When RCM is implemented, short-term results must be achieved to ensure the effort gets the continuing support it needs to survive and pay dividends. For RCM to work, a tremendous amount of data are collected and analyzed on each component in each subsystem of the entire operation. Such a task requires hundreds of man-hours to complete. Many plants that are 2-3 years into the process show expenditures but no proven benefits. There are few things worse than working on an improvement system to reduce failures and improve quality only to have unwanted downtime and customer complaints continue.
Some companies experience burnout and give up.
Burnout may occur because of insufficient personnel, rigors of the work, discipline of the methodology, and management pressure to show a return on the investment. Under these conditions, RCFA dovetails into the process here because it alleviates management pressure by solving existing problems quickly. Every operation has failures that occur repeatedly. The repetition persuades employees to see these failures as part of the job instead of part of a problem. Over time, management finds itself budgeting for these recurring events as a cost of doing business.