Building Maintenance Management
Sherif Ahmed
CEO SIACFM | Top Facility Management Voice | MSc in Facilities Management | MSc in Engineering | CIWFM Certified
Building Maintenance Management
Aims?
This paper aims to:
Provide facilities managers with an understanding of the main steps on how to start a maintenance department/ organization.?
Learning outcomes?
After reading this paper you should be able to:?
Introduction?
There is no doubt that the condition and quality of buildings are reflected in public pride or indifference, the level of prosperity, and the social values and behaviour prevalent in the area. Dilapidated and unhealthy buildings in a decaying environment, as evidenced in many city centres, depress the quality of life and in some measure may be responsible for the antisocial behaviour which manifests itself from time to time in many urban areas. Better maintenance standards and policies may well improve the existing stock of buildings, helping to improve social conditions and perhaps reducing some of these behavioural problems.?
Maintenance decisions are still in many cases based on expediency. There is a lack of precise knowledge of the benefits that can accrue from a well-designed maintenance policy, and how such a policy can help to prevent the ad hoc and unrelated compromises between the physical needs of the building and the availability of finance. The value of buildings and works accounts for some 66 percent of the nation’s capital stock, which is a vital factor in the production of new wealth, and the preservation of the value and utility of these buildings is essential to the continuing economic development of the country.?
Definitions?
As with many topics, interpretation can be confusing, but in the case of maintenance there are two British Standards from which to establish a common definition of the term ‘maintenance’.?
1.????BS 8210 (1986) – Guide to Building Maintenance Management
Describes ‘building maintenance’ as work other than daily and routine cleaning, necessary to maintain the performance of the building fabric and its services.?
2.????BS 3811 (1984) – Glossary of Maintenance Management Terms in Terotechnology
Defines ‘maintenance’ as the combination of all technical and associated administrative action intended to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required function.?
Preventive maintenance?
Building maintenance may be work carried out in anticipation of failure, or work carried out after failure.?
It is the first of these that is referred to as preventive maintenance.?
In many cases, preventive maintenance is further categorised into ‘planned maintenance’ and ‘planned preventive maintenance’. These terms are defined as:?
‘Maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals, or to other prescribed criteria, and intended to reduce the likelihood of an item not meeting an acceptable condition.’?
Maintenance organisation?
The following chart indicates a method of classifying maintenance:?
In some organisations improvements, alterations and minor capital works may be included under the heading of maintenance. This is usually done because the department responsible for these works is the same as that responsible for maintenance. Improvements and alterations may have an effect on the maintenance requirements of the existing building.?
Some authorities use the terms avoidable and unavoidable maintenance – the former referring to items which have been caused by bad design details, by the use of unsuitable materials or bad workmanship, either initially or in subsequent repairs, or by deliberate maltreatment on the part of the user (eg placing high temperature articles on surfaces such as vinyl floors). Unavoidable maintenance is that caused by fair wear and tear, accident or factors outside the users’ control.?
Preventive maintenance is work which is carried out before an element has failed with the intention of preventing or considerably reducing the chances of failure.?
Corrective maintenance is work which is carried out after an element has failed in order to reduce the effects of the failure and where possible restore the element to its original state or to a state which is acceptable.?
The aims of the maintenance organisation should be to provide an efficient service at an economic cost. This will involve reducing the delay in dealing with faults, preventing as far as is practical the faults occurring, keeping to a minimum the number of inadequate repairs or inefficient renewals, and generally avoiding unnecessary expenditure.?
Delays in dealing with faults may arise because of:?
Most delays could be reduced by good management and efficient planning. Delay in dealing with a fault may involve the organisation in much higher costs when the work is executed than if there had been no delay. Faults can be avoided by anticipating problems and providing a regular and efficient system of inspection of the building elements.?
