Maintenance conceptual models and their relevance in the development of maintenance auditing tools for school buildings’ assets: an overview

Despite the importance of building and infrastructure maintenance and its role in cost control, savings in materials and life cycle enlargement of equipment and facilities, maintenance is often still regarded only as a disturbing factor which causes Public school infrastructures to often suffer from the negative effects of this philosophy. It is important for managers to improve maintenance performance of school organizations, focusing on areas such as maintenance, building systems, safety improvements and technology, if possible anticipating problems and opportunities in time. To accomplish all of those goals, these organizations must be determined to manage their available resources effectively and to seek improvements for increasing efficiency. In this context, and with the aim of characterizing the Portuguese situation concerning the age and preservation of both installations and fixed equipment of Educational Institutions, as well as their maintenance strategies and politics, maintenance auditing tools for school building assets were developed. This paper presents an overview of maintenance conceptual models as well as a proposal for a maintenance conceptual model aimed at the Portuguese Educational Institutions. The full version of this paper discusses the relevant role of maintenance conceptual models in the development of maintenance auditing tools and contains some results of a study regarding the Portuguese Educational Buildings.