LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Maintenance culture is an attitude which is sadly lacking in Nigeria, whether in the home, office, school or factory. Mbamali (2003) added that poor maintenance culture has become a widely recognized problem in Nigeria. Maintenance culture in Nigeria is the lowest around the World, especially, in our principal towns and cities. In the rural areas, the story is different and pleasant to hear. The traditional practice of communal clearing of community owned places such as market; playground is in almost every village. In private homes it is customary to refurbish building interiors with mixtures of cow dung or natural red clay. The end result is attractive and totally indigenous. According to Wahab (1995) the nation accords low priority to property management. Faworaja (1996) In Mbamali (2003) asserted that we have no maintenance policy and therefore no such culture exists. Neglect of maintenance has accumulated consequences in rapid increase in the deterioration of the fabric and finishes of a building, accompanied by a harmful effect on the contents occupants (Seeley, 1987). Inadequate maintenance culture is a peculiar feature of almost every building in Nigeria. According to Rotimi and Mtallib (1995) is partly due to poor maintenance culture on one hand and partly due to the absence of an appropriate benchmark. Gurjit (1990) asserted that lack of proper maintenance culture bring the life of a building last before reaching the total obsolescence state. The declining maintenance culture in Nigeria and its effect on buildings has become a major problem to both the public and private sectors. This study examines the trend of maintenance culture and its effect on construction, and quality of materials, design and facilities as well as services used during constructing the building. A great portion of a Nation wealth is evident in the total value of its buildings; it is also an important factor in the production of the building to be preserved. A poorly maintained building in a decaying environment depresses the quality of live and contributes in some measures to anti social behavior which threatens the socio-political environment it finds itself in. This research is necessitated to look at the existing knowledge about continuous negligence on maintenance and its impact on construction has been suffered by residential buildings.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Through the last decades, there has been considerably development of techniques for assessing plant reliability or dependability and life circle costs, which more or less can influence the choice of plant. Nevertheless, there is another factor that affects life cycle profitability which is of growing importance; this is known as maintenance (Kelly, 1984). Consequently, to fully comprehend the concept, it is necessary to have clear definitions of this holistic discipline. T “Maintenance is the combination of all technical, administrative and managerial actions during the life cycle of an item intended to retain it in, or restore it to a state in which it can perform the required function” (EN 13306: 2001) Duffuaa et al. (1999) describe maintenance as the combination of activities by which equipment or a system is kept in, or restored to, a state in which it can perform its designated functions. An important factor in product quality and can be used as strategy for successful competition. Hence, in producing high level quality, production plant/equipment must operate within specifications that are attainable by timely maintenance actions. The importance of proper maintenance has changed significantly in recent time, as a result of large increase in the number and variety of plant and equipment which in one way or the other needs to maintain throughout the life span. New maintenance technique/approach and modern view on maintenance organization has evolved (Moubray, 2002). The development of expensive, complex and highly-developed equipment, and machinery which led to the need to achieve higher product quality, longer machine life, higher machinery effectiveness and operational safety, has motivated the effort to improve maintenance concepts (Al-Najjar et al. 2001). Maintenance is thus vital support functions in business, particularly as increasingly large investment are being required in physical assets Tsang et al. (2000). Maintenance in industries according to Komonen (2002) has two essential objectives, i.e. High availability of production equipment and Low maintenance costs. These above stated objectives and other indirect impact of maintenance on the economic performance of organizations have been clearly established (Mobley 2004).

CONCEPT OF BUILDING MAINTENANCE

According to Sidney (1991) permanent structure requires less attention than temporary ones, any house owner will confirm that even the best constructed building needs constant attention. If the attention is delayed, what started as being something very minor is liable to turn quickly into an expensive operation? Similarly, Seeley (1987) asserted that no building can exist throughout its span without one form of maintenance or the other; it is to say that much can be done at the design stage in order to reduce the amount of subsequent maintenance work. According to Seeley (1997) maintenance work on a building should commence from the day the contractor leaves the site. The necessity for maintenance work on buildings is noted in the fact that all buildings, as well as the materials and components therein, deteriorate or suffer loss in aesthetic, strength and or functional value, with exposure to the elements of weather over time. The appearance and life span of a building and also the quality of the materials would be affected depending on the manner to which maintenance is adhered to, in the building (Seeley, 1987). If the design process is to be enhanced, the building team need to come together and contribute towards the building’s maintainability at the project inception rather than leaving it for the maintenance personnel at the end of construction to battle with the curative measure (Adejimi, 1998). This sometimes according to Seeley (1997) causes frustration and annoyance to maintenance personnel when taking over new buildings and finding themselves faced with bad details, poor choice of finishes, materials and components and lack of basic information about the building and its services. According to Cornick (1996) “the root cause of the problems that the construction industry and its clients experience lie in the division of the responsibilities between the design aspects and the construction aspect” Alexander (1996) was direct in his criticism of the organization of the construction industry noted that the industry is unique in that the design process is separated from production. The successful completion of any building depends on many things, few of which are as important as the designer-contractor relationship. The two parties must be willing to work together so that the clients get maximum benefit from their joint expertise. The contract should feel able to contribute to the design process in matters relating to construction practice and the designer should be willing to receive, analyse and subsequently act on such recommendations.

