Make-or-buy policy decision in maintenance planning for mobility : a multi-criteria approach

Background: The ongoing technical innovation is fully involving transportation sector, converting the usual mass-transit system toward a sustainable mobility. Make-or-buy decision are usually adopted to assess different solutions in terms of costs-benefits to put in place strategic choices regarding in-house production or from an external supplier. This can also be reflected on maintenance operations, thus replicating a similar approach to transport companies involved. Method: A decision-making model by means of a multi-criteria analysis can lead make-or-buy choices adapted to maintenance. A brief introduction into the actual mobility context is provided, evaluating global and national trends with respect to the mobility solutions offered. Then, a focus is set on maintenance approaches in mobility sector and the need of a make-or-buy decision process is considered. The decision-making path is developed through a multi-criteria framework based on eigenvector weighing assessment, where different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are identified and exploited to assess the maintenance approach at stake. Results: A comparison among different scenarios considered helped in identify the solution offered to the transport operator. In particular, for the case study of interest a −35% decrease in maintenance specific cost and −44% in cost variability were found. Reliability of the fleet was kept at an acceptable level compared to the reference in-house maintenance (≥90%) while an increase in the Mean Time Between Failure was observed. Conclusions: For the purposes of a small company, the method can address the choice of outsourcing maintenance as the best. Finally, a general trend is then extrapolated from the analysis performed, in order to constitute a decision guideline. The research can benefit from further analysis to test and validate that the selected approach is effective from the perspective of transport operator.