Understanding the process of building maintenance in Saudi Public sector

The lack of a clear understanding of the process of Building Maintenance (BM) forms a major source of difficulty in the maintenance departments of Saudi Public buildings. A clearer understanding of the BM process can be achieved by employing a suitable process modelling technique to develop a generic process diagram of existing practices. The primary focus of this paper is to develop a generic process of BM, in order to illustrate a number of opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of BM processes and to improve the standard of work. All the information reported in this paper has been obtained through twelve interviews with practitioners involved in the process. This paper is based on a study that identified the parties involved in Public BM departments in Saudi Arabia and understanding the current state of the BM process. The literature reveals a number of deficiencies that need to be addressed, including: (1) poor communication between different parties; (2) lack of support from senior management; (3) poor quality of supervision (frequently leading to an increased length of time needed to resolve a problem, thus incurring higher costs.