Title: Selecting a preventive maintenance scheduling method by using simulation and multi criteria decision making

Authors: Shirin Eslami; Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi; Ali Hosseinzadeh Kashan

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran ' Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Olom Tahghighat Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: One of the major factors of competitive advantage in service and manufacturing systems is establishing a proper maintenance system. The productivity of the production line and equipment efficiency are among the significant points in most manufacturing companies which are directly related to their production style. Achieving the highest possible productivity improves the operations and functions of the line and finally increases the production volume. Various variables are effective on the productivity and efficiency of the line, among which, the preventive maintenances is one of the most important factors for cost reduction, equipment defect reduction, quality increase and efficiency increase. Multi-criteria decision-making methods are able to include and concern various variables related to competitive factors of a system. The purpose of this study is applying simulations to evaluate different scheduling techniques for preventive maintenances and combining the simulations as a decision-making tool, with the decision-making process. In this article three different preventive maintenance techniques have been implemented and simulated by using Arena-based simulation with a numerical example and finally, their results are compared with each other through TOPSIS and AHP, and the most efficient preventive maintenance technique is determined.

Keywords: preventive maintenance; corrective maintenance; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; simulation; maintenance scheduling; TOPSIS; AHP; analytical hierarchy process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2014.062329

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2014 Vol.18 No.2, pp.250 - 269

Published online: 21 Jun 2014 *

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