Selecting a preventive maintenance scheduling method by using simulation and multi criteria decision making

One of the major factors of competitive advantage in service and manufacturing systems is establishing a proper maintenance system. The productivity of the production line and equipment efficiency are among the significant points in most manufacturing companies which are directly related to their production style. Achieving the highest possible productivity improves the operations and functions of the line and finally increases the production volume. Various variables are effective on the productivity and efficiency of the line, among which, the preventive maintenances is one of the most important factors for cost reduction, equipment defect reduction, quality increase and efficiency increase. Multi‐criteria decision‐making methods are able to include and concern various variables related to competitive factors of a system. The purpose of this study is applying simulations to evaluate different scheduling techniques for preventive maintenances and combining the simulations as a decision‐making tool, with the decision‐making process. In this article three different preventive maintenance techniques have been implemented and simulated by using Arena‐based simulation with a numerical example and finally, their results are compared with each other through TOPSIS and AHP, and the most efficient preventive maintenance technique is determined.