Good supervision and a record system which enables checks on when, by whom, and how the work is done are necessary to avoid poor workmanship. The causes of failures and the correct remedies must be found before efficient instructions can be given to operatives carrying out the work. The instructions must be written clearly so that there is no ambiguity about where the work is to be carried out, what is to be done and the materials that are to be used. The inspection and supervisory staff must therefore be of such a calibre that they are capable of performing these duties adequately. A thorough technical knowledge of materials and their properties is essential in addition to the ability to communicate with and control staff.?
Unnecessary maintenance expenditure can result from a variety of causes, most of which are the result of poor technical knowledge or poor management, particularly with regard to planning. The materials used may be of a higher quality than the job requires as a result of either lack of knowledge on the part of the specifier or because of an overcautious nature. Owing to insufficient investigation a higher price may be paid for a component or material than is necessary.?
In order that a maintenance organisation may carry out its aims it is necessary to have adequate staff of the right quality and there must be adequate planning to ensure that maintenance tasks can be carried out efficiently and economically. Before any planned system is implemented it must have the approval of the senior management of the whole organisation and it must be established that sufficient finances will be made available. Maintenance is often regarded as the ‘Cinderella’ department in organisations so that if there is a shortage of finances, maintenance items may be deferred before cuts are made in other areas. Any system proposed should be as simple as practicable and must include an element of flexibility.?
The operatives in a maintenance department will generally need to be more versatile than the same trades employed in new work. Improvisation may sometimes be necessary in order to keep the building safe and functional until new parts can be ordered or permanent work carried out. Where it is not possible to purchase items because they are no longer in normal production, it may be necessary to manufacture the item. In order to be able to anticipate possible future failures the operative may require keener senses than other tradesmen.
Setting up a maintenance department?
The initiative in setting up a maintenance department within an organisation must come from the senior FM team. Senior management must decide upon the organisation’s policy towards the maintenance of their property. The decision to set up a department will depend upon such factors as:?
A decision to establish a maintenance department will initially involve the appointment of a senior person to carry out a survey of the position. This preliminary survey is generally best carried out by a professionally trained person, often a building surveyor. The surveyor will not only prepare a schedule of all the properties with which the organisation is involved, together with the type of tenure on which they are held (if this list does not already exist), but also provide general technical details of the floor area, the use to which the property is being put, the age of the property and the condition of various major critical elements of structure and services. A more detailed survey of each property should be made when the department is more fully staffed.?
Senior management in the organisation should then try to outline the maintenance policy of the organisation. Statements in writing of the present and future use of properties and the minimum accepted level of maintenance should be prepared.?
An estimate can then be prepared of the resources required in terms of staff, space etc to form the maintenance department. The next step is to prepare a preliminary fiveyear budget which not only indicates the cost of the department but also the maintenance work to be programmed for this period and how this will be allocated and carried out.?
The budget report should be submitted to senior management for approval. When the report is approved the executive of the organisation should allocate the necessary finance so that suitable staff can then be appointed.?
When the maintenance department has been established a more detailed inspection of each property should then be made. Special checklists may be prepared particularly if there is a large number of properties. In most cases drawings will be available and copies of these should be made and checked to see that they include all changes and alterations. Where drawings are not available or where they are not up to date, new ones should be drafted. Details of the correct address, the type of tenure, the date of erection, general use of the building, general description of accepted level of maintenance, the areas of the major functional elements and specifications of the major materials should all be included in the record obtained during the inspection.?
The services will usually be surveyed separately by an engineer who should provide additional information including heating, cooling and electrical design loads and actual consumption loadings as well as a detailed description of the type, operation and condition of the various systems. The type of fuel and power used, together with past consumption rates, where available, should form part of the record. Where there is standby equipment and where spares are kept these should be noted.
In some of the buildings people may already be employed to carry out some maintenance work and information about these employees and the work they do should be noted. In addition, the way in which maintenance has been carried out in the past and the work that has been done should be ascertained and included in the record.?
From these detailed inspection records a maintenance manual for each property can be produced. This will include details of the proposed inspection programme together with various proposed maintenance cycles, procedures and estimates of costs. From these maintenance manuals, more detailed programmes can be built up and used to establish more realistic annual and long-term budgets. Maintenance manuals are dealt with later in this paper.?
