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MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
Inadequate funding is the most significant maintenance and
repair (M&R) problem for public buildings, but the committee
recognizes as well the need for effective management of the
M&R function to realize the full benefit of funds that are made
available. While this report is not meant to be a comprehensive
treatment of overall maintenance management, the committee
wishes to emphasize the importance of certain specific issues:
cost accounting, staff resources, and management commitment.
COST ACCOUNTING STRUCTURES
The cost accounting structure used by an agency should
separately identify costs associated with M&R. Unfortunately,
this separation is not now strictly defined in many agencies.
Often budgets and expenditures are aggregated under a general
heading of "Operations and Maintenance," and decision makers
perceive only the whole of O&M and not its parts. Under
pressures to reduce budgets, the O&M total may be cut without
recognition that the operating portion is essentially irreducible.
The reduction in funds then falls into the M&R portion of the
O&M effort.
The cost accounting structure should also isolate minor altera-
tions and improvements from routine M&R. Building users often
desire minor alterations and improvements intended to improve
the efficiency of their operation.~7 Often this work is given a
higher priority than true M&R and, thus, represents a "leakage"
of M&R funds.
i7 The committee observes that such "improvements in
operations" are in fact often responses to requests by senior
managers or commanding officers for changes in facilities.
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STAFF RESOURCES
Managing and operating an M&R program requires qualified
engineers and technicians as well as trained managers. Agencies
should assign to a senior executive the responsibility for
oversight of M&R of -field-level activities and budget formu-
lation. In some agencies an executive-level manager for M&R
would be required full time; in other agencies the task may be
delegated as a part-time responsibility.
Finding qualified engineers and technicians to staff M&R
programs is a recurrent problem. Many agencies successfully
contract for some or all M&R functions, but the committee
believes that agency personnel should set requirements, establish
procedures, and assure the quality of the work. Staffing with
qualified people becomes more difficult as buildings become
more complex, notably in their control systems.
Education and training of M&R management and technical
personnel are an important element of an effective M&R pro-
gram. The committee recommends that colleges and universities
that educate facilities managers emphasize the importance of
M&R management. Agencies should include ongoing training for
their staffs. It must be recognized-that facilities maintenance
and management personnel are responsible for major assets that
contribute to the productivity and welfare of the organizations
and individuals who use these facilities.
MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
With this recognition must come an ongoing commitment by
top-level agency management to the protection of the public's
real property investment. This commitment should extend
through the entire agency from the users of the building to the
M&R program managers to the financial managers. The com-
mittee observes that such commitment is seldom in evidence in
public agencies but is characteristic of many manufacturing
concerns where M&R are viewed as tantamount to maintaining
~8 A survey conducted by a standing committee of the Federal
Construction Council revealed that among the 11 responding
agencies the percentage of O&M needs met through contracting
out ranged from 5 percent or less for three agencies to 50 percent
or more for four agencies (Federal Construction Council, The
Experience of Federal Agencies with Onerations and
Maintenance Contracts for Facilities, Technical Report No. 90,
Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1988~.
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the ability to operate and produce goods. Elected officials and
the public at large, as well as agency managers, must recognize
that effective use of public resources and tax dollars depends on
the performance of the government's facilities.
This commitment is especially important when new facilities
are constructed, which some managers and officials may assume
have less need of maintenance than older ones. This assumption
is misguided and can undermine the benefits that new facilities
and new technologies are intended to provide.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
federal construction
