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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of analytic network process (ANP) as a methodology to make multiple criteria decision in selecting the most appropriate maintenance strategy for organizations with critical manufacturing requirements.

Maintenance strategy selection problems are multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problems which consist of many qualitative and quantitative characteristics. For solving MCDM problems, the ANP is highly recommended as it considers the interdependent influences among and between the various levels of decision attributes. In this research paper, the ANP method is used to select the optimum maintenance strategy in a cement industry in India.

The ANP method can be used as an effective tool for the evaluation of possible alternatives in maintenance strategy decision problems by considering the dependency among the strategic factors.

As illustrated in this paper, ANP method can also be used in other industries for adopting the optimum maintenance strategy to enhance the business performance by decreasing the losses associated with equipment effectiveness.

The major contribution of this research is the successful development of the comprehensive ANP model for the cement plant. ANP model incorporates diversified variables of the cement plant supply chain and includes their interdependencies. The proposed ANP model in this paper, not only guides the decision makers in the selection of the best services but also enables them to visualize the impact of various criteria in the arrival of the final solution.

The model can be extended to certain other manufacturing sectors as the future scope of research and may assist in obtaining a clear idea regarding the status of current maintenance strategies. It should be carried out with a larger number of firms in India focusing on small and medium firms to confirm these results and reinforce their applicability to these kinds of firms. Studies of such a nature would help in identifying successful organizational factors or successful maintenance practices that lead to superior performance.

This paper explores the value of implementing ANP as a decision making method in maintenance strategy, which is currently not a prevalent method.