Critical Reflections on the Concept of Maintenance

Abstract

<jats:p>The purpose of the paper is to critically evaluate the conceptual distinction between investment and maintenance. The study starts from a number of definitions in the literature and discusses these from the perspective of standard investment theory. The article argues that the standard concept of investment covers all relevant decisions and also puts the focus on the future consequences of decision and not whether it restores an earlier standard or not. The research implications are that investment and maintenance planning need to be analysed together and that the distinction between investment and maintenance is uninteresting from a decision theoretic and resource allocation perspective. The practical implications of the article are that what usually is called investment planning and maintenance planning need to be integrated. The originality in the paper lies primarily in the questioning of the usefulness of the concept of maintenance in a dynamic age where the relation to earlier characteristics and functions becomes less and less interesting. The role of the maintenance concept is now primarily related to various administrative systems (accounting, taxation) but is not so relevant from a forward looking resource allocation perspective.</jats:p>

Building maintenance strategies: planning under uncertainty

“…Often there is a distinction between maintenance, where the focus is on keeping up or restoring an existing function, and investment, where there is some kind of improvement of the object. This distinction has been questioned in Lind and Muyingo (2009a; cited in Muyingo(2009a)) but for the purpose of this article there is no need to draw an exact line and maintenance will here be given a broad meaning covering “all” measures taken concerning an existing building.…”

Analysis of Factors Influencing Reported Housing Maintenance Costs in Sweden’s Public and Private Rental Sectors

“…Olanrewaju and Abdul-Aziz (2015: 81) provide a list of ten definitions of maintenance found in the literature. These vary between companies and within companies (Lind, Muyingo 2012a). In the European standard on maintenance terminology maintenance is defined as 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" (CEn 2001).…”

“…The private companies classify more of their activities as investment than maintenance Lind and Muyingo (2012a) Budget constraints The private companies postpone maintenance in times of decreasing revenues Elsinga and Lind (2013) El-Haram and Horner (2002a) Borg and Lind (2006) Planning of activities The public companies base their measures more on longterm plans thus carrying out unnecessary measures Sharp and Jones (2012) Lind and Muyingo (2012b) Olanrewaju and Abdul-Aziz 2015Building construction quality…”

The Effect of Rent Regulations and Contract Structure on Renovation: A Theoretical Analysis of the Swedish System

“…In the Swedish terminology (see Lind & Muyingo 2012) maintenance is defined as measures that restores the original quality of the building/apartment. Examples of maintenance in this sense is repainting, replacing old pipes with new ones, etc.…”

“…As underlined in Lind & Muyingo (2012) both of these concepts can from a theoretical perspective be seen as investments, as they both are measures that affect the future cashflow and the value of the building. In that article it is therefore questioned whether the concept of maintenance really is needed, but as the distinction between maintenance and investment is central for the design of the Swedish rental contracts and the rent regulation system there concepts will be used here.…”