(University of Manchester, UK) PhD Studentship: Through Life Support School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering Closing date for receipt of applications: 30 June 2006 Project to start as soon as possible A vacancy exists for a Research Student to carry out research in demonstrating maintenance effectiveness in public sector facilities management. The Studentship is funded by Northamptonshire County Council. The student will be part of a group focusing on maintenance management, through design and support of systems, equipment and components from concept design, through operation and maintenance, to decommissioning. Through life support includes condition monitoring, signal processing, damage detection, end of life options and project management. Applications are found in a wide variety of engineering, medical and business applications. The public services sector has a huge problem in identifying maintenance as a profit centre rather than an inevitable cost. As a result of this, it is difficult to define meaningful objectives, and hence difficult to make effective long-term plans for maintenance. Northamptonshire County Council spends 42.7m pa to manage and maintain assets. It is estimated that there is 120m investment required in maintenance to meet current standards. Effectiveness measurement techniques e.g. balanced scorecard, and value-based maintenance are not widespread in the public service sector. The tools used in facilities management and computerised maintenance management software remain focused on either an accountancy based or technical based information provision. The bridging of technical requirements with financial performance remains a difficult area, because it needs a broad overview and genuine access to senior personnel, without which the research remains largely theoretical. The methodology will include direct interviews with managers in the field and extensive case study work, followed by software development to meet the identified need. Validation will require feedback from the stakeholders and their parallel organisations around the country. Case studies will be drawn not only from Northamptonshire County Council but from other similar organisations for benchmarking.
