Dr. Bahaa Helmy writes: Maintenance in Egypt, Between Reality and Aspiration

Maintenance is the essential element in preserving any building, facility, road or utility, as well as any equipment, machinery, vehicles and the like. Maintenance is also an important factor in ensuring safety and security and in avoiding the dangers that may arise from neglecting it, such as the collapse of buildings and the breakdown of factories and equipment, with all the consequences this has for the safety of lives, for security and for the economy.

In reality, it seems that maintenance is not part of the culture embraced by a broad segment of individuals in society, particularly the maintenance of housing and facilities in which multiple government bodies are involved and in which responsibilities are consequently diffused. It should be noted that the maintenance of buildings and facilities was at its worst before the wave of urban development, the establishment of residential communities and compounds, and the introduction of the owners' association system and later the occupants' association system; nevertheless, it still requires greater attention.

The concept of maintenance is not limited to buildings, facilities, roads and utilities; it extends to everything vital, such as the course of the Nile River, which has caused many steamers and Nile cruises in Aswan and Luxor to run aground in recent days because the necessary maintenance was not carried out, even though the Ministry of Irrigation collects the prescribed daily fees from boats for the continuous dredging of the Nile's course. Maintenance is likewise necessary for all equipment and machinery in all factories, government departments and authorities, and for all other service components.

Regardless of the many definitions of maintenance, it can be said that it consists of the organized operations carried out on a part or a group of parts with the aim of repairing a fault, or predicting it in order to address it before it occurs, so as to preserve operational efficiency and safety and reduce economic cost.

While maintenance may be preventive, aimed for example at preventing breakdowns, it may also be corrective or remedial, and it may be emergency maintenance to fix a particular problem. There is also predictive maintenance, a concept that has recently emerged in industrialized countries and is considered an evolution of preventive maintenance. It is based on the principle of predicting the failure of a machine, for example, and the prediction process relies on certain signs and indicators, such as condition monitoring of the machine or equipment, in order to predict the type of fault and its timing before it occurs, which leads to saving money.

Predictive maintenance relies on mechanisms suited to the object being maintained. In the case of equipment, this involves measuring vibrations, visual inspection, oil analysis, ultrasound and infrared testing, and motor performance, in order to carry out the necessary and appropriate maintenance that achieves the desired objectives: extending the life of the machine, reducing production downtime, increasing equipment reliability, cutting expenditure on labor and spare parts, improving product quality, improving the working environment and industrial safety, and saving energy.

Maintenance must be based on scientific foundations and management and on oversight, rather than relying solely on binding legislation and regulations. The culture of maintenance must extend to all places and to all citizens, on the basis that we are partners in building the nation and preserving its resources, and therefore in keeping it clean and disposing of waste only in the places designated for that purpose.

We must not, of course, overlook the maintenance of buildings, housing, roads, flood drainage channels, utilities, bridges, crossings, railway lines, the metro, elevators and all basic and secondary services on a periodic and regular basis, in accordance with the concept of preventive maintenance, to ensure efficiency and safety and to prevent the recurrence of accidents such as elevators falling and killing those inside.

We therefore see the importance of studying all the cultural, legislative, administrative, social and media aspects of the concept and mechanisms of maintenance, with the aim of developing a strategy to advance maintenance in order to preserve what has been achieved and the money spent on the projects completed in the recent period, not merely for the sake of protecting public funds but to safeguard the future of coming generations. Preventive and predictive maintenance of buildings and various utilities, as well as mechanical, industrial and other maintenance, must be activated, and this must be done on the basis of science and by spreading a culture of planning and follow-up for planned, periodic, continuous, opportunistic and scheduled maintenance, as well as unplanned maintenance, relying on human resources, which are the backbone of any successful and advanced system.