Let ${\cal A}$ be a unital maximal full algebra of operator fields with base space $[0, 1]^k$ and fibre algebras $\{{\cal A}_t\}_{t\in[0, 1]}^{k}$. It is shown in this paper that the stable rank of ${\cal A}$ is bounded above by the quantity sup$_{t\in[0, 1]^k}\,{\rm sr}(C([0, 1]^k)\,{\otimes}\,{\cal A}_t)$, where ‘sr’ means stable rank. Using the above estimate, the stable ranks of the C$^*$-algebras of the (possibly higher rank) discrete Heisenberg groups are computed.