Maintenance strategy decision applying analytic network process in industries: a comparative study

To enhance the availability, reliability and safety of equipment, it is essential for the industries to implement an efficient maintenance program. This research paper illustrates and compares the maintenance strategies of two different types of industries and compares the results. The analytic network process (ANP) method is applied in two industries for maintenance strategy choice which is an innovative and effective method for solving decision problems involving multiple criteria with interdependence relations. In order to explicate the difference between the maintenance strategies adopted by various industries, ANP method is applied in a tyre industry and in a steel industry for strategy selection and the results are compared. Comparison of these results proves that ANP is an effective technique in multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for solving problems having interdependence relations having significant impact (Cheng et al., 2005) and reactive maintenance (RM) is the most preferred alternative for the industry.