Ranking Critical Factors for Facility Renovation and System Upgrade Decisions in Dormitories: A Delphi Study | Journal of Architectural Engineering | Vol 28, No 4

AbstractRenovations and facility system upgrades are necessary investments to extend the useful life of a facility, reduce maintenance, and improve the efficiency of installed systems. It is important to carefully consider the factors that affect these decisions in dormitories, because they negatively impact residents in the short term; however, they improve occupant satisfaction and comfort in the long term. This study employed a Delphi method with a panel of experts to identify and rank order the factors for renovation and system upgrade decisions and the sources of information for these decisions. This study determined, with moderate consensus, that the three most important factors were: (1) facility condition, (2) health and safety, and (3) the dormitory’s suitability for the owner’s objectives or mission. The most important sources of information were input from maintenance technicians, maintenance work order databases, and condition assessments. This study could contribute to renovation and system upgrade decisions by identifying a method to reach a consensus on a rank order of the factors for use in multicriteria decision-making (MCDM). In addition, this study could contribute to the practice of prioritizing information-gathering efforts to support renovation decisions.Practical ApplicationsTo help facility maintenance managers (FMMs) make decisions about the scope and timing of renovations or upgrades to the facility systems in their dormitories, this study used an expert panel to agree on the order of importance of 15 potential decision factors. The panel was made up of experienced maintenance managers or directors from universities in the United States and US military. The FMMs determined that the three most important factors that impacted their renovation and upgrade decisions were: (1) facility condition, (2) health and safety of the occupants, and (3) how well the dormitory met the organization’s objectives. In addition, the experts answered that the three most important data sources they used when deciding included maintenance technicians’ inputs, work order databases, and facility condition assessments. FMMs should focus their time and efforts on the three factors and invest in the information sources determined when making decisions about the scope and timing of dormitory renovations and system upgrades.

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