Maintenance Strategy Selection: An Approach Based on Equipment Criticality and Focused on Components

The selection of appropriate equipment maintenance strategies is essential for avoiding accidents and unnecessary operating costs in companies. This paper aims to propose a methodology which makes use of Decision-Making Grids (DMGs) for classifying and prioritizing the manufacturing assets according to their criticality and, accordingly, selecting the most appropriate maintenance strategy for the analyzed assets components. The ability to support the assignment of maintenance strategies at the component level distinguishes the proposed methodology from the related studies found in the literature, as they define a unique type of strategy for the equipment as a whole or strategies focused on its functional failures. The assets classification and prioritization is performed considering the failure impact and quantitative criteria related to their maintenance history. Therefore, the methodology can also be used as a performance measurement tool for identifying the need of redefining the maintenance plan of specific assets or implementing equipment improvement initiatives. The methodology was successfully applied in a case study performed in a company that produces wood-based panels. Its application enabled to assign maintenance strategies to the six components with higher frequency of replacement of one safety critical equipment in a quick manner. The case study has also shown that the effort and resources required for applying the methodology are low, since it uses mainly data recorded by the current management systems.