Annual budget?
The annual budget which should be based on a maintenance programme should be broken down into:?
The budget will usually separate out the cost of managing and the cost of running the maintenance department.?
The method used for classifying maintenance cost may be functional groups or elements, or a mixture of spaces and functional elements.?
The method used for classifying operating and occupational costs is likely to be different however. In the case of operating costs, several utility service elements may use the same source of energy (eg electricity) and it may be difficult to separate the various uses to which the energy is put. The energy costs might therefore be classified under the different types rather than the use. Cleaning costs will not be easily separated into the same classification as that used for maintenance so that the breakdown will depend upon the information available.
Maintenance efficiency?
The amount of money spent on maintenance is not necessarily an indication of the efficiency of maintenance.?
Avoidable costs may be the result of:?
1.????Rectification of design faults.?
2.????Failure to identify a defect correctly resulting in incorrect, ineffective work being performed.?
3.????Rectification of inadequate or incorrect work due to poor supervision or lack of skill on the part of the operatives.?
4.????Failure to carry out work when a defect is discovered either because of policy or lack of resources.?
5.????Carrying out work or using materials which are of a higher specification than that necessary for the efficient use of the buildings.?
6.????Poor use of resources due to bad planning or supervision including uneconomic purchasing or wastage of materials, inefficient use of labour resulting in idle time, incorrect use of skilled labour or use of expensive labour (eg contract or overtime) where this is unnecessary, or inefficient purchase, hire or use of plant.?
Planning is only effective if adequate control procedures are also included in the system. Quality control of the work can be obtained by efficient supervision.?
The efficiency of the department’s planning may be tested by comparing the amount of work carried out with that planned and also the time taken to do the work with the estimated time.?
A measure of the efficiency of manpower usage may be obtained by comparing the idle time or the total usefully employed time of the operatives with the total working time available. The time taken to carry out work may be compared with the time taken to carry out similar work in previous years.?
In some organisations attempts are made to measure changes in productivity of the maintenance department. One measure used is to compare the total value of work done by the department with the number of operatives. This is not however a very efficient measure as changes in material costs will affect this measure without any change in the speed, or efficiency of working, of the labour force. Another productivity measure sometimes used is related to the number of works orders executed. This is also an unreliable measure of productivity as it is unlikely that the orders in one period of time will be of equivalent work content to another period and the more efficiently the buildings have been maintained, the less need for works orders there will be in the future. A large number of works orders executed may indicate a large number of inadequate or ineffective pieces of maintenance work.
Directly employed labour and?contracting systems?
In addition to planning and budgeting, the maintenance department will be responsible for the organisation of the actual work. The major breakdown of work allocation will be into that done by direct employed labour and that done by outside contractors.?
Directly employed labour?
A number of employees may be engaged by the organisation to carry out emergency work and these may need to be available at all times. This type of worker is especially important where there is danger to life or health, or where high property costs are likely to be incurred if repairs or maintenance work are not carried out quickly. If possible the work programme should be arranged so that the men are fully employed.?
Specialist maintenance and repairs (eg lifts) will normally be subcontracted. The type of operative employed in a direct labour maintenance department will need to possess skills and a range of experience so that they can be employed efficiently on a variety of different types of jobs. If the properties of the organisation are widely dispersed, and a central maintenance department exists, travelling costs and subsistence allowances may be excessive and make directly employed labour uneconomic.?
Directly employed labour will have to be supplied with efficient tools and space to store materials etc.?
Contracted labour?
There are several different types of contract that may be used for maintenance work.?
1 Lump sum contract?
The contractor provides an estimate for a given project based on information supplied by the organisation. The information may be in the form of drawings and/or specification and/or bill of quantities. This type of contract procedure is useful for large, well-defined work, eg extensions, or easily defined, major alteration work. A lump sum contract may be firm price type, or fluctuations in materials and/or labour rates that occur during the works may be allowed.?
2???Schedule contracts?
