Ranking maintenance strategies for sustainable maintenance plan in manufacturing systems using fuzzy axiomatic design principle and fuzzy-TOPSIS

Abstract

Purpose

Maintenance plans are programmes, which follow maintenance appraisals, contain information of what to do and the time approximates for accomplishments. They also deal with how to carry out maintenance jobs. In contemporary period, curiosity has proliferated about how sustainability affects manufacturing plans. The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive notion of maintenance sustainability in maintenance planning. The literature has downplayed maintenance sustainability but may support in understanding how to crack the present company-community conflicts about the negative influence of manufacturing on the environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops the idea of selecting the proper maintenance strategy based on integrated fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) principle and fuzzy-TOPSIS. This work suggests that the maintenance function is an uncertain, activity-oriented system. To fully appreciate the proposed framework, the work employs data from a cement manufacturing plant to test the structure. This study offers 20 influential factors on which it build the fundamental structure of maintenance system sustainability for manufacturing concerns. A novel literature contribution that departs from existing conceptions is the classical determination of weights of each sustainability factor, employing fuzzy entropy weighting approach. Furthermore, work innovatively determines the ranking of some important tenets of sustainability in maintenance and optimises the maintenance consumables employing the FAD principle.

Findings

Interestingly, the output of the investigation revealed differences as the work adopts fuzzy-TOPSIS in comparison with FAD principle.

Originality/value

Case examination of a real-life manufacturing venture validated the claims, showing maintenance workforce training as a top-echelon strategy for maintenance system sustainability.

Citation

Ighravwe, D.E. and Ayoola Oke, S. (2017), "Ranking maintenance strategies for sustainable maintenance plan in manufacturing systems using fuzzy axiomatic design principle and fuzzy-TOPSIS", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 28 No. 7, pp. 961-992. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-01-2017-0007