Maintenance Strategy Selection Using AHP: A Case Study in the Oil and Gas Industry

Maintenance strategy selection (MSS) usually has multiple, contradicting objectives. These include reducing cost, increasing availability, reducing unplanned downtime and meeting both safety and environmental requirements. This paper presents the use of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in solving a MSS problem for a natural gas processing plant. The plant is currently adopting timely based preventive maintenance strategy for all equipment. Six different pieces of equipment were studied to evaluate five different maintenance strategies against multiple criteria such as cost, damage and applicability. Results showed that significant changes should be made to the current maintenance strategy, which would better utilize the resources of the plant, reduce the total maintenance cost, and increase the equipment availability.