Care Strategies on RSLs

Care Strategies can be used to add conditional applicable Tasks to Tags after assignment of RSLs. You can define Strategies by selecting applicable RSL Tasks and the conditions that should be met. When a Tag is assigned to an RSL, the Strategy conditions will be evaluated, applicable Strategies will be presented, and can then be applied to the Tag. This way the RSL Tasks associated with the Strategies are assigned to the Tag.

Creating and managing Care Strategies in RSLs

You can find the section, Care strategies, at the bottom of the RCM Maintenance Library Details Page.

The “Care strategies” section on the RCM Maintenance Library Details Page.You can click edit to add, remove, or modify Strategies.

Adding a Strategy.Creating a basic Strategy, with no additional option selected (see figure above), results in a Main RSL Strategy for which a set of applicable Tasks and a set of conditions can be defined. More than one Main Strategy can be created for an RSL. However, per Tag, only one Main Strategy can be applied.

In addition to the Main Strategy, there are two other types of RSL Strategies:

1. An Additional Strategy: This is a supplementary Strategy, which means the applicable Tasks from this Strategy can be added to the list of applicable Tasks of the Main or Mandatory Strategies if its conditions are met.
2. A Mandatory Strategy: This is a Strategy without any conditions, just a set of applicable Tasks, which are always added to the Tag, regardless of any properties the Tag may have and regardless of the selection of another Strategy.

Icons representing each Strategy type:

Main

Additional

Mandatory

Configuring RSL Strategies – Applicable Tasks

After a Strategy was created, the RSL Tasks will be listed. You can then select the applicable Tasks for the selected Strategy. These are the Tasks that will be added to an assigned Tag if this Strategy is applied to it.

Applicable RSL Tasks can be selected for the Strategy. 

If the Strategy is not defined correctly, a warning icon will appear to explain how to correct the Care Strategy.

Strategy warning indicator. 

Configuring RSL Strategies – Strategy Conditions

The Strategy requirements section is used to define the conditions that the Tag must meet for a Strategy to be applied. In the following example, we specify that this Strategy can only be applied to "Active" Tags that either have the Location Type “BOILER-FLOC”, or Equipment Group “BOILER”.

The AND / OR blocks on the left of the condition statements indicate how these conditions are combined: With AND all conditions must be true, while with OR it is sufficient that just one condition is true.

The Strategy requirements section.In the next example (see figure below), the Strategy will only be assigned to "Active" Tags, created after 20 Sept 2021, with the Spec “COATING MATL” set to “Polyethylene” AND the Spec “TIGHTNESS” set to “TIGHT SHUT OFF”. Since all these conditions are part of an AND block, it means that all the conditions must be true for the Strategy to be assigned.

A Strategy Condition example.

The list of available condition options is currently fixed, but it can be easily expanded to cover other conditional requirements. This way you can easily select their conditions, without needing to know the data storage and entity relationships.

Additional RSL Strategies

To create an Additional Strategy, Is Additional must be checked.Creating an Additional Strategy.

The below figure shows an Additional Strategy being configured. The icon on the right, next to the Strategy name (in this case “ADDITIONAL STRATEGY 1”), indicates that this is an Additional Strategy.

Configuring an Additional Strategy.

Tasks applicable to this Additional Strategy will be added on top of the selected Main Strategy's Tasks if the conditions of this Additional Strategy (and selected Main Strategy) are met. In the above case, when a Tag is assigning to this RSL and Main “STRATEGY A” or “STRATEGY B” is selected, a new recommended Task “ALIGNMENT CHECK” will be added in addition to the “STRATEGY A” / “STRATEGY B” Tasks, but only if the Tag has a Created Date before 1 Jan 2000.

Mandatory RSL Strategies

For Mandatory Strategies it is only needed to select Tasks. A difference, compared to Additional Strategies, is thus that Mandatory Strategies do not have any conditions, i.e., their Tasks are always added regardless of the Tag’s properties.

A Mandatory Strategy.

A second difference, compared to Additional Strategies, is that Mandatory Strategies are selected irrespective of whether a Main Strategy is present.

So, if we have an RSL with an Additional Strategy and no Main Strategy (or no Main Strategy of which the conditions are met) then no Strategies can be applied to the Tag, even if the Additional Strategy conditions are met. However, if we have a Mandatory Strategy and no Main Strategy (or no Main Strategy of which the conditions are met) then the Mandatory Strategy will still be (automatically) applied. In this case all Additional Strategies will be evaluated and, depending on the result, their applicable Tasks can then also be added to the Tag.

