Using AHP to Identify the Priority Equipment for Maintenance Actions

The prioritization of equipment is among the decisions of great interest in maintenance management, given the effects it reflects on numerous sub-functions and the dependence it implies on various factors. The mastery of the techniques in this context is gaining an increasing importance, especially in heavy industries operating multiple production lines. According to the literature, the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is among the most common techniques to resolve this problem, despite the concerns it involves. Knowing that, this technique supports two synthesis modes: distributive and ideal, and a confusing conflict is noticed; although the second mode seems theoretically more adapted to this problem, the first dominates in the practical aspect. In response to this conflict, the objective of this work is to demonstrate that the ideal synthesis mode is more suitable, through a comparative approach within this context. An improved AHP-approach is implicitly proposed within the study.