Where there are large quantities of similar items of work, a list of the expected items may be made by the organisation’s maintenance department, and this may either be priced by the contractor or prices may be inserted before the schedule is sent to the contractor. The contractor will quote a percentage variation to the rates. When the work has been executed it is measured and priced at the rates agreed in the schedule.?
Schedule contracts are frequently used for term contracts in which the organisation agrees to allow the contractor to carry out all the organisation’s work of a certain type and/or in a region and/or within certain cost limits for an agreed period of time.?
Term contracts based on schedules are suitable for large quantities of recurring maintenance and repair works particularly where the workload is fairly constant.?
3???Cost reimbursement contracts?
These are also known as prime cost contracts. The amount paid to the contractor depends upon the cost to the contractor of the labour, material and plant actually used (prime cost). In addition to these actual costs an additional amount is added. This amount may be fixed (fixed fee reimbursement contract) irrespective of the prime cost value. This fixed fee form is suitable only for projects which are fairly well defined so that the contractor can estimate his commitments.?
A variation of the fixed fee involves a target cost for the work, together with a fixed fee. If the prime cost is less than the target cost, the fee is increased by an agreed percentage. The fee is decreased by a percentage if the target cost is exceeded by the prime cost.?
Planned maintenance (PM)?
A simple definition of PM is:?
‘Maintenance organised and carried out with forethought, control and records to a predetermined plan.’?
For building work, a planned maintenance scheme is more suitable than a planned preventive maintenance (PPM) scheme (dealt with later). Buildings constructed of bricks and mortar by their very nature do not normally collapse. Therefore the fact that a window casement stay is broken, a door needs easing or a floor tile needs replacing is not going to lead to the immediate collapse of the building, and items such as these can reasonably be left unattended for a while.?
A number of building defects can be left to be ‘picked up’ by technical staff in a detailed annual inspection. Planned maintenance is, as its name suggests, a method whereby all work of this nature which can be foreseen in the coming year (or longer if the organisation wishes) is detailed, costed and recorded. In this way, the maintenance manager can see at a glance exactly what tasks need to be carried out at any particular time.?
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No programme of work can be carried out successfully and efficiently without a plan of this kind being prepared and adhered to as far as possible. Housing is often considered to be best suited for planned maintenance.?
Inspections carried out annually as part of a planned maintenance programme have to be very systematic (see Figure 7). A standard defects form is often used to make sure nothing is missed and that the exact location of defects can be identified. To this end, buildings are usually given an identifying number or letter and all rooms, walk-in cupboards etc should also be numbered.?
It is important that the form has a space allocated to identifying any defect which could create a hazardous situation.?
Defects will need to be examined in the light of the possible consequences if left unattended. If there is any doubt, then immediate action needs to be taken to correct the defect.?
Warning notices are sometimes used if no other course of action is possible immediately.?
The maintenance works organisation should have a duty to report any apparent safety hazard, particularly if some legal obligation is being infringed, and the technical officer responsible for that particular aspect of maintenance should check the situation at once.?
Planned preventive maintenance (PPM)?
This is defined as:?
‘Maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals, or to other prescribed criteria, and intended to reduce the likelihood of an item not meeting an acceptable condition.’?
PPM is an attempt to eliminate as far as possible the need for day-to-day maintenance and to reduce the number of separately funded maintenance works – introducing a system of inspections carried out at predetermined intervals and carrying out minor repairs before they have time to develop into larger jobs.?
The checks are done at regular intervals whether or not the items are showing signs of failure. In many instances, property owners have a duty to carry out PPM imposed on them by legislation or insurance company requirements (eg inspection of lifts, hoisting tackle etc). The fundamental difference between choosing planned maintenance or planned preventive maintenance is that the former is suitable for buildings whilst the latter is more suited to engineering or related works.?
An argument often used to discourage the implementation of PPM is the cost of installing and operating the system. Although there are some good computer programs available, it requires a very detailed physical site survey to identify all the component parts of an estate, which is time-consuming and expensive (see Figure 8).?
Broadly, the questions that should be asked before making a decision as to which system to use are:?
