DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR MAINTENANCE: FACILITY MANAGERS’ PERSPECTIVE

Maintainability is one of the considerations designers take into account in the design stage of building construction projects. In other words, maintainability is a design consideration that may improve ease of maintenance during operation. The designer is expected to include maintenance knowledge and experience into the design, including planning for specific tools to facilitate implementation. Maintainability issues appear during the occupancy stage and have a direct impact on the cost of owning and operating a facility. Annual operation and maintenance expenses during the life cycle of a building could amount to many times the initial construction cost. Design deficiencies constitute one of the main reasons for high annual maintenance cost. Facility management involves activities to maintain and operate a constructed facility. It is essential to evaluate facility managers’ perspective on how maintainability characteristics should be considered at design phase of facilities. A survey of 168 facility managers in the mid-west region of the US is uncovered that (1) maintainability should be top priority in design, especially for mechanical systems, (2) deferred maintenance should be avoided because it increases costs over the life-cycle of buildings, and (3) constructed facilities should be handed over with a maintenance schedule provided by the designer. Paying special attention to maintainability in the design phase is expected to help reducing the cost of operation.