Maintenance Management

Question 1

What is maintenance?

Answer 1

Maintenance is the process of ensuring that buildings and other assets retain a good appearance and operate at optimum efficiency. Inadequate maintenance can result in decay, degradation and reduced performance and can affect heath and threaten the safety of users, occupants and others in the vicinity.

Question 2

How can maintenance help?

Answer 2

Prevent the process of decay and degradation. Maintain structural stability and safety. Prevent unnecessary damage from the weather or from general usage. Optimise performance. Help inform plans for renovation, refurbishment, retrofitting or new buildings. Determine the causes of defects and so help prevent re-occurrence or repetition. Ensure continued compliance with statutory requirements.

Question 3

What classifications of maintenance are there?

Answer 3

Maintenance can be classified as: Planned maintenance: Carried out on a regular basis, such as servicing boilers. Preventive maintenance: Carried out in order to keep something in working order or extend its life, such as replacing cracked roofing tiles before inclement weather. Corrective maintenance: This involves repairing something that has broken, such as a window or guttering. Front-line maintenance: This involves maintaining something while it is still in use, such as repainting and decorating an occupied building. Proactive maintenance: Maintenance work that is undertaken to avoid failures or to identify defects that could lead to failure. Reliability centred maintenance: A combination of maintenance strategies used to ensure a physical asset continues to function correctly. Scheduled maintenance: Preventive maintenance carried out in accordance with predetermined intervals, number of operations, hours run, and so on.

Question 4

What is PPM?

Answer 4

Planned and preventative maintenance (PPM) are sometimes grouped together to distinguish them from unplanned maintenance undertaken in response to an incident. PPM may be scheduled on a PPM calendar.

Question 5

What is an O&M manual?

Answer 5

The building owner’s manual, or operation and maintenance manual (O&M manual), contains the information required for the operation, maintenance, decommissioning and demolition of a building.

The building owner’s manual is prepared by the contractor with additional information from the designers (in particular the services engineer) and suppliers.

It is a requirement that is generally defined in the preliminaries section of the tender documentation where its contents will be described, although there may be additional requirements regarding mechanical and electrical services in the mechanical and electrical specification.

Question 6

What is a Building Log Book

Answer 6

Part L of the Building Regulations (conservation of fuel and power) requires that the building owner is issued with information about the building services to help them operate the building properly and efficiently.

It is suggested that this is done by issuing a building log book to the building’s facilities manager.

Building log books are required for new buildings and for existing buildings where the services have changed. Whilst not a requirement of the Building Regulations, it is suggested that existing buildings would also benefit from a building log book.

Question 7

What approaches are available for maintenance?

Answer 7

Condition-based, ‘corrective’ maintenance. Reactive maintenance undertaken to repair something that has broken Planned preventive maintenance (PPM) which is scheduled and can prevent damage from occurring, helping to avoid breakdowns and down-time.

Question 8

What is a JCT-RM Contract?

Answer 8

The Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT)’s repair and maintenance contract (JCT-RM) is intended for use on commercial projects where there is a defined programme of repair and maintenance works for a building or buildings.

JCT-RM is primarily used by local authorities and any other employers who are used to placing a large number of small and medium-size contracts, and are therefore expected to be experienced in handling contractors’ accounts; removing the need for an independent contract administrator.

The contract enables flexible pricing and payment structures, allowing the employer to seek quotes based on fixed price, daywork, or other rates.

Question 9

When is a JCT-RM contract not suitable?

Answer 9

While the contract can be used on both public and private sector projects, it is not suitable for private homeowner projects.

It is also not suitable for repair and maintenance that will be carried out over a fixed time period.

The Measured Term Contract (MTC) is more suitable for periodic works.

Question 10

What is a Measured Term Contract?

Answer 10

Measured term contracts (such as JCT MTC 2011) are used where the client has a regular programme of works that they would like to be undertaken by a single contractor.

They are generally used for minor works or for maintenance work.

The contract will generally define the buildings that will be covered by the works, the term over which works may be required (usually between one and three years), an estimate of the likely total value of the works that will be required over the term and an estimate of the likely size of individual orders.

Appointment is based on an agreed schedule of rates related to the categories of work that are likely to form part of the programme.

When individual works are required, the client issues an instruction (or order) to the contractor which may include a written description of the works, drawings if appropriate and a valuation agreed by the client and contractor. Payments are then calculated based on an agreed schedule of rates.

Question 11

What is maintenance management?

Answer 11

The administrative, financial and technical process for assessing and planning maintenance operations on a scheduled basis.

Question 12

Why do we undertake maintenance in a managed way?

Answer 12

• Preserve - To preserve the value and quality of the investment in the asset.
• Comply (Lease) - To comply with lease obligations (if applicable).
• Keep available - To reduce the unavailability period resulting from failures, to a level acceptable to the property occupier.
• Compliance with statute - comply with a range of legal requirements that apply to the health and safety aspects of property related assets.
• An effective and pro active Maintenance Management regime is also imperative in ensuring organisations compliance with The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which introduced a new offence across the UK for prosecuting companies and other organisations where there has been a gross failing, throughout the organisation, in the management of Health & Safety with fatal consequences.

Question 13

Explain the ‘elemental approach’ to maintenance

Answer 13

Any Building or Real Estate Asset is made of key elements or components e.g:

• structure,
• building fabric,
• windows and doors,
• M&E services etc.

Each element has common repairs and maintenance requirements that occur in normal building operation due to:

• wear and tear,
• time degradation,
• to comply with statutory obligations,

Each of these requirements will have a general frequency of occurrence e.g. redecoration is every 6-8 years, lift rope inspection on an annual basis.

