Facilities management: the strategic selection of a maintenance system

Purpose – A major role of facilities management is ensuring the useability, reliability, and safety of the asset being managed. To achieve this management must use a system to control the maintenance function. The purpose of the paper is to identify and describe the various maintenance management models and systems available for facilities managers to consider. Design/methodology/approach – Two comprehensive reviews of the literature were undertaken to categorise the various maintenance management models and identify popular models in practice. Findings – The review identified 37 maintenance management models. From these, four were found to be popular: total productive maintenance (TPM), condition-based maintenance (CBM), reliability-centred maintenance (RCM), and condition monitoring (CM). While many thousands of papers can be found of these four models, the support in the literature for the remaining 33 models is very limited. Research limitations/implications – While providing a sound foundation for future research, the papers findings are based solely on reviewing literature. Practical implications – For facilities managers seeking to expand their knowledge of a particular model or maintenance management systems in general, the paper provides a practical understanding. Originality/value – Papers focused solely on identifying and describing maintenance management models are scarce and this paper makes a concerted attempt to link academic research with management practitioners.