Effects of Recession on Asset Management Performance in Small Businesses in Spain

The number of studies that assess the level of maintenance in a country is still very small, despite the contribution of this area to national competitiveness. The literature analyses asset management based on key performance indicators, but not via a multicriteria model. This chapter describes a multicriteria model, constructed by means of the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). The weightings are converted into utility functions, allowing the final utility of an alternative to be calculated via a multi-attribute utility function. Data on the state of asset management in Spain, in 2005 and 2010, are used to produce discrete probability distributions. Finally, a Monte Carlo simulation is applied to estimate the uncertainty of a complex function. In this way, the level of excellence of asset management in small businesses in Spain, before and after the recession, could be determined. The results show that the economic crisis experienced in Spain since 2008 has had a negative effect on the level of asset management in most sectors.