Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) engineering process. RCM is a unique tool used by reliability, safety, and/or maintenance engineers for developing optimum maintenance plans which define requirements and tasks to be performed in achieving, restoring, or maintaining the operational capability of a system or equipment. Implementing the RCM process requires the application of a decision logic that enables systematic analysis of failure mode, rate, and criticality data to determine the most effective maintenance requirements for maintenance-important items. It is through this process that the scheduled maintenance burden and support costs are reduced while sustaining the necessary readiness state. The RCM process is designed to focus engineering attention to the part level in a formal and disciplined manner leading logically to the formulation of a maintenance strategy and plan. RCM benefits include: *The development of high quality maintenance plans in less time and at lower cost. *The availability of a maintenace history for each system; one is able to correlate this experience with specific parts and their failure modes and criticalities. *The assurance that all maintenance-important parts and their failure modes and criticality are considered in the development of maintenance requirements. *The increased probability that the level and content of the maintenance requirement is optimally specified. *The basis for routine, on-line information exchange among the engineering staff and management even in a widely dispersed organization. Document type: Report

Abstract

This report seeks to shed light on the ways in which the services sector has contributed to Lao PDR’s competitiveness and integration into the global marketplace. It focuses on two complementary roles that the services sector plays: first, as an avenue for export diversification and growth and, second,by providing inputs into other productive sectors of the economy, such as the manufacturing sector. As economies grow, the importance of the services sector generally increases, but its role as an enabler of other sectors of the economy in moving up the value chain is frequently overlooked. However, the services sector is critical in raising competitiveness of these other sectors to boost growth and create better quality jobs. The main policy recommendations that emerge from this report are aimed at increasing competition in the services sector, reducing distortive regulations, and opening up the sector to foreign participation, building up skills, both at the individual and at the firm level, and investing in hard and soft infrastructure to promote the development of the sector.

Abstract

The global aviation industry is facing complex and unpredictable market conditions with fluctuating oil prices and the adverse environmental impact of aircraft operations. Since the regulatory approval for biofuels, the first biojet fuel flight test in 2007, using a blend fuel, was a remarkable step towards having more test and schedule flights up to the year of 2014. The purpose of this paper is to engage this new alternative energy with the issues that airlines associate with sustainability, mainly focusing on aircraft operations and profitability. The key findings suggest that the uses of alternative energy need to be in parallel to the reliability and maintainability of the aircraft system, so that the adoption of biofuels can be effective.