What is about maintenance. Refers to the British Sandard 8210, the maintainance is a combination of all technical and administrative action intended to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required function. The previous version of British Standard (BS 3811: 1964) defined maintenance as a combination of any action carried out to retain an item, or restore it to, an acceptable condition.
"Building maintenance management has always been seen as the 'Cinderella' of the construction industry and has never been recognized in its own right. It has always been seen and carried out as part of another function, or discipline such as architects, surveyors, engineers, or nowadays facilities managers." (Allen: 1993)
Building maintenance as something "regarded by many as a 'Cinderella' activity (with) little glamour, unlikely to attract very much attention and frequently regarded as unproductive" (Seely: 1976)
As a past, when the maintenance is required, it usually carried out by the individual owner or landlord. With the increasing of population over a year and the good inter-relation between tenants- landlords the maintenance management is become more important.
Maintenance management is actually required and very important at the first stage of the construction. It is should be at the design stage of the building. It is important because the design of the building will be effect the maintenance management. So, that is why the designer should be giving an adequate briefing to the client before the design is finalize and construction is start.
Maintenance management comprising with many operations and functions and it is can be described as the effective and efficient utilization of the resources in order to ensure that the building' facilities is functioned well and kept operable to a standard which is setting up by client. In order to fulfil the objectives of the maintenance, a strategy and the work flow (process) is required. (Allen: 1993)
The quality and efficiency of a building maintenance management operation is depending on some extent, on how information (feedback) on the condition of the building, the needs of the users of the building and the work carried out is collected and used.
In order to have an effective and efficient maintenance management, the team maintenance management should take some new innovative action to maintain or in other word is care the property or building. As such example of innovation on maintenance of building is applied the technique of just-in-time (JIT) and the technology in the form of sensors and intelligent controls which is serving the market. (Wood: 1999)
CONTENTS
Application on intelligence concepts
We are actually always looking at the past and use the past experience to face the new problem forecasting. Since the 1970s it has been common technique to use virtue of planned preventive maintenance (PPM), with it underlying philosophy of "Fail to plan, plan to fail". PPM has faced the criticism because failed to maximise the service life of the component in a building. Why not we try to be an intelligent person and use the intelligent approaches or technology to solve our problems. Intelligent here as definition (Garmonsway: 1969) is as follows:
Ability to understand, reason and perceive;
Quickness in learning;
Mental alertness;
Ability to grasp relationship; and
Information.
Nowadays, many buildings are operates and occupied with 24 hours a day, that is mean it is occupied in every single hours with occupants. So, this will have some difficulty to identify the times for the large programme of maintenance work. As on opinion of the author in retail sector (Smyth and Wood: 1995) to identify extensive use of sophisticated PPM routines, revealed a move from PPM to just-in-time (JIT) maintenance:
"Getting the maximum life from each (building) component and piece of equipment, leaving repair or replacement until the component is broken or fails to function, yet taking action prior to it having a serious effect on the performance of the organisation."
Intelligence is come from two sides, human and the technology in the buildings. They must be in a balance situation or win-win situation. Where the human or people should at first have the skills to operates the technology itself, plus he/she should well-qualified building services engineers, they are focusing on design, installation and commissioning. But without the backups by the intelligent technology the qualified personnel are actually cannot be do their tasks smoothly. For example: as a facility manager, he/she should record much information, for instance works order, invoices, etc. He/she might be needed a longer time to settle down all the tasks and make the completion.
The new technology are so impressive, the technology advances have now enables to process and analysis of such data collected, then the collection and production of even more data than could ever have been envisaged, imagined or used.(Wood: 1999)
This showed to us how the technology of intelligence buildings is helping us to do the maintenance work in efficient and effective ways without the intervention from the human at the point need to identify what the data mean. In addition, this technology of intelligence buildings is use with the just-in-time (JIT) maintenance.
For instances, today have intelligence technology such as an automatic air-conditioning system. This air-conditioning system is completed with the sensor of the surrounding weather. The sensor is placed at the top of the roof, it is function to detect the surrounding weather and the data will automatically remotely the air-conditioning system, whether to turn on or off the system.
