Maintenance of Technical Installations in Buildings Based on Asset Life Cycle Analysis

This paper shows the importance of maintenance in buildings regarding the availability, reliability, maintainability, safety, and costs (RAMS+C) of the physical assets that make part of technical installations, taking into consideration all their life cycle. Some important standards related to asset management and maintenance are referred and some methodologies are described helping to understand the potential application to buildings of such tools that are often used in the industrial field. As fire is one of the major concerns when analyzing all potential risks in buildings and as it is common to install fire protection systems in a way to prevent fire occurrence or to protect buildings against such events, the paper also presents an illustrative example related to a fire extinguishing system showing the applicability of the referred concepts and methodologies and the importance of its maintenance. Some studies state that when facing a fire about one-third of the safety systems do not work properly just because of the lack of inspection, test, or maintenance of such systems.