There is no doubt that PPM has the advantage of preventing the loss of facility to the client and downturn in production. However, it is easy to over-maintain with this system, and the frequency of maintenance needs to be reviewed regularly to prevent this.?
Cyclical maintenance?
This comprises items which recur at regular intervals; eg redecoration, resurfacing of roads and footpaths etc. The important point when preparing a programme of this kind is the optimum frequency of maintenance, eg the economics of painting individual elevations of a building at different times to spread the cost, balanced against the cost of scaffolding and other costs.?
Non-cyclical maintenance?
The need for this type of maintenance will be identified from the condition surveys and the client’s policy. It should include major repairs and replacements which, although they may be forecast on a life cycle basis and may therefore be considered cyclical, are nevertheless so infrequent as to take them out of this category.?
Schedule/Contingency maintenance systems?
Schedule system?
This is designed to cover items that deteriorate at a more or less uniform rate and which do not have a high degree of urgency. Examples might be:?
l Carrying out work at predetermined times where the incidence of failure can be predicted with some accuracy, or where periods are fixed by statute of contract. An example might be decoration demanded, by the terms of a lease, to be done at specified intervals.?
l Inspections to determine failures or imminent failures whose exact time of replacement is not known with any certainty – the inspections determining whether the work is necessary.?
l Inspections, when it is possible to predict that work will need to be done at a certain time but the extent of the work that will be necessary is not known.?
Contingency system?
(Unplanned requisitioned or emergency maintenance.)?
This is maintenance which is left until there is a breakdown or a complaint from the user before action is taken, sometimes referred to as ‘casual maintenance’.?
With some items this may be expensive in the loss of facility to the client or production downturn. It is also expensive in diversion of resources to deal with emergencies which disrupt the maintenance programme. If the frequencies and types of complaint are analysed, procedures for dealing with this type of remedial work can be planned even though the timing is uncertain. For example, the direct labour force can be sized and manned to deal with a predicted workload and materials and fittings can be kept on hand for the more common repairs.?
A necessary feature of this type of system is the need for a delay period between the receipt of the request and the actual completion of the work. However, where danger to persons is involved, work must be done as quickly as possible. If there is to be a delay, adequate precautions must be taken to make sure people are not at risk.?
The main factors to be considered when deciding whether to treat work under a schedule or a contingency system are:?
1.????The predictability of failure. Components which deteriorate at a known or fairly uniform rate can be dealt with under the schedule system; those which are susceptible to sudden failure by the contingency system.?
2.????The reporting delay time. If the time between notification and execution is lengthy, schedule systems can be used. Conversely, the shorter the lead time, the more likely the contingency system should be used.?
3.????The rate of deterioration of the component and the corresponding increase in the cost of rectification. The speed with which the user can be relied upon to report significant defects.?
Planned or scheduled maintenance?
The advantages of a good planned system for maintenance are:?
1.????A more efficient service can be provided.?
2.????There will be less interference with the normal use of the building as the maintenance can be carried out at most suitable times (eg holiday shutdown times).?
3.????Defects are likely to be detected sooner than with an ad hoc system. In general it is assumed that the longer a defect is left before rectification, the greater will be the inconvenience, and often the greater the cost of remedying the defect.?
4.????There may be less risk to persons, furniture, fittings etc, the sooner a defect is rectified.?
5.????There will be fewer crisis jobs and accidents.?
6.????Resources in the maintenance department can be more fully utilised and materials ordered and obtained in advance.?
7.????Specialist subcontractors etc can be booked in advance.?
8.????Better organisation and teamwork within the maintenance department, thereby improving morale and reducing cost.?
9.????Better records will result in improved financial forecasting and this will result in more realistic budgets.?
Scheduled maintenance systems involve planning of the workload of the maintenance organisation in advance. In order to do this it is necessary to have sufficient information to anticipate maintenance requirements and problems likely to arise in the future. Part of the system works on the principle that it can be assumed that materials under given conditions will deteriorate at a more or less constant rate, so that cyclical renewals will be necessary. If the cycle is fairly short, say daily, weekly, monthly, or even six monthly, this may be regarded as routine maintenance, whereas cycles of three years or more may be described as infrequent cycles. Between these two figures organisations may classify the cycles differently for internal planning or budgeting purposes. An example of routine maintenance would be the oiling and greasing of some moving parts of fans in an air-conditioning system, while painting externally forms one of the infrequent cycles.?