Additionally there will be an economic life of particular items when it reaches a point where replacement / renewal becomes more effective than repair / maintenance especially when the cost of loss of use due to down time for repairs is taken into account (e.g. boiler)

Question 14

Explain ‘Operational Interface’ and how it impacts maintenance procedures?

Answer 14

understand the operational requirements of building’s occupiers and their tolerance to accept down time should a component of the building fail.

For example, a single light bulb failure in the reception is inconvenient, but the failure of an air conditioning system in a computer server room is business critical.

There will be a defined range of acceptable working conditions for the facility e.g. general appearance, temperature, humidity, as well as defined working / operational hours e.g. 9-5 or 24x7. These factors will influence the level of maintenance needed to ensure the required standards or service levels are met. The operational use of the facility will also influence what opportunity there is to carry out the work and thus the cost of that work

Question 15

Planned vs Reactive Maintenance

Answer 15

• Planned maintenance - planned action that can be scheduled, budgeted and arranged to suit the operations of the building’s occupiers.
• Reactive maintenance - “reacting” to unexpected breakdown, what needs to done to minimise disruption.

A full programme of appropriate PPM actions should minimise or avoid unplanned failures.

Question 16

Explain the concept of ‘Maintenance levels’.

Answer 16

There is an economic balance to be met between optimising the cost of maintenance versus any losses to the business that might occur by disruption (e.g. lack of power) or effects on productivity (e.g. lack of heating in winter).

There needs to be a continuous assessment of essential repairs and where necessary, the preparation of a business case to support proposed actions or adjustments to the level of maintenance. In specific cases, where interruptions can not be tolerated at all, the assets may be configured to provide redundancy to cater for failures and allow off line maintenance without interrupting supply.

It should be noted that maintenance expenditure is a revenue expense and is not subject to the same tax advantages as a capital investment.

Question 17

Explain the concept of ‘Whole Life Costing’ in terms of maintenance management.

Answer 17

A key factor in any such business case will be to minimise the whole life costs of the asset.

Each major investment decision should account for the future costs of maintenance and other factors such as; how the maintenance will affect energy use, user availability and asset life.

By doing an in depth lifecycle evaluation, the long terms costs implications can be fairly assessed and robust decisions made.

Question 18

When would ‘Outsourcing’ be considered and why?

Answer 18

A key economic consideration for some users is a comparison of ‘in house’ versus ‘contracted out’ maintenance.

This is influenced by the size of the establishment (small buildings would not warrant having permanent staff) and the user’s approach to risk.

Question 19

What are the various approaches to outsourcing?

Answer 19

In terms of out sourcing maintenance works, there are a wide spectrum of routes that could be chosen, depending on the size of the building and internal resources available.

Most basic approach - place separate service contracts for every piece of work. This could be very time consuming to manage and co ordinate.

Simpler approach - out source the entire operation, to a fully comprehensive contract, in some cases also transferring the maintenance fund risk, and using a help desk function to log problems and coordinate the response.

Factors to be considered in such an evaluation include: o Overall cost impact

o Response times (is there a target response time?)

o Operating hours (is 24 x 7 operation required?)

o Category of the space i.e. bank trading floor vs average 9-5 office o Expectation of users o Approach to risk

Question 20

How is waste and energy relevant to maintenance?

Answer 20

Every business is under pressure to reduce costs.

Maintenance management has a key role to play in avoiding waste, from repairing leaking taps to ensuring temperature controls operate correctly and balancing the whole life cost of the facility.

Question 21

How does Health and Safety impact maintenance requirements?

Answer 21

A fundamental and essential part of managing the building maintenance function is to carry out any works safely.

This involves knowledge of the relevant HSE legislation and undertaking out safety assessments for the activities where the risks to users, the maintenance operatives and the general public are assessed.

This is particularly important when considering any element that could potentially cause injury e.g. Lifts or electrical appliances (There are specific Regulations that govern how these are inspected, to what frequency and by whom).

Employing competent personnel is an important part of this process, whether internal staff or external contractors.

Question 22

What is a typical decoration programme?

Answer 22

External decoration - 3-5 Years

Internal decoration - 5 Years

Question 23

Gas - What are statutory obligations for maintenance?

Answer 23

You must ensure that a gas safety check is done every year on each gas appliance/flue. Before any new lease starts, you must make sure that these checks have been done within one year before the start of the lease date.

Many factory and warehouse-based businesses are highly reliant on gas systems, and these fall under the building maintenance statutory requirements of the Gas Safety Regulations 1998. All gas systems must be checked at minimum, once a year. They will be fully serviced, inspected and a certificate will be issued by a registered outside party.

Question 24

How often are electrical inspections required?

Answer 24

Your electrics should be inspected and tested every: 10 years for an owner-occupied home. 5 years for a rented home.

Electrical appliances and outlets in the workplace must be maintained and checked regularly. This falls under the Electricity at Work Regulations of 1989. All items, whether fixed or portable must be tested visually and undergo insulation and earth continuity testing regularly. These tests must be performed by an authorised person or a registered outside party.

Question 25

What are the requirements for water?

Answer 25

Water systems are tested under the Health Regulations of 1988 and the updated guidance of 2010. Water can harbour hazardous substances and must be rigorously tested to ensure there is no risk to staff. Two assessments take place under the building maintenance statutory requirements; first, you must be issued with a certificate for Legionella Risk Assessment, then you may also require a monthly check of water temperature to ensure optimum conditions. The Legionella certificate is valid for 2 years from its issue.