Maintenance in real estate and manufacturing industries: Differences, problems, needs and potentials - four case studies

Abstract

It is about 50 % of the activities in the housing sector in the EU region are related to maintenance. According to several publications, building management systems are still quite rare and efficient methodologies for service life prediction of building parts still need to be developed. Also, recent studies show difficulties in finding comprehensive answers concerning, e.g. identifying risks and preventive maintenance actions. Incomplete information can easily lead to incorrect maintenance actions. The problem addressed is: How to improve performance and cost-effectiveness of the maintenance applied on real estate facilities especially buildings to reduce maintenance and management costs and increase company profit? The study’s objectives are to analyse maintenance; techniques, costs, weaknesses and potentials, and compare it with manufacturing industry experience. Also, to investigate whether there is a need for a DSS for planning and follow up cost-effective CBM. The major results of four case studies are; (1) Preventive and breakdown maintenance are mainly used and actions are funded from different accounts. (2) The concept of cost-effectiveness is applied occasionally. (3) Lack of CBM-DSS for planning, follow up and evaluate maintenance profitability, and cost-effective improvements of company business and tenant living quality. (4) The profit generated by continuous heating of building thanks efficient maintenance is about 2.332 million SEK. The major conclusion; there is a reasonable opportunity to reduce buildings’ management and maintenance costs.