There are different types of maintenance approach depending on the condition and application. Alsyouf (2004) describes maintenance concept as the general structure that governs the types maintenance actions (corrective, preventive, condition based etc) to be performed. For example, maintenance operations are basically divided in two main groups; Corrective maintenance and Preventive maintenance (which includes condition-based and scheduled maintenance).

2.3.1 Corrective Maintenance (CM)/ Breakdown Maintenance (BDM)

Corrective maintenance or breakdown maintenance is the kind of maintenance carried out after a failure has occurred, and it is intended to restore an item to a state in which it can perform its required function (EN 13306: 2001). According to Chiang et al (2001), corrective maintenance may consist of maintenance activity which includes repair, restoration or replacement of component that has undergone failure or that has totally broken down. The challenge as explained by Mobley (2002) is to detect problems that are beginning to develop, before they lead to total failure and to correct the faults at the lowest possible cost. One of the advantages of adopting corrective maintenance is that the machines are not over maintained and machine condition is not monitored. However, its disadvantages lies in the increase of production down time, overtime labor, high cost of spare parts as well as risk of secondary failures.

Preventive Maintenance (PM)

The European Standard (EN 13306: 2001) defined preventive maintenance as the maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals or according to the prescribed criteria and intended to reduce the probability of failure or degradation of the functioning of an item. According to Wireman (1990) preventive maintenance is any planned maintenance activity designed to improve equipment life and avoid any unplanned/ unscheduled maintenance activities. It is a systematic approach to a regular inspection carried out at a pre-determined interval or in accordance to prescribed criterion, intended to reduce of preferably eliminate probability of failure or performance of degradation of an item/equipment. The aim of preventive maintenance is to reduce the number of failures and their financial expenditure by performing maintenance at a predetermined point of times without considering the component/ equipment condition. PM involves inspection, testing, repairing and replacement of equipment before failure occurs, and is in most cases applied to complex system in order to avoid operational failure especially when the failures consequences are critical, with regards to environment, economy or safety (Alsyouf, 2004; Isermann, 1997).

2.3.3 Condition-based Maintenance (CBM)

Condition-based maintenance according to BS 3811:1993 is the kind of maintenance that is carried out according to the need which is been indicated by the condition monitoring. CBM strategy is one which is based on deterministic and probabilistic models. It takes predictive maintenance one step further by performing the inspection in a “real-time” mode. Data about the failure behavior of the system are obtainable through suitable condition monitoring (CM) parameters which provides information concerning the real state of the systems. Vibration monitoring, shock pulse measurement (SPM), oil and debris monitoring and electrical current are few of several existing condition monitoring techniques that may well be used in a user-friendly way to select the most cost-effective maintenance policy (Alsyouf, 2004; Wireman, 1990).

2.4 PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Komonen (2002) stress the need for the measurement of maintenance performance in order to show the impact of maintenance as a function on company’s overall goals. Performance measurement of machine/ equipment performance would enable top management to visualize maintenance function impact on company’s business (Sherwin 2000). Performance of machine/equipment is measured with regards to clearly defined company’s objective. The generally classified maintenance indicator measures equipment performance, as such it availability, reliability and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) (Eti et al 2006, cited in Campbell 1995). Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a benchmark used in worldclass maintenance programs, and measures equipment performance which goes beyond just availability or machine uptime (Morbley 2002). OEE formula looks at equipment availability, performance rate and quality rate which permit all departments to be involved in determining equipment effectiveness. It is expressed as; (OEE = Availability* Performance rate * Quality rate).

