Enhancing public building maintenance practice in Ethiopia by applying adopted methods of state-of-the-art digitization

This dissertation focuses on facility management (FM) practice in the context of developing countries, with a particular emphasis on Ethiopia. The overarching goal is to enhance FM practice to ensure projects’ long-term value and success. The dissertation, taking public building facilities as a case study, outlines four objectives, each contributing to the comprehensive understanding and improvement of FM and building maintenance practices in Ethiopia. FM is essential for ensuring long-term value to achieve project objectives throughout the lifecycle of a product/an asset. However, in developing countries like Ethiopia, FM practice in public buildings is immature and underutilized, requiring enhancement. The 1st objective is to examine and evaluate the FM practices and challenges in public buildings. To achieve this objective, the work implements both quantitative and qualitative methods and uses primary data obtained from archival records, surveys, informant interviews, and field observations. More specifically, in the quantitative method, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal component analysis (PCA) has been employed to group the attributes and reduce dimensionality. Based on a systematic literature review, 33 attributes are identified,while the PCA yields 13 critical attributes that are grouped into four factors influencing the effectiveness of FM practices. The four-factor model is developed, comprising critical factors: internal processes and organization (F1); community culture, learning, and growth (F2); impact of design and construction quality (F3); and FM approach and management (F4). It is found that overall FM practice in public buildings in Ethiopia is immature and subjected to multifaceted challenges that require holistic intervention for practical improvement. Additionally, the problem under study needs to be further explored on a larger scale, involving other building sectors and using advanced tools and techniques. The 2nd objective builds on the results of the previous objective. This section of the dissertation proposes a maturity model for assessing the current level and the gradual improvement of existing FM and building maintenance practices. Building maintenance maturity model is developed using twelve performance measurement criteria (Eight identified from previous objective); and 50 key performance indicators (KPIs) via the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. In developing the model, the work analyzes the importance of each criterion and KPIs by utilizing expert focus group discussions involving experts in the field as a primary data source.