Serviços de manutenção e conservação em instituição de ensino superior: uma análise à luz do processo de pensamento da teoria das restrições

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (IES), as any service organization, need to provide maintenance services and adequate conservation demands of its stakeholders and the requirements of its structures and facilities. Maintenance services and conservation are still seen as unnecessary expenditure and are often overlooked by managers of IES. There is increasing the expectations of students and staff on the delivery of these services, with regard to the speed and quality. The competition among private IES is increasing, which makes the maintenance and conservation services and structures and facilities as a competitive advantage. Because of large variety and complexity of these services, find the balance between ability to deliver them and demands is a challenge. The objective of this research is to identify and characterize the problems encountered in the services and facilities of an IES that require more attention, as well as to propose solutions to these problems. The case study was conducted in a private institution located in the metropolitan of Porto Alegre, of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The Thinking Process of Theory of Constraints of was used to structure the survey data and propose improvements. For data collection were used questionnaires based on a review of literature on maintenance and conservation in IES and Thinking Process. These questionnaires were students, staff, professors, managers and specialists of the services that were classified into 16 focus groups and 5 individual interviews. It was possible to identify the main problems in services and structures of IES are cooling, cleaning and information technology. There are specific problems between the services and structures such as the lack of planning of maintenance, resources and commitment of the image of the IES. There are other difficulties that are above the infrastructure sector as the non-recognition of the maintenance function in the IES strategy and the lack of planning of other sectors of the IES. Improvements have been proposed for the services and facilities which present more problems departing from simple diagnostics to more effective actions. This research helped to reveal how much the flaws and faults or deliveries of maintenance and conservation services and structures and facilities can hinder the work of the academic and administrative activities, so compromising the IES as a whole.