Currently, maintenance management has become the subject of an increasing number of research and development efforts. The main objective of the present research was to examine the problems of maintenance management under the conventional maintenance process and the implementation of maintenance information and communication technology (ICT). The research focused on the maintenance of Industrialised Building System (IBS) buildings in Malaysia, with the objective of providing a new system for multi-system structures and facilities operating in a dynamic environment. This paper aims to identify how IBS building maintenance environments could integrate a computerised model (CM) within their processes.
This paper describes the last three stages of the research: the establishment of key problem areas, the implementation elements of good practice and the requirements for integrating maintenance management processes and information database in the maintenance management system. A comprehensive case study of the existing conventional method used, and the main features of ICT tools and techniques currently being employed on such IBS building projects is carried out. These findings are synthesised into a conceptual framework for integrating CM through the Building Information Modelling (BIM) process.
Three key problem areas were evaluated, as follows: the defect assessment, the defect diagnosis and the defect planning and execution. This paper illustrates a case study in which the three developed processes were implemented in practice. Characteristics of the case study IBS building are presented and analysed.
Finally, the conclusions and recommendations drawn from the analysis of the IBS building case study are discussed, synthesised and deliberated upon. The approach presented in this paper implements CM aspects to facilitate an improved maintenance process of the factors affecting the execution of IBS building maintenance activities. This paper highlights the new approaches for CM research to integrate maintenance assessment, diagnosis, planning and execution in IBS building maintenance environments effectively. The industry practitioners could use this BIM model to manage the complicated IBS building maintenance process (such as building diagnosis) to achieve the best production of maintenance information.
