Evaluation of plant maintenance based on data envelopment analysis

Precise and logical plant maintenance evaluation, which enables enterprise to distinguish its most suitable maintenance pattern for application, is the base of improvement in plant maintenance. In this paper a new method based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) is proposed to evaluate the relative efficiency of plant maintenance. In this method, a systematic functional model is built to analyze the input/output of plant maintenance, which is processed as a service system, and DEA is applied as a calculate model for plant maintenance evaluation. Practical implications. The aim of this work is to provide management with a method to evaluate and quantify the relative efficiency of plant maintenance among a group of units. The maintenance pattern, scheme and experience of the relatively effective unit are guidance to others in improving themselves in plant maintenance and the quantified evaluation result points out the detailed maintenance limitation of relatively less efficient units so that the management can make corresponding improvement scheme.