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Facilities management (FM), which is crucial for the operation and sustainability of buildings and infrastructure across the world, covers a wide range of competencies that may vary across regions. Focusing on Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, this study aims to reveal and compare the importance and current competency levels of FM competencies in these regions, based on which appropriate education and training can be formulated to enhance the growth of their FM sectors.

After an extensive literature review, 12 FM competency attributes (CAs) were identified. A questionnaire survey in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong solicited the industry practitioners’ perceived importance and current levels of the CAs. The survey responses, 126 from Sri Lanka and 148 from Hong Kong, were analysed by a modified Importance-Competency Analysis matrix, followed using the Mann−Whitney U test to identify any differences in the responses between the two regions.

Between Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, significant differences were found to exist in the importance and current competency levels of over half of the CAs. Among the CAs requiring priority attention, “operation and maintenance” and “leadership” are the top two in Sri Lanka while the top two in Hong Kong are “technology” and “leadership”.

This study yielded insightful results on the importance of FM competencies and the current competency levels in a developing region and a developed region, which are useful for the development of FM education and research.

Factory acceptance testing (FAT) in the construction industry has been severely hampered due to restrictions in cross-border travel resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, virtual FAT (vFAT) became a popular substitute for physical FAT. However, the credibility of vFAT is being questioned because it was adopted without much scrutiny. Hence, this study is aimed at investigating vFATs and re-engineering the FAT process to suit an effective vFAT environment.

A comprehensive literature search on FAT procedures was followed by two stages of expert interviews with eight leading subject experts and a case study. The findings were analysed using code-based content analysis on NVivo software.

Strengths of vFATs include “reduction in cost and time consumed”, “flexibility for more participants” and “faster orders”. Most emphasized weaknesses include “lack of reliability” and “lack of technology transfer”. vFAT has mostly increased test reliability by “improving accessibility” and has decreased reliability by “restricting physical touch and feel observation of the equipment”. A four-step vFAT process was developed with a noteworthy additional step called “Pre-FAT Meeting”.

The scope of this study is limited to the Sri Lankan construction industry. Expansion of the geographical area of focus is recommended for future studies.

The findings of this study unveil a vFAT process, which is timely and beneficial for construction practitioners to optimize and enhance the effectiveness of vFATs which are currently conducted in a disarranged manner.

Concrete structures undergo early and fast deterioration, which causes defects such as cracks, water leaks and delamination, resulting from a lack of or inefficient maintenance practices. To improve this behaviour, this paper aims to develop a maintenance strategy benchmarking model for concrete structures.

Fuzzy logic toolbox on MATLAB R2018a was used to develop the proposed model and it was applied to two cases. A comprehensive literature search was done to review common concrete defects, their impact on the performance and functionality of the structure, effectiveness of maintenance strategies and previous maintenance benchmarking models. The literature findings were further validated through expert interviews which have been incorporated in the model.

Case study results show that preventive maintenance (PM), predictive maintenance (PdM) and corrective maintenance (CM) strategies are required more or less in similar combinations for maintenance of concrete roof structures. The best combination for case 1 is 36.42% PM, 35.40% PdM and 28.18% CM, and for case 2 is 35.93% PM, 35.08% PdM and 28.99% CM. According to suitability, they can be ranked as PM > PdM > CM.

This model will contribute as a comprehensive decision-making tool for building/facility managers. The findings further carry a strong message to those who practice only CM in their buildings.