Maintenance Engineering for Reliability Engineers Training Course

Course overview

Reliability engineers are often accountable for availability, failure reduction and lifecycle cost, yet must influence maintenance strategies, work management and asset data they do not directly control. This course addresses the practical gap between identifying bad actors and changing the maintenance system that creates repeat failures, backlog growth and unnecessary preventive work. Participants learn how to translate failure evidence into defensible maintenance actions, priorities and performance measures that maintenance, operations and leadership can use.

The course covers asset criticality analysis, failure-mode thinking, reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) decision logic, preventive maintenance optimisation, condition-based maintenance, root cause analysis and maintenance work management. Participants practise building failure coding structures aligned to ISO 14224, analysing MTBF, MTTR, availability and planned-versus-reactive work, and selecting maintenance tasks that address credible failure mechanisms. They also learn to challenge ineffective PM routines, specify task content and intervals, and connect reliability recommendations to CMMS master data and weekly scheduling.

Instructor-led modules are supported by worked calculations, equipment failure cases and team workshops using realistic maintenance records. Participants work through a plant asset scenario, from criticality ranking and Pareto analysis to failure review, task selection and KPI design. They leave with a completed Maintenance Reliability Improvement Pack: an asset criticality matrix, failure analysis, revised maintenance strategy, KPI dashboard specification and a 90-day implementation plan suitable for adapting to their own site.

The programme is designed for reliability engineers working alongside maintenance and operations teams in process, manufacturing, utilities, transport, facilities or asset-intensive environments. It is equally useful for professionals moving from maintenance engineering into a reliability-focused role who need a disciplined method for improving maintenance decisions.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct an asset criticality matrix using consequence, likelihood and risk-ranking criteria
• Analyse failure history with Pareto charts, MTBF, MTTR, availability and recurrence measures
• Apply RCM decision logic to select technically feasible and worth-doing maintenance tasks
• Define failure codes and equipment taxonomy fields aligned with ISO 14224 data principles
• Design time-based, condition-based and failure-finding task packages for common failure modes
• Facilitate a root cause analysis using 5 Whys, causal factor mapping and corrective-action verification
• Create maintenance KPIs for planned work, schedule compliance, backlog, PM compliance and repeat failures
• Produce a 90-day maintenance reliability improvement plan with owners, milestones and evidence measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Reliability Engineers — who must convert failure data into maintenance strategies and measurable reliability improvements
• Maintenance Engineers — who review PM content, equipment performance and recurring technical failures
• Asset Engineers — who need to balance asset risk, lifecycle cost and maintainability decisions
• Maintenance Planners and Schedulers — who need reliable task plans, backlog priorities and execution measures
• Operations and Production Engineers — who depend on maintenance policies that protect throughput and operating risk
• Maintenance Supervisors — who must turn reliability recommendations into executable field work

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic industrial equipment terminology and have some exposure to preventive maintenance, breakdown reporting or CMMS work orders. Familiarity with concepts such as downtime, PMs, corrective maintenance, work orders and equipment hierarchies will help participants move quickly through the exercises. Basic spreadsheet confidence is expected for interpreting simple failure data and KPI calculations. Prior RCM facilitation, statistical reliability modelling, vibration analysis expertise or access to SAP PM or IBM Maximo is not required. Complete beginners can attend, but should expect to spend additional time learning maintenance and failure-analysis vocabulary.

Training methodology

The course combines concise instructor-led explanations with calculations, equipment examples and structured maintenance-system workshops. Participants use sample CMMS extracts to classify failures, calculate reliability measures and identify bad actors. Small groups apply RCM decision logic to a pump, conveyor or process asset case, then test recommendations against operational risk, task feasibility and work-management constraints. The instructor critiques task statements, intervals and KPIs using field-based examples. On the final day, each participant assembles a site-relevant 90-day application plan and receives peer and instructor feedback.

Course outline

Day 1: Maintenance reliability foundations and asset risk

• The reliability engineer's interface with maintenance, operations and engineering
• Corrective, preventive, predictive and failure-finding maintenance policies
• Asset functions, functional failures and performance standards
• Asset criticality analysis using safety, environmental, production and cost consequences
• Risk matrices, criticality rankings and maintenance-priority rules
• Bad-actor identification through downtime, frequency and consequence screening
• Maintenance strategy maturity and planned-versus-reactive work assessment

Workshop: Participants create an asset criticality matrix and rank a case-study asset population for reliability attention.

Day 2: Failure data, reliability measures and CMMS evidence

• Equipment hierarchy, asset taxonomy and maintainable-item definitions
• ISO 14224 failure-data structure and failure coding principles
• Failure mode, cause, mechanism and remedy distinctions
• Pareto analysis of failure frequency, downtime and maintenance cost
• MTBF, MTTR, inherent availability and operational availability calculations
• Data-quality checks for work orders, notifications and downtime records
• Using SAP PM and IBM Maximo fields to support repeat-failure analysis

Workshop: Participants cleanse a sample failure-history extract, calculate key reliability measures and produce a bad-actor Pareto.

Day 3: RCM and maintenance strategy selection

• RCM analysis boundaries, functions and functional failure statements
• Failure modes and effects analysis for maintainable equipment
• Hidden failures and protective-device failure-finding tasks
• RCM consequence categories and decision logic
• On-condition tasks, potential failure intervals and inspection design
• Scheduled restoration and scheduled discard task selection
• Run-to-failure decisions and risk-control requirements

Workshop: Teams complete an RCM decision worksheet for a critical pump system and recommend task types, intervals and ownership.

Day 4: PM optimisation, root cause analysis and work execution

• PM task-quality review using failure mechanism and task-effectiveness tests
• Writing executable job plans with standards, tolerances and acceptance criteria
• Condition-monitoring routes for vibration, thermography, oil analysis and ultrasound
• 5 Whys and causal factor mapping for repeat equipment failures
• Corrective-action hierarchy and verification of action effectiveness
• Maintenance backlog segmentation, planning and weekly schedule compliance
• Defect elimination workflows linking RCA actions to CMMS changes

Workshop: Participants redesign an ineffective PM plan and conduct a causal factor analysis for a recurring bearing failure.

Day 5: Performance control and reliability improvement planning

• Leading and lagging maintenance KPIs for reliability management
• PM compliance, schedule compliance, wrench time and backlog-age measures
• Repeat-failure, rework and emergency-work performance indicators
• KPI definitions, data sources, thresholds and review cadences
• Reliability improvement business cases using risk, downtime and maintenance-cost evidence
• ISO 55000 asset-management alignment for maintenance decisions
• Ninety-day implementation planning, stakeholder ownership and governance

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a Maintenance Reliability Improvement Pack containing KPIs, actions, owners and a 90-day implementation roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

SAP Plant Maintenance (SAP PM), IBM Maximo Application Suite, ISO 14224, ISO 55000

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions