What is an RCM worksheet?

It is a table of failure modes for one asset, each with the answers that decide which maintenance task is worth doing: condition-based, scheduled restoration or discard, failure-finding, redesign or run to failure. It is the task-selection step of reliability-centered maintenance.

What is a failure-finding task?

A test or inspection done at a set interval to find out whether a hidden function has failed, such as lifting a float switch to see that the pump stops. It is used when no preventive task works, because nobody would notice the failure until the device was needed.

How is the failure-finding interval worked out?

The sheet uses 2 × device MTBF × MTBF of the protected thing ÷ tolerated multiple-failure period. With a device that fails once in 15 years, a protected thing that calls for it once in 8 years and one multiple failure in 2,000 years tolerated, that gives 43.8 days. It is an approximation for intervals much shorter than the device MTBF, and every number is yours.

Does this meet SAE JA1011?

No claim is made. SAE JA1011 sets out what a process must contain to be called RCM, and its text is not free to read. This worksheet follows the decision logic of MIL-STD-3034A, which is public, and covers the task-selection step. Functions and failure modes still need to be worked out with the people who run and fix the asset.

How is this different from the equipment criticality analysis and the PFMEA?

The equipment criticality analysis ranks which assets deserve attention. The PFMEA rates the risk of failure modes in a process with severity, occurrence and detection scores. This worksheet takes the failure modes of one asset and decides the maintenance task for each, with its interval and owner.

Free template

Updated October 7, 2026

RCM worksheet (failure mode and task selection)

A reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) worksheet lists the ways an asset can fail and decides, for each one, which maintenance task is worth doing. For every failure mode you answer three questions: would an operator doing normal work see it, could it hurt someone, harm the environment or break a law, and does it stop or slow output. The answers give its class: hidden, safety, environment or legal, operational or non-operational. The sheet then works down a fixed order: a condition-based task, scheduled restoration or discard, a failure-finding test for a hidden function, redesign if someone could be hurt, and otherwise run to failure. The order follows the decision logic of MIL-STD-3034A, the US Department of Defense RCM standard of 2014, in plain words. The Excel works out the class, tests whether each task is applicable and effective, gives a limit for the failure-finding interval and lists the tasks for your PM schedule.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the RCM worksheet: a table with a row for each failure mode, with columns for asset, function, functional failure, failure mode, what happens, three yes or no questions, the class, the strategy and the task, interval and owner. — Failure modes by functionThree questions and the classCondition, restore and discard testsFailure-finding interval limitStrategy for each failure modePM task listCounts and hours a yearWorked example

When to use it

When to use an RCM worksheet

After an equipment criticality analysis has picked the assets that matter, to decide the maintenance for each failure mode of the first one.
When the PM schedule is full of tasks nobody can say a reason for, and you need to keep, change or drop each one.
For protective devices such as relief valves, level switches, interlocks and guard sensors, which fail without anyone noticing.
When the same failure keeps coming back and the team has to decide whether to check for it, replace on a schedule, redesign or accept it.
Before buying condition monitoring tools, to find which failure modes give a warning sign worth measuring.

How to fill it in

1
Choose one asset or system
Start with one that is critical and has a failure history. List its functions and the standard each one must meet, with the people who run it and fix it.
2
Write the functional failures
For each function, the ways it can fail to meet its standard: a total loss and a partial one.
3
List the failure modes
The causes of each functional failure that have happened or are likely. Use breakdown records and ask the technicians. One row for each.
4
Answer the three questions
Is the failure evident to an operator in normal work? Could it hurt someone, harm the environment or break a law? Does it stop or slow output or harm quality? The class follows. For a hidden function, answer the second question for the case where the thing it protects fails as well.
5
Test the tasks in order
Condition-based first: is there a warning sign, a check often enough and time to act? Then restoration or discard: is there a known wear-out age? Then, for hidden functions only, a failure-finding test. A task has to be applicable (it really finds or prevents the failure) and effective (worth doing).
6
Set intervals and owners, then review
Enter an interval, a description and an owner for each task, with operators and maintainers. Copy the tasks into the PM schedule. Look again after the first failures and at least once a year.

Class and strategy

What each class leads to

Following the order of the questions in MIL-STD-3034A, in this template's own words. The sheet's checks and the numbers in the example are values set for the template, not figures from a standard.

Class	What it means	What the task has to do
Hidden	Nobody doing normal work would see that the function has failed, such as a relief valve stuck shut	A preventive task if one works. If not, a failure-finding test at an interval worked out from the device and what it protects. If not, redesign when someone could be hurt.
Safety, environment or legal	The failure could hurt someone, harm the environment or break a law	Bring the risk to a level the site accepts, whatever the task costs. If no task does, redesign.
Operational	The failure stops or slows output, or harms quality	Cost less a year than the failures it prevents. If no task does, run to failure and consider redesign.
Non-operational	The failure is evident and does none of the above	Pass the same cost test. Run to failure is often the answer.

Hidden
What it means
Nobody doing normal work would see that the function has failed, such as a relief valve stuck shut
What the task has to do
A preventive task if one works. If not, a failure-finding test at an interval worked out from the device and what it protects. If not, redesign when someone could be hurt.
Safety, environment or legal
What it means
The failure could hurt someone, harm the environment or break a law
What the task has to do
Bring the risk to a level the site accepts, whatever the task costs. If no task does, redesign.
Operational
What it means
The failure stops or slows output, or harms quality
What the task has to do
Cost less a year than the failures it prevents. If no task does, run to failure and consider redesign.
Non-operational
What it means
The failure is evident and does none of the above
What the task has to do
Pass the same cost test. Run to failure is often the answer.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example (illustrative numbers, not a real machine): a hydraulic power unit on a stamping press, with 8 failure modes.

Pump wear and a fouled cooler give a warning sign 120 and 60 days ahead. Checks every 30 and 14 days cost $1,095 and $1,043 a year against failures worth $13,000 and $9,000 a year, so both get a condition-based task.
A hose splitting could hurt someone and gives no warning, but hoses have a wear-out age of 1,825 days. The six hose assemblies are discarded every 1,460 days.
The relief valve, the temperature switch and the low-level switch are hidden. Limits of 2 × device MTBF × protected MTBF ÷ tolerated multiple-failure period come to 43.8, 182.5 and 233.6 days, so they are tested every 42, 180 and 90 days.
A quick-release coupling that could whip a hose has no warning sign and no wear-out age, so it is redesigned. A cracked sight glass is harmless, so it runs to failure.

3 failure-finding tasks, 2 condition-based tasks, 1 scheduled discard, 1 redesign and 1 run to failure. Six tasks go into the PM list, about 37 hours a year.

Common mistakes

Starting from the task list
A PM list copied from a manual answers what the maker suggested, not which failure a task prevents. Write the failure mode first, and make every task name the one it covers.
Treating a hidden function like an evident one
A relief valve stuck shut gives no sign. If nobody tests it, it is already failed on the day it is needed. Ask the first question for every function and test protective devices on a schedule.
Setting a failure-finding interval by habit
Annual or monthly tests are common but nothing ties them to the risk. Work from how often the device fails and how often the thing it protects calls for it, and write the numbers down.
Running a safety failure to failure
When a failure could hurt someone, cost does not decide. Find a task that brings the risk to a level the site accepts, or redesign.
Filling it in at a desk
Operators know which failures show and how. Technicians know what a part does before it goes. A worksheet written without them misses both.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite, professional maintenance tags log each breakdown with its start and end times, build a searchable repair history for every asset, and show MTTR and MTBF by machine or line in built-in dashboards so you can find your worst-performing assets.

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