Making a choice between different alternative solutions is a common management problem. Also in maintenance operations, a variety of different decision areas can be identified. In these decisions, different criteria, both tangible and intangible are relevant and must be considered at the same time. In order to be able to make rational and justifiable tactical decisions for these so‐called multi‐criteria decision problems, one needs a multi‐criteria decision making model (MCDM). In this paper the tactical choice of a predictive maintenance program for an automotive paint shop is elaborated. An MCDM approach is applied to tackle the problem considering different criteria, which often are conflicting.