An intelligent maintenance model (system): an application of the analytic hierarchy process and a fuzzy logic rule-based controller

In this paper, we attempt to develop an integrated model of maintenance decision making by utilising AHP and Fuzzy Logic. The paper describes problems in maintenance arising from not having clear criteria and not having robust decision criteria with which to maintain failing equipment. A two step process is proposed. The first step is to obtain a prioritised criterion for maintenance and hence identify the most critical machines and their related faults using AHP analysis. The second step is to use the weights obtained from the first step as crisp inputs to a fuzzy logic controller in order to obtain a prescriptive model for maintenance action.