2.5 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

In general, the goal of any organization is to increase profitability by providing quality products, prompt or complete service as well as swift delivery. In today’s competitive business, been successful often entail how well a company is able to make change and adapt to those changes swiftly. This can be seen as a way/ technique of dealing with out- fashioned or out-of-date managerial approach and other forms of managerial practices. According to (Wireman 1990) Maintenance as a support function together with asset management can be a driving force in this regards in two major ways, i.e. by decreasing the cost of running plant and machine while also increasing capability. Hence, with the growth of mechanization and automation, which mean that component could fail at any given time leading to interrupted operations, availability and reliability becomes a keyword. Al-Najjar (2007) expressed that company should be able to utilize its valuable and rare resources efficiently and effectively to attain the long-term high profitability, regardless of which prospective, outside-in (i.e. external factors, such as emerging of companies, partnership and market structure) and inside-out (i.e. internal factors, such as company’s resources, competence and differentiation) that is adopted or implemented by the company’s management. In addition, the negligence of maintenance and its role in production processes allows swift degradation of machine and its resultant product quality.

2.6 CULTURE

Culture is said to be the way a group of people live their lives. The dictionary defined culture as total inherited thoughts, values, knowledge and beliefs, which represent the communal foundation for social action. It is an integrated pattern of human deeds (thought, speech, action etc.) and communication. Thus a successful business, organization or developing environment should reflect the way people live.

2.7 MAINTENANCE CULTURE

According to Eti et al (2006) culture tends to mature (occasionally in unwanted way) as the external environment evolves. Such desirable environmental changes have included the information technology revolution, rapid technological breakthrough, lowering cultural barrier or difficulty to communication as well as rising communal values. In addition, organization should be devoted to building a supportive cultural environment (in addition to growth, responsibility, and undeniably vision) also taking into account employees as individuals (rather than just general workers) are essential requirements for achieving optimistic organizational culture and of course high quality maintenance From a maintenance perspective, the most significant influence on the culture of maintenance is the top management, and thus should be able to create and maintain an internal environment in which the employees can become completely involved in achieving organizational objectives. For a successful and sustainable maintenance program, development and proficiency building of top managers are decisive. It is coherent to provide an environment and a culture that add to employee’s well-being, rather than exhausting their satisfaction Eti et al (2006).

2.8 MAINTENANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Maintenance work depends on the ability to solve problem, the core element of maintenance skills therefore is knowledge of the equipment and its mode of failure (Gasskov 1992). In most developing countries, take Nigeria for example, breakdown maintenance has continued to triumph in almost every enterprise both private and public. And effort to introduce or implement preventive maintenance has been hindered by the negative thought of the cost involved. According to Eti et al. (2004), the misguided opinion about maintenance in Nigeria is that traditionally, management of companies regards maintenance as an expense that can easily be reduced in relation to overall business cost. It is however assumed that machine shouldn’t be checked or inspects for future breakdown why it is still working, instead remain inactive until emergency occurs. Theoretically, preventive maintenance has the proficient of minimizing downtime or preferably eliminating unwanted stoppages due to machine/ equipment failure as well as enhancing machine availability and reliability. However, achieving these benefits entail a high level of skills commitment. Although some multinational companies in DCs (e.g. Cadbury, Guinness, Nestle etc) have a good maintenance policy and do provide vocational training program on maintenance at their own designated centers, which is often too constricted, thus not addressing the most important components of maintenance ( maintenance organization and spare parts management). In addition, because of the constriction of the said vocational training, there is less significant effect on the long run, since maintenance has become an element of the economy growth in most DCs (Gasskov 1992).

