Selection of optimum maintenance strategy based on FAHP integrated with GRA-TOPSIS.

In today's competitive environment, industries are required to increase reliability and safety level of their equipment with reasonable cost. Consequently, it is essential to select the appropriate maintenance strategy. In the paper industry, pumping of cooked pulp requires abrasion- and sometimes corrosion-resistant pumps that are able to handle up to 70 % solids content. But the maintenance engineer and supervisor often face failures of the pump. Hence, this article describes the application of multi criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique for the selection of optimum maintenance strategy for pumps used in the paper industry. The proposed hybrid MCDM model comprises fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), grey relational analysis (GRA), and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) technique. The FAHP is used to compute the criteria weights whereas GRA-TOPSIS is used for determining the ranking of alternatives. This study discusses four maintenance strategies: corrective maintenance, predictive maintenance, time-based preventive maintenance, and condition-based maintenance. Four main criteria-safety, cost, added value, and feasibility-have been used to evaluate the optimum maintenance strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]