These more effective and efficient rather than to regularly monitor details such as the supply, temperatures, humidification, water flow and failed compressors, other than remotely, make adjustments that either the manufacturer's specification or the user's condition. This system are already used in a Birmingham,UK, Alabama, Berlin and Bombay
This systems is increases the energy efficiency of the system, translating to bottom-line savings and aids in preventive maintenance- troubled can be spotted and corrected off-hours (Bowman: 1998).
As a conclusion, the only trustworthy and reliable organisations with customer focusing and providing care, quality and satisfaction from the traditional construction disciplines are actually looking for by the building owner, occupants, and customers.
OUTSOURCING THE MAINTENANCE WORK
To preserve the structural integrity, aesthetic value and the appearance inside and outside of the building, a proper maintenance work must be done. These will continuously make the building be a valuable asset. Proper maintenance work actually can help to minimise the cost that is incurred of providing the services. The major cost elements include the cost of human resources, energy costs, cost of consumable and spare parts required in the routine service and repair of equipment and charges for various utilities (example: municipal waste and waste water disposal). (Francis W.H Yik: 2005).
Most of the owners of building hire in-house maintenance team to execute the work to ensure the maintenance work can be carried out when and where the maintenance is required especially when the problems requiring attention arise (example: breakdown of equipments in a building, such as lift or escalator). However, the in-house maintenance team are actually uneconomical; this might be because the in-house team not expertise in some aspect of maintenance and need to hire another specialist are typically outsourced to settle the problems.
In such example of country, Hong Kong; increasingly more building owners in both private and public sectors have started to outsource the maintenance work for their because to cut their cost on maintenance work. For instance, HSBC, a major bank and the Hong Kong Housing Authority etc
There are some factors and likely the advantages of outsourcing the maintenance work. As we know at first discussion, outsourcing maintenance work is more economical rather than in-house maintenance team. In a study by Francis W.H Yik and Joseph H.K Lai at Hong Kong, China on 2005, there are some advantages that can arise when the owner of the building is outsourcing the maintenance work on their building as follows:
Specialist contractors should be able to organise and manage the maintenance work more efficiently. For instance, deployment of the labour force can be optimise; the cost of procurement of expert knowledge and skills can be shared among the buildings served. The building owners will also be freed from such tasks to concentrate on their own core businesses.
The overhead costs for the organisation and management of the maintenance work will be lower by virtue of economies of scale.
Contractors' specialist knowledge can help building owner run their plant more efficiently and thus save running costs.
Contractors can source equipment and spare parts more easily and promptly, which will help reduced downtime and enhance the reliability of plant, and likewise in the recruitment of a appropriate manpower.
Contractors are in a better position to bargain with supplier of replacement equipment and spare parts, and are able to optimise the stock of spare equipment and parts, which will help reduce the associated costs.
In order to achieve the effective management and efficient cost on maintenance work of the building, out-source the maintenance work might be the good option to the owner of the building rather than do in-house maintenance work. The trend of outsource the maintenance work has a good potential if the contractor can continuously offer good and economical services than those perform in-house team to the owner of the building.
CONCLUSION
In organizing the maintenance work of a building, I actually suggested to outsource the work and apply the intelligence building concepts to the building, in order to maximise the satisfaction of the occupants, customers, and the owner of the building and to minimise the cost.
As past the maintenance is always not recognize their right likewise 'Cinderella' but nowadays the maintenance is already can attract the attention from all the professionals in the field of construction about how often the maintenance is importance in a building.
Using the intelligent building concepts is actually can make the maintenance team easier done their tasks; this is because the new technology mostly can operate automatically. Building owners, users, and customers are looking for service, and this is being provided by trustworthy and reliable organisations with a customer-focus and providing care, quality and satisfaction from outside traditional construction disciplines.
The recent economic recession has been a serious blow to the property market and triggered many building owners to outsource maintenance services so as to cut costs. The trend of outsourcing maintenance services has the potential to continue if the contractors can offer quality services more economically than those are offer and performed in-house.