In this way, a Mandatory Strategy serves as a fallback that allows you to always have a Strategy selected regardless of the Tag properties.

Bulk Assigning Tags to RSL Strategies

A bulk action, "Assign to Strategy", is available in the FLOC and Equipment Main Screen grid toolbars, as well as in the Analysis Main Screen.

The new (bulk) "Assign to Strategy" button.

A wizard will guide you through the bulk assignment steps, as described below.

Step 1

First a System must be selected. Note that if any Tag has a System selected, the same System will be preselected automatically. In the case when there is more than one Tag selected, the first available System in the list will be preselected.

The bulk assign wizard.

If the FLOC/Equipment is already assigned to a System, and the you select a different System here, then a warning icon will appear in the "Selected FLOC/EQUIPMENT" grid. This Tag will then not be assigned to the new System (but it will remain visible).

A Warning shows in the Selected FLOC grid since the FLOC has already been assign to a different System. 

If the Tag, that is being assigned, has been assigned to an outdated RSL, a warning message will appear and the Next button will be disabled until the Tag is upgraded to a new RSL revision.

Step 2

In this step you see a list of Tags and applicable Maintenance Libraries. Only Maintenance Libraries, which are applicable to the Tag's Hierarchy Type, and which also have at least one Strategy whose conditions are met, are shown. If no Strategy is applicable, i.e., for none of the Main Strategies the conditions are met and there are no Mandatory Strategy, then that RSL will not be displayed.

Tags and applicable Maintenance Libraries are listed.

If there is only one available Maintenance Library to select, then it will be selected automatically. Also, if there is only one applicable Strategy on that RSL then that Strategy will be selected automatically. Otherwise, you can select, per Tag, from the applicable Strategies, one of the available Main Strategies. Mandatory Strategies will be assigned automatically. If a Main/Mandatory is selected, then you can also select (multiple) Additional Strategies.

Selecting a Maintenance Library.

There is also an option to select the same Maintenance Library and Strategy for all Tags.

Selecting a Maintenance Library and Strategy for all Tags.

Every Tag row that has a selected RSL can be expanded to display additional information for the applicable Strategies. You can then see the Strategies for which the conditions are met, as well as their Strategy types and their applicable Tasks. Clicking on the Maintenance Library name will open a new tab showing the configuration for that RSL.

Expanding a Tag row to show more information for the Strategies.

If an RSL is already applied to the Tag, it will not be possible to choose another RSL, only a different Strategy from the same RSL.

Functions and Function Failures can be applied from the RSL, as well as from the System. If anything has already been applied to the Tag, the value will be preselected.

Step 3

In Step 3 you can create and assign a label to the selected Tags. This enables you to later filter on the selected scope.

Applying a label. 

Step 4

After a Strategy has been selected for at least one Tag, you can move to the last step where a summary of the Tags and their selected Strategies can be previewed. Any blocked Tags/RSLs, together with the reason, will be listed. You can then click ASSIGN to proceed with the validated Tags/RSLs, or they can cancel if they first want to adjust something.

The preview tab shows a summary of Tags and Selected Strategies. 

Care Strategy Recommendations

As a Care Strategy can have a (random) selection of tasks, it should be noted that from the Failure Modes defined, some or no tasks can be selected. 

Using Care Strategy RSLs provide more freedom though it may lead to analyses that from an RCM point of view have room for improvement.

There are a number of recommendations to make better use of Care Strategy RSL's:

• Do Not create a Care Strategy RSL with one strategy, apply it to tags, and add a next strategy, apply it to tags, and add a next strategy, and apply it to tags.
  • This will ask for multiple RSL revisions and updates involved.
  • Do create a Care strategy as complete as possible - and assign it then.
• Do Not 'exclude' CMMS types from an RSL in combination with Care Strategies.
  • The variances involved with the Care Strategies and requirements that can be used can cause unclarity in assignment. 
  • Do create a separate Care Strategy for particular CMMS types - where the CMMS-types might be entered in the requirements.
  • Do assign the Care Strategy RSL in logical groups of Location Types, Equipment groups and CMMS Types, for efficiency.