Occupant Awareness towards the Application of Total Productive Maintenance in Green Office Building

Abstract

Total productive maintenance (TPM) can be beneficial to be applied in green building. Successful TPM application requires total participation of the occupants in green building. However, lack of occupant awareness and involvement are the barriers of TPM application in green building. Thus, this paper aims to examine the aspects of occupant awareness and occupant involvement in operation and maintenance of green building. A questionnaire survey was performed among the occupants of green office buildings in Malaysia with 417 valid responses. Descriptive analysis was used to identify the level of occupant awareness and involvement in the operation and maintenance activities. Then, Wilcoxon signed-rank test was run to examine the difference between occupant awareness and occupant involvement in the operation and maintenance activities. The results have demonstrated significant difference between the occupant awareness and occupant involvement, whereby the levels of occupant awareness aspects were above average, while the level of occupant involvement was below average. Since TPM concept in green building aims for total participation of occupants in operation and maintenance activities, the increase of occupant involvement is necessary. The occupants will be confident to take part in operation and maintenance activities if they are equipped with relevant competencies, skills and knowledge. Therefore, comprehensive training and education programmes are recommended to upskill the occupants’ knowledge and skills.