Applicability of lean maintenance practices to mitigate maintenance management issues in Sri Lankan high-rise residential buildings

Abstract

Maintenance management (MM) is considered a critical function in residential buildings, ensuring longevity, safety, operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Compared to low-rise or mid-rise residential structures, high-rise residential buildings often face more complex and frequent maintenance-related issues due to their scale, building systems, and occupancy density. According to previous studies, implementing lean in maintenance is an effective strategy to improve maintenance efficiency. Thus, this study investigates the applicability of lean maintenance practices to mitigate such issues in Sri Lankan high-rise residential buildings and proposes suitable strategies for improvement. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with maintenance personnel from four high-rise residential buildings in Colombo district. Additionally, the findings revealed that seven out of eight lean maintenance wastes prevailed in the selected cases. Further, three expert interviews were carried out to propose strategies to overcome the identified challenges in lean implementation. The findings of expert interviews revealed that the lack of lean knowledge and resistance to change in top management are the main challenges to implement lean maintenance in high-rise residential buildings in Sri Lanka. Further, experts proposed several key strategies for high-rise residential buildings, including encouraging lean certificates for maintenance supervisors, integrating feedback systems using QR codes or CMMS, visual dashboards, conducting lean awareness workshops, etc. The findings of this study are useful to address the existing MM issues and implement lean maintenance practices in high-rise residential buildings in Sri Lanka.