A Comparative Study of Decision-Support Approaches for Managing Aircraft Landing Gear Systems Reliability

Abstract

Aircraft landing gear systems are essential to safe and efficient flight operations, as they operate under demanding conditions during takeoff, landing, and ground maneuvers. Because they are exposed to high loads and repeated stress, their reliability has a direct impact on safety, maintenance planning, and overall operational performance. This study explores the use of three decision-support approaches, namely the Analytic Network Process (ANP), the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and an adapted Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM), to examine a critical landing gear subsystem. The analysis identifies the most influential engineering management factors affecting subsystem reliability and compares how the three methods capture factor importance and interdependencies. The results show that maintenance planning efficiency, failure mode criticality, cost of downtime, and workforce coordination consistently emerge as key reliability-related dimensions. The adapted FCM provides a broader uncertainty-aware representation of indirect causal propagation, while ANP supports prioritization through network-based weighting and DEMATEL highlights cause–effect structures among the factors. Overall, the findings demonstrate that combining these complementary methods can strengthen reliability-oriented decision-making by clarifying which factors should receive priority in maintenance, operational planning, and management strategies.