Scheduled maintenance includes provision for regular inspection of the various elements forming the building in order that any defects can be noted and subsequently rectified. In addition, signs that a material or piece of equipment is likely to fail in the near future can also be noted and precautions taken to reduce the likelihood of failure.?
Task decisions?
These will describe in detail the maintenance to be carried out on various pieces of equipment and can be produced for the use of the operative. The record will include the frequency of each task and the operative should enter the date at which he carries out the task before returning the document to his supervisor. The record may also contain the estimated time or standard time allowance for doing the task and this may be used for programming and bonus payments. If the task must be carried out at a certain period of the day (eg after working hours) this should also be added to the record.?
The tasks may be divided into two groups:?
a.????those which can be carried out without prior inspection by a supervisor; and?
b.????those for which inspection by a more senior member of the organisation is desirable before an operative is instructed to carry out the work.?
The tasks classified in the first group are likely to be the routine cyclical tasks like oiling and greasing, polishing, gutter cleaning etc and also the minor repair items like replacing washers, unblocking waste pipes etc which come to the notice of the maintenance department as a result of complaints from users. The tasks in the second group may occur as a result of cyclical inspection procedures (eg annual inspection of roof coverings and structure); in these cases the tasks involved will usually be the direct result of the inspection and individual work specifications may be required. If an item is reported or a complaint made by the user which does not fall in the category of minor repairs (eg a displaced or deflecting frame or a crack developing in a wall) an inspection will be necessary and the task specification is likely to be an individual one. No matter which category the task comes into, a full record of the inspection and the work done, by whom it was performed and how long it took (or the cost if it needed to be contracted out), should be made.?
The frequency and long-term programme of work will be included in the maintenance manual but greater detail will be required by the maintenance department in its operations or tactical planning. Some organisations produce a series of 52 weekly programme sheets, each of which indicates the items of planned or scheduled maintenance to be carried out during the week. It is generally only practical to allocate about 50 percent of the total available operative time to this form of maintenance as the remainder of the time is likely to be required for contingency items (eg burst pipes), for corrective maintenance and other sundry items. By checking with the task descriptions, an estimate of the total workload and the amount of overtime or shift work required can be calculated well in advance.?
Unplanned or contingency maintenance?
For unplanned maintenance items a contingency system should be developed. This will indicate how defects are to be communicated to the maintenance department and also the procedure for dealing with them.?
Complaints may be reported by the user’s department direct to the maintenance department or through an intermediary. Complaints may involve major structural failures (eg damage to a column by a vehicle knocking into it) but in general they will be of a minor nature (eg leaking taps, lamp failure, blocked waste pipes, broken glass and furniture etc). Requests for improvement and/or alterations may also be received in the same way. Policy decisions must be made on how these requests are to be dealt with and whether there are any financial constraints which should be imposed. The items which might come under this category are changes in partition layout, provision of additional services, changes of decor etc.
Special forms may be produced which can be used to report complaints and requests and these will be added to the maintenance record. The maintenance department should also keep a sequential record of items giving the date of receipt and when and how the item was subsequently dealt with.?
In a few cases changes in legislation will result in certain items of unplanned maintenance occurring but there is generally sufficient warning given for the observant maintenance manager to incorporate these in the programme.?
The procedure to be adopted by the maintenance department when complaints or requests are received or emergencies occur should be set out in a manual produced for the contingency system. Priority classifications should be established for the complaints and requests and a comprehensive list of the items in each category compiled. The priorities will normally be allocated as follows:?
1.????Danger to life.?
2.????Danger to health.?
3.????Danger to property.?
4.????Interruption to procedure or user business.?
5.????Amenity work.?
