ISO 41001 Facility Management Systems Implementation & Training
Background information
Today’s world is very dynamic with ever-changing technology. Those who are affected the most are the facility managers who face difficult tasks almost every day without them clearly understanding what exactly causes their nightmares. Some of these problems, as found by experts, come from daily operations while the major part of them is caused by the technological inventions, company mergers, their policies, and other problems that come as by the way.
Facility managers have found it rough in handling some of the activities that are vital to the continual operation of the organization. These include, but not limited to, the following:
Saving on the sourcing – As a facility manager, you will have to save on the cost of all the things that are sourced into the company and that is only possible by getting the cheapest supplier.
Extending the service life of assets – Once acquired to the organization, the facility manager is in charge of it and must ensure that all the maintenance procedures are correctly followed. He or she is also responsible for the correct use of any asset.
Limited resources – Facility managers face the difficult task of interacting with men, machines, and other materials that the organization uses to achieve its objectives throughout the year. The time and resources may be limited to that.
Compliance – It is also the responsibility of a facility manager to ensure that an organization adheres to the set regulations and statutes defined by the government and other relevant bodies. There are also some times when a facility manager is supposed to make the necessary changes in the system without reliable data to back up everything.
What is Facility Management ISO 41001?
Given the problems that the facility managers face all over the world, there was a need to set up an international standard that will be used globally. This led to the birth of the world’s first ISO 41001, which came into effect in April 2018.
ISO 41001:2018 is an international facilities management system standard that was established and published by the International Organization for Standards (ISO). It is the first facility management standard of its kind. The world has never had any before. So, it is the first and current version.
In its simplest term, ISO 41001 was established to provide organizations with the framework that they need to cultivate, implement, and maintain an effective facility management system. It is specifically designed to help the procurement and facility managers with a reference point regarding the efficiency, capability, and competency of a facility management system.
So, what is a facility management system?
A facility management system is an oversight system that ensures that all the processes in an organization that offers facility management services are optimized and run according to the international standards. These international standards are now driven from ISO 41001. An effective FMS is like proof to customers that they should trust the quality of services that they receive.
Facility management is one of the sectors that is fast growing in the United States and over the world. It is rapidly growing and has become so complex that most facility managers find it difficult to handle. The ISO 41001 `standards were developed to salvage the situation and also ease the pressure that comes from the following:
The History of ISO 41001
The development of Facility Management (FM) ISO 41001 started in 2017 leading to its implementation in 2018. The related management system standards that were developed over time are listed below:
Implementing FM ISO 41001 Standards
ISO 41001 family of standards were designed to provide all facilities managers from across the globe with one language for communication in a global market place. The good thing is that the standard can be used by those who are within and without the facilities management sector.
With over 30 countries contributing to the development of this first standard, the international interest in this market is clear. The ISO 41001 is now accepted globally among all the ISO member states, which are more than 160. Once implemented, the facilities managers all over the world can now use common terms for consistent interpretation.
Implementing FM ISO 41001 Standards
Just like most of the ISO standards that are discussed on our site, ISO 41001 is a generic standard. This means that it can be used by any organization in any sector regardless pf the size and other unmentioned characteristics. The only thing that is required is a structure that the established system will manage. Ideally, an FMS won’t exist if the structure to be managed is not present.
In general, ISO 41001 is recommended for organizations that are determined to achieve the following:
Structure of the ISO 41001 Standard
Just like other ISO standards such as ISO 14001 and ISO 9001, this standard uses a high-level structure that is divided into 10 different sections or clauses and also follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act framework. Of our main interest, today are the last 7 sections. Those are what we will be expanding on today. Here is a full list of the 10 clauses of ISO 41001:
Since your organization will be mainly concentrating on the clauses 4 through 10, those are exactly what we will be briefly discussing in the following section. Everything will be put in plain English for better understanding.
Clause 4: Context of the Organization
The different sections of this clause are also listed below:
- Understanding the organization and its context
- Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties
- Determining the scope of the facilities management system
- The facilities management system
The first section requires that each and every organization develop a well-defined procedure for documenting and dealing with any issues, whether internal or external, that are relevant to the organization that is likely to hinder it from meeting the set targets of an FMS. We are not going to discuss other sections because they are pretty much straightforward. If there is anything that you don’t understand, then you can contact consultants at ISO-Pros.
Clause 5: Leadership
This clause if further sectioned into three different parts that are highlighted below:
Leadership and commitment – This requires the top management of an organization to demonstrate its commitment to the implementation and success of an FMS. They can do this through the establishment and implementation of facilities management policies and objectives.
Policy – This is primarily to set the requirements needed to establish an FMS that are specific to the organization in question. The policies should also address risk management, provides a framework for objective settlement, etc.
Organizational roles, responsibilities, and authorities – This section only requires that an organization’s top management and other staff members are assigned different roles in an FMS and enhance communication within the organization itself.
Clause 6: Planning
The different parts of planning clause are discussed below:
Resources – This requires that the organization allocate the needed resources for the establishment, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of an FMS.
Competence – The organization is mandated to review the competence of anyone assigned any role in the FMS.
Awareness – Again, an organization is expected to create awareness among the persons or entities regarding the policies and objectives of the FMS.
Communication and Documentation – These two respective sections require that an organization is responsible for enhancing communication and the persons in charge be able to document every information according to the ISO 41001 standards.
Organizational knowledge – All the processes and operations that run within an organization for its success and conformity to these international standards require knowledge. All those involved are required to be knowledgeable and any existing gap closed through training and maintenance of the standards.
Clause 8: Operation
We are going to discuss the three parts of this clause. That is as follows:
Operational Planning control – This requires that an organization to be proactively involved in the planning, implementation, and controlling of all the process that are intended to meet the standards and everything documented.
Co-ordination with all the parties involved – The relationship between the organization and its customers and stakeholders should be maintained, and that is the role of the organization as spelled out in the ISO 41001.
Integration of services – Facilities management should enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery. This section requires that an organization should ready to demonstrate how that is realized.
Clause 9: Performance Evaluation
Monitoring, measurement, analysis, and evaluation – All the FM services have to be monitored, analyzed, evaluated, and improved according to the results obtained.
Internal Audit – An organization is expected to carry out internal auditing regularly.
Management review – The top-level management should be evaluating or reviewing its FMS at agreed intervals. This should be done regularly.
Clause 10: Improvement
Non-Conformity and corrective plan – Following the auditing operation, an organization is expected to correct any non-conformities according to the set procedures.
Continual improvement – From the measuring, evaluating, analyzing the results, you should devise improvement plans.
Preventive actions – from the results and any issue identified, an organization is required to lay down preventive measures and risk mitigation actions.
ISO 41001 Certification
Now that you have known what is expected of you in the ISO 41001:2018, is your organization ready for certification? I think we have rushed to ask this question. Before even thinking of the certification, let us ask you is you have an effective FMS in place. It is important to note that the certification process begins with the auditing of the process. And before auditing can commence, there has to be something to be audited.
ISO 41001, as we have seen, provides a detailed framework for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving a facility management system for your organization. So, you are expected to follow that when setting up an FMS before calling for certification.
If you are done with everything and what is left is the certification, then we are glad that ISO-Pros can take it from there to certify your organization. Just contact us if you want to know more about us and how you can take advantage of the services that we offer.