Application of the principles of ILS to the development of cost effective maintenance strategies for existing building stock

Total spending on building maintenance in the UK has increased by 66% in the last 10 years (BMI, 1996). Total expenditure on maintenance in 1997 was 39.8 billion (BMI, 1998). Any significant reduction in building maintenance costs will therefore have a real impact on the national economy. This paper reports the results of a research project supported by the EPSRC at the University of Dundee, which sought to quantify the benefits of applying integrated logistics support (ILS) to the development of cost-effective maintenance strategies for existing building stock. ILS is a managerial and technical approach that ensures that the client/user will receive a building that will meet performance requirements (durability, reliability, maintainability, performance, etc.) at the lowest whole life cost. The principles of ILS are described and a systematic framework for selecting the most appropriate and cost-effective maintenance task for each individual element in a building is developed. The decision logic processes for identifying each failure consequence and for selecting the most applicable and cost-effective maintenance task are derived. The maintenance cost savings arising from the application of two ILS techniques - failure modes and effects analysis, and reliability centred maintenance - to a sample of 18 properties were calculated to be 18.5%.