Selection of an appropriate maintenance strategy remain one of the vital element for continuous manufacturing process that ensure minimum deterioration of equipment and maximum productivity with high quality. Considering criteria such as safety, quality, cost, failure, resources, operations and management and their sub criteria enable decision makers in selecting the best maintenance strategy for a particular equipment. This paper proposed application of analytical hierarchy process to select the appropriate maintenance strategy for a cement plant in Northern Nigeria. Corrective maintenance (CM), preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance (PdM) are considered as the maintenance strategies. According to the results of the study, a mix mode of the three maintenance strategies would be suitable for the kiln induction motor with a preference of PdM which has 41.76 followed by PM with 31.66 then CM with 26.68. In the case of dust return pump, the mix mode nature is more evident with PdM being the most preferred with 35.57, followed by PM with 32.86 and then CM with 31.57. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Reliability and Safety (SRESA) 2024.