
Little damage is detected at inspections in the time right structures. If a company’s competitiveness lies in long-term
after mechanical structures come into actual use after they operation of mechanical structures at a high capacity rate,
are manufactured as those structures are not very old. The introduction of RBM is quite meaningful. In maintenance for
frequency at which defects come up is also probably low. Not mechanical structures, independent safety activities are also
very many problems will become apparent in this stage using being required more in the context of greater deregulation.
the uniform inspection method. But deterioration of structures RBM manages maintenance by the visible indicator of risk, so
progresses after long-term use, and the frequency at which it can be said to be an effective tool in promoting independent
damage and defects are reported in inspections rises. Parts safety activities.
at which damage is predicted to occur are usually identified
in establishment of inspection programs, and the inspection
4 Skill Transfer and RBM
method is determined based on that. Parts where damage is
predicted are naturally considered in design, and inspection Decision-making is required in establishing an optimum
can be rigorously conducted. Thus, the frequency at which maintenance plan, and RBM can play a significant contribution
unpredicted damage is discovered does not actually become in this stage. But even before RBM was introduced, veteran
high even after long-term operation. Not all deterioration and personnel had probably made decisions in their heads on items
damage to mechanical structures can be predicted, however. such as what is optimum, what inspections are smoother and
Unpredicted damage modes may thus occur, and deterioration what needs to be prioritized to secure safety. At one time, there
may progress faster than expected. Those parts are often not were many such highly skilled veteran craftsmen, and their
stipulated as measurement locations in inspection programs, presence probably led to the high level of reliability for devices
and much of the damage detected in inspections inevitably will in Japan. All would be well if a company had lots of such human
occur in such places. resources. But if veteran craftsmen retire without transferring
While almost no damage is detected at parts stipulated in their skills, that could lead to the creation of a dangerous
the inspection program, it is often detected at unstipulated situation the moment they leave. To prevent such a situation,
parts. In Japan, those unstipulated parts are normally added we need to draw out the know-how that they have in their
to the inspection program as inspection parts if damage is heads, transform it into explicit knowledge and steadily transfer
detected there. The frequency of that could increase with the those skills to the next generation. The process of transforming
deterioration of mechanical structures, but what do you think know-how into explicit knowledge, however, usually runs into
would happen if such a method continues to be used? We would major obstacles. That is because veterans practice their skills
end up with the unrealistic situation where frequent inspection unconsciously, making it difficult for them to express on their
is done for the entire range of parts. Costs would skyrocket own what principles those actions are based on.
in that case, and concentration of inspections on parts that It was actually the financial sector, not maintenance, for
truly need them could not be done, creating a situation that is which a focus on risk was made at a very early stage. Active
insufficient from a safety standpoint also. studies were made in the financial sector from the viewpoint

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of what decision-making process successful investors base their Expectations for Railway
6 Maintenance
decisions on. As a result, that decision-making process could be
reasonably explained as decisions being made upon combining I feel that railways are characterized by their including wide-
both the probability of events and the danger of investment. ranging elements related to safety. Those innumerable elements
In other words, that decision-making is the concept of risk include tracks, rolling stock and other mechanical equipment
itself. Replacing investors’ decision-making process with the as well as electrical circuits such as scheduling systems along
decisions of veterans in maintenance, a reasonable explanation with natural disasters, in-station structures, and more. I think
of the decision-making process can be made if we think of risk there is a limit to handle all those uniformly as safety measures.
as evidence that they unconsciously decide priority. Even if not And I hear that JR East has already started efforts similar to
explicitly thinking of risk evaluation, they are doing the same RBM in some fields, so there must be many areas in the railway
thing as that evaluation unconsciously. In other words, if we industry where the basic concepts of RBM that I introduced
can bring out the risk evaluation procedure in the minds of could be applied. A few that I can think of when applying
veterans and establish guidelines, that procedure will become RBM to safety measures in stations other than mechanical
materials for skill transfer to the next generation. In fact, it is equipment are the following.
this aspect that is sometimes emphasized as a benefit of RBM.
(1) Evaluating station structural layout
(2) Establishing priority of cost allocation for countermeasures
5 Feelings on Railway Maintenance
to dangerous events
The concepts on maintenance covered in this article have been (3) E
 stablishing priority of development for danger detecting
trends in the range of areas that I have been mostly involved technologies
with—mechanical equipment for plants and the like. While they (4) D
 eciding utilization of inspection data and priority of
may seem unrelated to railway equipment, that is not necessarily inspections
the case. Some aspects have common basic concepts, and there
are many things one should learn from maintenance methods How to optimize safety with limited resources is an issue
of other fields. The general idea of the maintenance standard is that will be unavoidable in the future. I think that the concept
fitness for service (FFS), right wording, indeed. While I do not of RBM will be highly effective in optimizing safety for the
have a grasp of the details of railway maintenance, I expect that railway industry too. I would thus encourage you to further
maintenance methods can be greatly optimized by introduction implement concepts such as RBM and go forward to the next
of FFS in fields where it is performed uniformly across the stage.
board. When doing so, it is important to systematically link
inspection data and defect information with establishment of
an inspection program. A tremendous amount of information
of this kind is probably accumulated on a daily basis for railway
equipment, and that information is a true treasure house that
must not be set aside. The information should be utilized, and
you should go forward with FSS and even more flexible RBM.
In doing so, you should also partner with universities that are
proficient in academic aspects such as statistical engineering
and reliability engineering.

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