Evaluation of Maintenance Policies Using Taguchi Loss Functions and Analytical Hierarchy Process

The existence of a company in today’s highly automated production environment largely depends on the high availability rates of production machines. High machine availability rates can only be achieved by applying suitable maintenance policies. Determination of a suitable maintenance policy requires the consideration of many factors. In this study, a new methodology integrating Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Taguchi loss functions was developed for the determination of the most suitable maintenance policy. This methodology represents the first use of Taguchi loss functions for maintenance policy evaluation and the use of these functions ensured the consideration of tangible and intangible maintenance policy evaluation criteria. Applicability and effectiveness of the developed methodology was justified by determining the most suitable maintenance policy for the coating machines of a powder coating factory