Strategies to implement lean maintenance concept for high-rise commercial buildings in Sri Lanka

Maintenance management (MM) is an important function in managing high-rise commercial buildings. In comparison to low-rise and mid-rise structures, commercial high-rise buildings have severe maintenance management deficiencies. According to prior studies, implementing lean in maintenance is a well-known and effective strategy to improve maintenance efficiency. Thus, this study aimed to identify strategies to implement the lean maintenance concept for high-rise commercial buildings in Sri Lanka. Due to the lack of literature on building maintenance in the context of Sri Lanka, a pilot survey was carried out to establish the research problem of the study. Consequently, a comprehensive literature synthesis was conducted revealing building maintenance, lean and lean maintenance. Further, the applicability of lean maintenance in the global context of building maintenance had been reviewed. Consequently, under qualitative research methodology, a case study strategy was adopted. The findings of the study identified the experts ‘perception of lean principles in building maintenance and challenges in implementing lean maintenance in commercial high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka from the selected cases. Lack of knowledge about lean, ineffective tactics, and the absence of standards, regulations, and policies are some of the major challenges to lean adoption in Sri Lanka. Then, experts who have extensive experience in both lean and maintenance were interviewed to identify strategies to address the identified challenges in commercial high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka.