Maintenance policy selection: a fuzzy-ANP approach
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
ISSN: 1741-038X
Article publication date: 30 May 2018
Issue publication date: 1 August 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) model to select the maintenance policy of an acid manufacturing company.
Design/methodology/approach
Four maintenance strategies of Corrective Maintenance (CM), Time-Based Maintenance (TBM), Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) and Shutdown Maintenance (SM) are investigated to be considered for seven equipment of the case study. These equipment are almost new and include boiler, molten sulfur ponds, cooling towers, absorption tower, converter, sulfur fuel furnace and heat exchanger. Chang’s extended analysis has been employed to deal with fuzzy data and analyze the fuzzy decision matrices. The proposed approach is applied to a sulfuric acid production plant and the suitable maintenance policy is found for all seven equipment of the company.
Findings
Based on the obtained results, the CBM policy is appropriate for high-risk (cooling tower) and high added value equipment (absorption tower). In addition, TBM is selected for boiler and converters while SM is selected for molten sulfur ponds. Finally, high-cost, low-risk and low added value equipment (sulfur fuel furnace and heat exchanger) are more appropriate with CM policy.
Originality/value
This research presents a novel idea to consider cost, risk and added value in the context of maintenance policy selection. From the methodological and theoretical features, this research offers new insights in this area since, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no comparable study has been conducted before.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments that really improved the quality of the paper. The authors would also like to thank professor Harm-Jan Steenhuis for his editorial efforts and generous supports during the review process.
Citation
Hemmati, N., Rahiminezhad Galankashi, M., Imani, D.M. and Farughi, H. (2018), "Maintenance policy selection: a fuzzy-ANP approach", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 29 No. 7, pp. 1253-1268. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-06-2017-0109
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited