Devonport Royal Dockyard RCM

Reliability Centred Maintenance on the 43 Tonne Dockyard Crane

Babcock Marine (formerly DML) manages one of the UK's largest Dockyards - Devonport Royal Dockyard.

Challenge

Managing equipment across the dockyard is a complex process, involving a number of considerations related to cost, safety and availability. With increasingly complex maintenance schedules the Dockyard looked to streamline its maintenance processes whilst improving the reliability and availability of certain pieces of equipment - most notably its 43 tonne crane.

Solution

LSC Group, working in partnership with Babcock Marine, were contracted to undertake a Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) Study.

The study would identify the various alternative solutions available to the Dockyard in managing the maintenance activities of it 43 tonne crane, ensuring no detrimental safety, availability or economic impact.

Benefits

The RCM derived maintenance schedule identified a number of possible business savings, most notably:

• Scheduled maintenance for one crane could be reduced by 725 man-hours per year through a change in maintenance cycle
• Potential for £1.3m maintenance savings through the anticipated life of 2 identical cranes, with the RCM study costs recouped within the first year
• Time and labour savings as a result of stripping out unnecessary maintenance

The RCM study identified the appropriate maintenance tasks to ensure safe, reliable and economical use of the crane throughout its life. The study justified a new structured, auditable maintenance regime with the net result begin greater equipment availability at a significantly reduced cost.