Risk-based Maintenance Management of U.S. Public School Facilities

According to the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) 1999 report, Condition of America's Public School Facilities, approximately one-quarter of the nation's schools, housing 11 million children, require extensive repair. According to the 2013 ASCE American Infrastructure Report Card, major knowledge gaps exist regarding the current state of our school infrastructure. Funding for school facilities has dropped by 50% since the start of the 2007 recession. The ASCE report emphasizes a need for the development of comprehensive preventive maintenance programs. This paper reviews the literature on risk-based maintenance management and compares this approach to condition-based management systems. The paper further describes an ongoing study to develop and validate a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) system for maintenance management risk analysis for public school facilities.