Towards Improvement in Facilities Operation and Maintenance through Feedback to the Design Team

Direct involvement of the facility manager in the design stage has the potential to reduce maintainability problems during the operational phase of a facility. The objectives of this paper are to investigate the role of the facility manager towards the provision of easily maintainable projects; and propose an approach for fostering new avenues of collaborations among various professionals in the design team. A critical review of the literature has been carried out for the purposes of understanding the effects of design on facilities operation and maintenance. The paper critically analyses the current approach followed in the design of building projects; and explores the range of contributions that the facility manager could offer, during the design phase, towards facilities maintenance management. Based on the survey of literature, it has been established that the majority of maintenance problems in a facility is not attributed to construction problems, but rather to design problems. It also reveals that the contribution of the facility manager is not considered by the integrated design team, and there exists no specific role that could be assigned to the facility manager. The paper has consolidated the duties of the facility manager in the architectural design process in order to provide easy maintenance management and quality improvement of the facility. The involvement of the facility manager with the integrated design team if implemented efficiently will contribute in reducing the need for major repairs and alterations in the lifespan of the facility.

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