2.9 MAINTAINING THE QUALITY OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES

Sustainability of capital investments of any nation has been a major and global dialogue most especially in developing countries where infrastructural development is still at the infancy (Ojara, 2013). This is because most of government expenditures and investments focus on infrastructural development such as road, power, water and housing even though the challenges in the developed nations is sustainability. Most governments concentrate on the award of contracts for new infrastructures, giving near-to-nothing attention to the maintenance of existing ones. One of the ways for sustainability is the maintenance of the existing stock of infrastructural facilities and services. The level of dilapidation of facilities such as kerosene cooking system, flush toilet, generator installation, well water , gas cooking system , bath facilities, in-house portable tap water, public portable tap water, private bath facility, public bath facility, electricity cooking system , spring and stream, pit latrine and pail system were identified by Ojara (2013). According to BS 3811 (1974): maintenance is the work or a combination of actions associated with initiation, organisation and implementation carried out to retain an item in or restore it to an acceptable standard in which it can perform its required function. Hence, Kunya (2012) observed the defects in housing facilities. He catalogue peeling of wall surface, rising dampness in substructure, floor slab failure and doors and windows defect, leaking roof while foundation failure and Sagging of beam. He further advocated that maintenance culture requires the correct diagnosis of defects, current remedial measures, sound technical knowledge of material usage, management resources as well as the formulation and implementation of integrated plan and policies to sustain utility. The absence of these qualities has led to the decay of the nation’s physical, social, aesthetic and economic environment. Ipingbemi (2010) ascertained the causes of defects in housing facilities to include the using of untested or inferior materials such as cement, aggregate and water, improper management of the facilities such as door lock and louvers, lack of regular check-up of the facilities, improperly design of fire suppression system, causing un-insulated (PVC) pipes to freeze and burst and lack of qualified professionals. Ipingbemi (2010) further stated that the emphasis was on the development of new properties with little attention paid to the maintenance of the existing stock and the future maintenance needs of the proposed ones. The general belief now is that the present very prohibitive cost of new buildings has imposed on individuals, corporate bodies and the nation as a whole the need to invest more in maintenance. Housing maintenance becomes more difficult according to age of the structure and this depends on the quality of the original building coupled with the rate of maintenance of the structure (Adenuga, 1999). Maintenance of building received little attention from the users, designers and contractors (Siyanbola et al., 2013). It should be noted that the maintenance objective is to preserve buildings in their initial functional, structural and aesthetic states. This is to ensure that they continue to remain in such state and retain their investment value over a long period of existence (Ipingbemi, 2010). The users do not always make use of the property and the services in good condition, often users do not obey the information contained in the maintenance manual of the building if it exists at all (Siyanbola et al., 2013). Most property owners sometimes endeavour to keep maintenance expenditure to the least, eliminating the consequences of the long term effect of such action. On the part of the designers, they may forget the durability of the materials and its serviceability before including them in their designs (Adejimi, 2005). Kunya (2012) identified some solutions to the identified defects such as availability of qualified and competent artisan, taking good care of the building facility such as door locks, examining of building materials before use, regular check-up of facility such as water tank and using of tested materials.

2.10 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

2.10.1 Presentation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)

National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) as it was formally called is an organization that is responsible for electricity production, transmission and distribution in Nigeria, (West Africa). NEPA was renamed Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as part of the privatization process of electricity generation and distribution in the country in April, 2005. The history of Nigeria power sector dated back to the early 60s, Niger Dam Authorities (NDA) and Electric Corporation (EC) merged to form the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN). Immediately after the Nigerian civil war in 1968, the management of ECN changed its nomenclature to National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) in1972 which is now currently called the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

2.10.2 PHCN Installations and Operations overview

PHCN as it is now called has approximately 6000 Mega Watts (MW) of installed generation capacity, its national infrastructure consists of nine generating power station (3 hydro-based stations and 6 thermal power plants) located in different part of the country. The transmission network consist or made up of 5000km of 330KV and 6000km of 132KV lines, 23 0f 330/132KV sub-stations and 91 of 132/33KV substations. The distribution sector comprises of 23,753km of 33kv lines, 19,226km of 11kv lines, 679 of 33/11kv sub-station. In addition, there are also 1790 distribution transformer and 680 injection substations. However, the maximum available capacity is limited to 3300MW. The transmission system is unable to deliver electric power to a major part of the country (as a result of insufficient maintenance practice) and thus it is undependable because it does not have an adequate capacity and backup lines. Nigeria’s power sector has high energy losses of (30-35 %) a low collection rate of (75 – 80%) and a low access to electricity by Nigerian population of 36%. Currently, only 10 percent of the rural household and approximately 40 percent of Nigeria’s total population have access to electricity. PHCN however hopes to increase access to electricity throughout the country to 85% by the year 2010, thus it has been estimated that this development would require 16 new power plants, approximately 15000km of transmission lines, as well as distribution facilities. Though there is approximately 6000 MW of installed generating capacity in the existing power stations, the maximum load or capacity that has ever been attained was between 3300MW to 4000MW back in 1992. This has since depreciated to less than 3000 MW thus reflecting the maintenance culture that has been practiced by the country right from independence back in 1960, and the inefficiency and corruption of the public function provider. Presently, most of the company generating units in the country has broken down due to limited available resources to carry out the needed level of maintenance. The transmission line are radial and overloaded, switchgears are obsolete while power transformers have not been maintained for a long time. The maintenance policy that has been adopted by PHCN is the corrective or breakdown maintenance but it is often not performed in the right manner or carried out according to the accepted standard and sometimes not carried out at the stipulated time.