Thesis

Multi-criteria decision support system for the best ship maintenance strategy

Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2018
Thesis identifier
  • T15332
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201790605
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Merchandise transported in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) zone by ships reached a level of 90% of its external trade and another 40% was carried internally among its member-states. Fifty thousand seafarers employed in the maritime sector. A close relationship of maritime transportation and growth of countries' GDP. In this regard, for each job created at sea, the equivalent of 5 works are created on land-based related activities (e.g. shore-based companies, consultancy activities, workshops, shipyards, etc.) However, downtime originating from the application of the minimum requirements for maintenance and subsequently the occurrence of unexpected failures such as required repair cost, ship production loss and so on. In the case of ship maintenance applied improperly, it has a potential threat to people (both crew & passengers), environment, assets, carried cargo. In addition, major ship accidents can be partially attributed to lack of maintenance or even inappropriate maintenance procedures followed both onboard and onshore (including all stakeholders.) As such, the maritime industry takes charge of the transport of huge commodities around the world, and a new approach to improving the reliability and efficiency of ships has been recently studied.;Ship maintenance, which accounts for up to 30% of the operating cost of a ship, is related to financial aspects in terms of loss of unexpected ship repair and operation possibilities and subsequent income. In order to consider implementing an overall maintenance strategy, several parameters that are essential for the overall maintenance on board are taken into account. These parameters include the maintenance approach of the shipping company, the cost of spare parts for the vessel, and the cost of crew training, etc. Moreover, if the proper maintenance sequence does not apply on board, side effects can lead to too many inspections (sup. Engineers, cargo/Class surveyors, etc.), additional spare parts and not well-planned logistics for the availability of the correct spare parts and machinery. When it comes to synthesizing opinions of decision makers, human opinions often collide due to collective decision making in the fuzzy conditions. A major issue of fuzzy multiple attribute group decision making is gathering adverse thought. Generally, the attribute weights (importance) by each expert can be different. For example, the final decision is affected by the evaluation of outstanding specialists in the group of judgment (i.e. chief engineer or skilled expert, as compared to other experts). Consequently, considering attributes based on the importance of each expert is an effective way to select the best maintenance method.;In this respect, the aim and objectives of the project and the approach used to undertake this study is presented in Chapter 2. More detail, a number of different ways to tackle ship maintenance are applied and then figure out the best maintenance approach through the problem of ship maintenance in Chapter 3. Section 3.1 the 'Critical Review - Maintenance approaches' section gives a background review of various ongoing maintenance methods and approaches.Section 3.2 represents Fuzzy set theory (FST). FST by Zadeh (1965) is developed by this circumstance. He suggested that a fundamental element of human thinking is a fuzzy set rather than a figure. FST is a more suitable tool for humans than rigorous mathematical rules and equations by handling inaccurate data and vague expressions. The AHP method which is employed to compute the relative importance of each expert and experts' weighting factors and entire attribute and alternative is introduced in Section 3.3. Furthermore, FAHP is offered to overcome ambiguity in decision making. The Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method is introduced in Section 3.4. MADM approach is a way to help engineering and management decisions when evaluating and selecting what you want from an infinite figure of alternatives distinguished by multi-attribution. Chapter 4 then presents an FMADM approach using FST and AHP. The problem of selection of the best maintenance is a fuzzy multi-attribute group decision making regarding fuzzy evaluation and various expert judgements in terms of the technical aspect.;Decision makers often face the problem of selecting an alternative from a given number of solutions. Selected alternatives are the best alternative to meet a specific purpose in advance. The classic MADM methodology effectively addresses problems caused by inaccurate information. This classical method is not effective in delivering inaccuracies and ambiguities in unplanned and planned processes. The decision data for selecting the best maintenance approach to the problem of ship maintenance for the MADM problem is usually fuzzy, crisp or mixed. Thus, the decision model can handle all types of data.In Chapter 5, as a practical case study, the best choice of maintenance approach is employed to demonstrate the applicability of the suggested methods. Lastly, the final section summarizes and concludes this article. Therefore, this research is dedicated to finding reasonable decision models to address the issues mentioned above. It enables to make the development of MADM methods involving multiple decision makers who can work in the fuzzy conditions.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Lazakis, Iraklis
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2018
Former identifier
  • 9912758093402996

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