System development toward effective maintenance management practices

Purpose – The current maintenance management method has affected the efficiency of the building facility management at Polytechnics. Many issues such as poor service delivery, inadequate finance, poor maintenance planning and maintenance backlogs have emerged due to the usage of conventional method application (paper-based form and unsystematic database). Therefore, the proposed system improvement is intended to be used for maintenance management practices at Malaysian Polytechnics in order to provide high quality of building facility with safe and healthy environments. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Eight Polytechnics were selected based on major problems of using conventional method in the comparison to investigate the maintenance management practices in each Polytechnic. Findings – The overall findings of this research indicated; poor service delivery, inadequate financial, poor maintenance planning and maintenance backlogs. The system architecture and the conceptual process model are presented to integrate the information database and maintenance management processes in improving the building diagnosis approach and decision-making process for managing building maintenance. Originality/value – This new system development provides a better maintenance assessment for identifying symptoms, causes and reasons of building defects without depending on the expensive instruments, for instance, non-destructive testing (NDT) and sensor technology. It also has the potential to become the successful technology in assisting the maintenance contractors, clients and developer for effective management of maintenance defects at Polytechnic.