Maintenance Policy Elements Validation for the Maintenance Management of Higher Educational Institution Buildings in the Nigerian Education Sector

Abstract

Maintenance policy is one of the core-element of maintenance management that deals with organisation maintenance planning and procedures. It is based on this contextual setting that this study investigates whether elements that guided maintenance policy in Western countries are similar in the maintenance management of higher educational buildings (HEI) in the Nigerian education sector. A Delphi study was used in obtaining the required data for this study. The Delphi findings indicate fifteen (15) elements that impacted effective maintenance management of the HEI buildings in the Nigeria education sector. Among these fifteen (15) elements, four (4) of the elements have a very high impact on maintenance management of HEI buildings (VHI: 9.00 -10.00), seven (7) elements had a high impact (HI: 7.00-8.99) while four (4) other elements had a medium impact score (MI: 5.00-6.99). The key result of the study based on the Delphi study reveals that the elements of maintenance policy that influence effective MM of HEI buildings in the Nigerian education sector include: assembling of maintenance organisation structure; maintenance strategies development; spare-part management; meeting maintenance objectives; suitable maintenance procedures and process; optimisation of the maintenance action plan; risk factor establishment; timely identification of maintenance work; analysis of maintenance procedure; working together with regulatory agencies and well define priority system. The result presented indicates that these elements are similar to those of the developed countries, and if incorporated into policies guiding maintenance operations within the education sector in Nigeria, effective MM of the HEI buildings will be achieved.