The contingency system should provide very specific instructions with regard to items in the high priority classes so that they can be dealt with even though senior members of the staff may not be on the premises. Prior planning and prominent display of instructions are necessary in the high priority groups (eg fire).?
There must be adequate resources to deal with emergencies either by the organisation of standby employees or specific arrangements with outside organisations (contract service) to provide immediate response.?
Some of the items in high priority groups which should be considered by the maintenance department of an industrial or commercial organisation are listed below:?
1??Fire?
Regular checking of the means of escape to ensure that they are of adequate size, structurally sound and that they are not being obstructed by storage of materials etc.?
The escape routes should be well signed and alternative routes indicated. Instructions on what to do in case of fire should be prominently displayed.?
Regular inspection and testing of all the firefighting and alarm equipment should be carried out.?
Fire protection and smoke stop provisions should be checked frequently to ensure that the users do not reduce their efficiency (eg wedging open doors).?
The maintenance department should co-operate with the safety officer and should itself keep a layout drawing showing all the firefighting equipment and control points and data on capacities. The records should give the dates of all tests and inspections, fire drills and visits of the fire prevention officer. The reports of the fire prevention and safety officers should be available and the records should show the work already carried out in connection with these and what is still outstanding. All maintenance staff should be instructed in their personal duties in the event of an outbreak of fire.?
2??Explosion?
Some buildings have a fairly high risk of explosion due to the operations being carried out and the maintenance department should have suitable procedures in place.?
3?Abnormal weather?
Instructions to staff on the procedure to adopt in the event of abnormal weather conditions (eg floods, storms, abnormal snow) should be provided. The maintenance organisation should establish stores for this type of emergency and these should be kept separately from the normal stores so that there is no temptation to use them under normal conditions. The emergency stores might contain among other things the following items: tarpaulins; material for providing temporary shoring; sandbags; ropes; lamps; pumps; hand tools like axes, shovels etc; field telephones or other methods of establishing temporary communication systems; material for boarding up or otherwise securing openings. The type and quantity of equipment will depend upon the type of building, the likelihood of the conditions occurring and the availability of assistance from outside sources. A list of all the equipment and where it is stored should be kept. The names and addresses of outside sources which can be called upon to provide assistance should also be noted. Where the maintenance department services buildings over a wide area, regulations concerning the minimum amount of petrol or other fuel in the transport are desirable, so that lack of fuel does not add to other difficulties occurring in an emergency.?
4??Service failures?
Service failures which cause grave concern or inconvenience to the users of the building will have a high priority. Instructions on how to deal with a lift breakdown should be prominently displayed. Electrical interruption may seriously interfere with the work being carried out in the building and problems of safety may occur. For certain buildings temporary light and/or temporary power may be necessary. Instructions on how these are to be operated should be communicated to members of the maintenance department and others in authority. The method of dealing with fractured water pipes, defective cisterns or fittings should also be high on the list of priorities as these failures may result in considerable damage to the contents of the building as well as to the building itself. Alternative methods of heating in the event of a failure in the heating system or shortage of fuel should also be planned.?
In the event of low priority contingency maintenance being required, the maintenance administration should investigate the failure and its cause and consider whether it would be possible to avoid this failure occurring in the future by changing the inspection procedure, or some other procedure (eg replacing all tap washers every three years instead of waiting for a complaint). The cost of the alternatives should be estimated and methods chosen taking into account safety, cost and inconvenience. All planning must allow for flexibility in the light of additional data.
Evaluation of alternatives?
Before deciding on work to be carried out it may be necessary to evaluate the various alternatives in order to ensure that the organisation obtains value for money. This involves estimating the cost of changes in the production function of the firm, the cost of providing temporary accommodation and the cost of moving equipment during alterations. When scheduled maintenance is proposed, the mean times between failures, the mean time taken to carry out repairs, as well as the actual cost of doing the work will need to be considered for alternative systems. The cost of training operatives for different methods and the cost of information systems for any new procedures will also have to be taken into account.?
CEM. (2011).?Building maintenance management 1. London: CEM. p.29.