A digital twin maintenance management model for public hospital buildings in Nigeria

Inadequate maintenance of buildings is a global issue, and the recent COVID-19 outbreak exposed the poor state of many hospital structures, particularly in developing nations. The healthcare sector in developing nations lacks clear policies and strategies for adequately maintaining hospital buildings. This research developed a digital twin maintenance management (DTMM) model that will serve as a roadmap to the digitalisation of constructed facilities and benefit the healthcare sector in Nigeria. Fundamentally, the research modelled the extent to which maintenance personnel, maintenance policy, maintenance budget, stakeholders’ attitude, maintenance documentation, and fourth industrial revolution technologies (which were grouped as exogenous variables) predict the digital twin maintenance management of public hospital buildings (PHBs). A conceptual DTMM model was developed from the review of extant literature and the Delphi findings. A questionnaire survey was carried out to validate this conceptual model. The findings in this thesis were discussed in three broad areas. Firstly, the results were associated with the theory of digital twin technology and maintenance management studies. The results showed that prior models and theories had not been developed using an all-inclusive framework for smart and efficient maintenance management research. The broad literature review revealed gaps that needed to be filled, including the use of fourth industrial revolution technologies and the need for maintenance documentation. From the synthesised literature, this current study argues that digital twin maintenance management is a six-factor construct. From the Delphi study, the variables identified as dominant attributes of digital twin maintenance management of PHBs were maintenance personnel, maintenance policy, maintenance budget, stakeholders’ attitude, maintenance documentation, and fourth industrial revolution technologies. The third and last set of results was based on the field questionnaire survey. According to the results of the structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis, the factors of maintenance personnel, maintenance policy, maintenance budget, stakeholders’ attitude, maintenance documentation, and fourth industrial revolution technologies were found to impact the digital twin maintenance management of PHBs significantly. More specifically, the goodness-of-fit results from SEM and the statistical significance of parameter estimations met the cut-off standards for the hypothesised model’s fit to the sample data. Because it tackles the paucity of theoretical knowledge regarding the factors most important in forecasting the DTMM vii of public hospital buildings in developing economies, the study substantially contributes to the body of knowledge. As a result, the integrated digital twin maintenance management model created for this study adds to existing knowledge by addressing the lack of a model to direct the healthcare sector in achieving smart and efficient maintenance management. It is recommended that hospital facilities desirous of obtaining smart and efficient maintenance management be guided by the digital twin maintenance management model this present study has developed. Likewise, the management and other stakeholders in the Nigerian healthcare sector should focus on developing the capacity of maintenance staff in the works and operations department of their hospitals so that they are receptive to the six-factor model, particularly the need for maintenance documentation, since the maintenance documentation construct emerged as the most influential construct that would aid public hospital facilities in gaining digital twin maintenance management.