Towards innovative building maintenance

Purpose Building maintenance is not sexy – yet it is big business, arguably more than new‐build. It is under‐researched. Received wisdom from the 1960s and 1970s is that reactive maintenance is undesirable; planned preventive maintenance (PPM) is “the answer”. That paradigm fails to put people at the centre. Times have moved on. The thinking here challenges the public‐sector “think big’ command economy based approach, and aims to examine new ways ahead. The purpose of this paper is to summarise a range of new approaches and identify common threads. People are an organisation's greatest asset; the maintenance and enhancement of their working and living environments and their wellbeing deserve serious attention. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on semi‐structured interviews with maintenance and facility managers in organisations noted for their tendencies to innovate in their core business. The paper aims to assist maintenance and facility managers to review their building maintenance priorities in relation to user wants and needs. Findings While the study is insufficient at this stage to support wholesale change in practice to any one new approach, a professional approach to the expenditure of considerable sums on building maintenance suggests that appropriate time should be spent in developing and evaluating alternative approaches. Originality/value Calls for a complete re‐think on the approach taken to maintenance.