Research Trends and Results

Improving sustainable maintenance methods
considering risk management
YAMAGUCHI Tatsuya, HeadSUZUKI Atsushi, Researcher
KOHASHI Hidetoshi, Research Coordinator for Construction Management (Dr. Eng.)
Construction System Division, Research Center for Land and Construction Management(Key words) Maintenance, risk management, sustainability

1. Introduction
Japan’s public capital stock was createdconcentrated in the high-speed economic growth
period, and it is predicted that the problem ofdeterioration will become serious in the medium tolong term. Thus, in recent years, service-lifetime
extension plans have been enacted in various fields ofpublic capital. It is predicted that whenservice-lifetime extension plans have been executed aspart of maintenance work in the future, a serious
challenge will be whether the PDCA cycle of work
will be effortlessly sustained without facing excessiverisk. At the NILIM, we have responded to awarenessof such problems by conducting “research on methodsof improving sustainability of maintenanceincorporating the perspective of risk management” for2 years beginning in 2014. And in August 2013, thein-house Stock Management Research Committee(Chairman: Executive Director for Research Affairs,
members are representatives of various researchdepartments) began preparing for research to begin in
the next fiscal year.
2. Outline of research scheduled to start inFY2014
Since FY2006, this Research Committee has
clarified the degree to which methods of conducting
maintenance in the fields of inspections, soundness
evaluations, predicting progress of deterioration,
countermeasures, data base construction, clarificationof management goals, etc. have been physicallyprovided in all fields of public capital. Research since2014, has proposed evaluation methods for eachmanagement body to self-inspect effective ways ofperforming maintenance work in addition to theevaluation axis to answer the question: do thesefunction effectively from the perspective of
appropriate risk management or sustainability.
3. State of study by the Stock Management
Research Committee
The Research Committee has had research
departments in the NILIM report on the present state ofmaintenance in various public capital fields (sewagesystems, river structures, road structures, dams andsediment control facilities, airports and ports, cities andhousing, etc.) and has conducted discussions to abstractproblems concerning the PDCA cycle of maintenance(sustainability and risk management). In this way,concerning present methods of inspecting or evaluating
soundness for example, it is difficult to cover the entire
fields managed, and fear that it could obstruct thePDCA cycle have appeared. And even regarding
inspection and soundness evaluation methods, adisagreement has appeared concerning the point thatconcepts concerning improving efficiency orintroducing new technologies should differ according tocharacteristics such as whether it is a facility to prevent
disasters caused by abnormal weather or external force
or is a facility that provides day-to-day services.
4. Future activities
In 2014, based on discussions by the ResearchCommittee, work will begin in earnest. In this way, it
will study differences in basic guidelines tomaintenance that should essentially be part of each field
while clarifying the degree of completeness oftechnologies applied—characteristics of the objects ofmanagement already explained, management bodysystems, inspections and countermeasures—or thedegree of uncertainty. For example, questions such aswhether to prioritize service life extension byinspections and repairs, to prioritize response throughdesign such as providing easily-inspected structures, toprioritize restrictions on use or early reconstruction, orto prioritize corrective maintenance. The question ofwhether or not differences of this kind in basic policies
are reflected in actual maintenance work will beverified by comparing fields through case studies andenacting an evaluation axis which should be newlyadopted. We want to perform the verification withreference to case studies which include the private
sector infrastructure field or the concepts of ISO5500X.