Maintenance of Buildings Research Papers (original) (raw)

This study established factors affecting port infrastructure asset maintenance management at the port of Dar es Salaam. The specific objectives of the study are to, identify current infrastructure maintenance management practices of the ports authority in Tanzania, identify factors that affect the infrastructure asset maintenance management at the port of Dar es Salaam, establish the strategies to drive improvement in ports infrastructure asset maintenance management in Tanzania. The data was collected using questionnaires and document review.Questionnaires were distributed to managers, engineers, and technicians involved in maintenance activities at the Port of Dar es Salaam. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) software version 20 was used for analysis. This study also provided the strategies for
the improvement of infrastructure asset maintenance management. The study established that port maintenance management is affected by factors categorized into management issues, human resources issues, technical issues, and others. It was established that, maintenance policy and strategy, resource planning, financial issues, difficulty in the procurement of spare parts, inflation of the cost of maintenance by the operatives, data recording, storage and management, and absence of planned maintenance programs. Human resources factors include qualification of maintenance personnel, the attitude of maintenance personnel towards maintenance work, motivation of human resources towards maintenance, wages of maintenance personnel, human error in maintenance, inadequate training, and development of personnel. There was no technical factor presented which had an effect at the port. Other factors such as lack of maintenance culture, lack of successful maintenance programs by the maintenance department, natural deterioration due to age and environment, complexity of design and non-involvement of maintenance experts during the design stage, aging infrastructures, the higher utilization rate of infrastructures were established. The strategies found to have effect at the port of Dar es Salaam were established to include, proper maintenance management including effective policy, strategy, planning, and execution, improvement of data management facilities, the establishment of training programs to the key staff, personnel responsible should have enough knowledge on maintenance activities, advanced technology should be adapted, regular inspection of the facilities, aged infrastructures should be replaced.