A Multicriteria Decision Framework for the Management of Maintenance Spares - A Case Study

Abstract The organisation under study finds itself needing to manage an ever-increasing number of spare parts. Classifying spares has become fundamental for an organisation’s maintenance management and for improving internal, technical and organisational procedures. This article is focused on developing a framework for classifying spare parts. The framework seeks to ease the inventory management of spare parts, grouping the items into classes with different inventory policies. The framework is based in the multicriteria technique for problem solving, together with the analytic hierarchy process, using a triangular fuzzy scale. The framework was developed and tested in the context of a biodiesel refinery. As a result, 345 parts were divided into three classes using the selected criteria, allowing differentiated policies for inventory management to be selectively applied.