Justification of world‐class maintenance systems using analytic hierarchy constant sum method

Abstract

In recent times, many organizations implementing total productive maintenance (TPM) have been failing in their attempts. Researchers attribute these failures to the shortcomings of TPM and of the implementing organizations. This paper aims to conduct a detailed study in order to understand these shortcomings and seeks to propose various solutions in the form of “best practices”, which leads to the development of world‐class maintenance systems (WMS). However, development of such alterative maintenance systems raises the following question: if an organization is planning to implement and improve their existing maintenance system then how can the manager make a decision between choosing alternative systems such as traditional maintenance systems, TPM and WMS? In the case of TPM or WMS, top management should be involved from the beginning to implement and follow up, as these decisions are complex and involve huge investment in the long term. Before starting implementation, top management should be convinced of the necessary justification, which requires analysis of various qualitative and quantitative factors apart from analyzing various tangible and intangible benefits. In such a situation, the conventional, financial justification techniques alone cannot be used