Abstract
Despite the importance of building and infrastructure maintenance and its role in cost control, savings in materials and lifetime enlarging of equipment and facilities, maintenance in service organizations is often still regarded as a disturbing factor only. Since the resources dedicated to the maintenance and operation of school building infrastructure come mainly from the state budget, during tight financial times the maintenance and operation budgets are frequently among the first cuts. Public school infrastructures often resent themselves from this philosophy, presenting in some cases precocious degradation, generally as the result of the priority on allocating funds to items that directly affect education. It is important to focus on areas such as maintenance, building systems, safety improvements and technology, leading managers to improve maintenance performance of these organizations, if possible anticipating in time problems and opportunities. In this scenario, maintenance audits provide a framework for organizations to systematically review, analyse and recommend improvements in performance.
This paper refers to a study that has been under development concerning asset management of Portuguese Educational Facilities, namely infrastructure and fixed equipment. This study comprises different approaches for Educational Facilities with different levels of education and this paper refers to some of the specificities that governed the audit performed in a University as well as to the methodology followed for Portuguese Secondary schools.
This paper also presents some results of that study, specifically the ones concerning Secondary Schools. It identifies some areas needing improvements, as well as the suggestions made to improve maintenance management, regarding management decision making, human resources, information systems and strategies employed in maintenance management, among others.
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Vieira, A., Cardoso, A. (2010). Asset Management of Portuguese Educational Facilities. In: Amadi-Echendu, J., Brown, K., Willett, R., Mathew, J. (eds) Definitions, Concepts and Scope of Engineering Asset Management. Engineering Asset Management Review, vol 1. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-178-3_14
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