SMRPCO Reference Guide for Certification in Maintenance and Reliability Management

Sample Examination Questions

1. Which one of the following is generally true?

A) Construction contractors are usually equally skilled at performing all maintenance

tasks
B) Maintenance is often reduced through project designs that provide in-place spares
for all rotating equipment and heat exchangers
C) Reliability Centered Maintenance can be applied on capital projects in the pre-
construction stage to determine the maintenance plan
D) Most mechanics can easily alternate between doing capital project work and
doing equipment diagnosis and repair work

2. What is the best criterion for changing a known and controlled variable to meet a new
customer requirement?

A) Engineering analysis
B) Operator and maintainer experience
C) Senior management directive
D) Reliability and maintainability analysis

3. From the choices below, select the formula for Reliability, R:

A) R = e- (MTTR/t)
B) R = e- (t/MTBF)
C) R = Downtime/(Downtime + Uptime)
D) R = MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR)

4. A reliability leader has noted that the air supply to the pneumatic drill and stamping
center is intermittently inadequate, resulting in costly process interruptions. Three
potential solutions have been identified: 1) Purchase a new, larger air compressor for
$40,000 2) Perform and overhaul of the existing compressor for $10,000 3) Contract
a performance investigation of the air system for $3,500. Which is the best alternative
and why?

A) Overhaul the existing compressor to see if that solves the problem

B) Buy a new compressor because Mean Time Between Failure is guaranteed by the
supplier
C) Buy a new air compressor because the existing compressor seems too small
D) Investigate system performance to determine the root cause of the problem

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 SMRPCO Reference Guide for Certification in Maintenance and Reliability Management

5. If a machine is run for 500 hours and five failures are observed during this period,
what is the Mean Time Between Failure?

A) 500 hours
B) 0.01 hours
C) 2500 hours
D) 100 hours

6. Which of the following most effectively makes up the members of a Manufacturing

Team?

A) Sales/Customer/Production/Supplier/Senior Management
B) Maintenance/Engineering/Production/Human Resources
C) Production/Maintenance/Supplier/Engineering
D) Senior Management/Production/Human Resources

7. What is the most important purpose of performing risk evaluations?

A) To determine what level of response is cost justified

B) To clearly define activities required to contain risks
C) To identify what events may have serious consequences
D) To assure compliance with company policies

8. Of the following, what is the best method for measuring employee skills and training?

A) Create and maintain a skills inventory tracking database

B) Ask employees to keep a training notebook
C) Keep records of all formal training courses taken
D) Have employees complete annual self-evaluations

9. When training maintenance workers, it is best to first:

A) List all the tasks the workers need to perform

B) Check the budget to set how much to spend per worker
C) Review the list of classes already taken by the workers
D) Give classes to all workers on basic skills

10. What relationship should Maintenance and Reliability Teams have with customers
and suppliers for optimum effectiveness?

A) Purchasing should be the only communicators with suppliers

B) Supervision should be the only communicators with customers and suppliers
C) Team members should be involved in communicating with customers and
suppliers
D) Sales should be the only department communicating with customers

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SMRPCO Reference Guide for Certification in Maintenance and Reliability Management

11. Which of the following metrics definitions is not accurate?

A) Uptime - % of time you run producing quality product at design rate

B) Schedule compliance – how often mechanics are pulled off their current work to
another task
C) MTBF – a measure of equipment life expectancy
D) Backlog – how long it takes to fix broken equipment

12. Which of the following does not support people development?

A) Providing feedback only when asked

B) Defining result areas, goals, and measurements
C) Coaching, feedback, and encouragement
D) Defining training and skills goals

13. From the following list, which is not a critical structural element of a strategic plan
for maintenance and reliability?

A) Current levels of performance

B) Benefits available through implementation
C) Historical direction of the business
D) Vision of the future state

14. Which performance result best shows a maintenance and reliability manager that the
scheduled maintenance activities being implemented are effective?

A) Hours spent on unscheduled maintenance have decreased

B) Maintenance cost per unit of production has decreased
C) Total annual maintenance cost has decreased
D) Production rate has increased

15. When the time period between the testing which detects a failure and the failure
actually occurs is highly variable, and the life expectancy is highly variable, a good
approach is:

A) More frequent periodic predictive testing

B) Structured preventive maintenance
C) On-line condition monitoring
D) Time based rebuild or changeout

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SMRPCO Reference Guide for Certification in Maintenance and Reliability Management

Answers to Sample Questions

1. C

2. A

3. B

4. D

5. D

6. C

7. A

8. A

9. A

10. C

11. D

12. A

13. C

14. A

15. C

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