Prioritizing Condition Monitoring Strategies for Increasing Equipment's Availability Using an Integrated Approach of AHP-QFD(Case Study: Esfahan Steel Company)

Nowadays management of physical assets is considered as one of the important fields of science and technology. Reduction of undesirable random failures and repairs is one of the most important objectives of those who utilize advanced equipments and machinery. Meanwhile, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) has been recognized as an effective solution for the problems of technical, economic and strategic management of machinery and equipments. In this study, besides explaining the basics of this condition monitoring (CM) and existing standards, The influencing trend of CM process parameters on "increased equipment availability" have been studied in Isfahan Steel Company and, CM strategies have been prioritized using an integrated approach of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) towards improvement of equipment availability. Data related to house of quality is also via Likert questionnaire, have been collected between managers and experts of THE Maintenance department in the Isfahan Steel Company. The findings indicate that strategies of frequency analysis and overall vibration level with a total weight of 0.2810 and strategies of magnetic keys and filters with a total weight of 0.1026, have the most influence on increasing the equipments availability.