The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) joins facility management advocates around the world in celebrating the publication of two International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards impacting the industry. ISO, an independent, non-governmental organization and developer of international voluntary consensus standards, has published two standards in April 2017— ISO 41011:2017, Facility management — Vocabulary; and ISO 41012:2017, Facility management — Guidance on strategic sourcing and the development of agreements.
IFMA notes that the increasing cost of fragmentation within the industry has underscored the need for a unified global facility management community. As the largest global FM body, IFMA pursues development and support of that effort through ISO standard making as well as global partnerships like the IFMA-RICS collaboration launched in April 2016. Since 2012, IFMA has served as administrator on behalf of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG), playing a vital role in the development of global FM standards.
“The ability of FM practitioners to speak the same professional language around the world is the foundation of a robust global community that will be better situated to tackle the challenges of the future,” said Jim Whittaker, past chair of IFMA, who leads the effort for the U.S. ANSI TAG. “For an industry as diverse as FM, developing standards can be a daunting task, but the reward for success is worth the effort. On behalf of IFMA and the FM industry, I’d like to thank everyone who helped make these standards a reality, including Stan Mitchell for his vision and leadership as the ISO Technical Committee chair and Paul Stadlöder, Jay Drew, and Olav Egil Sæbøe, who served as working group convenors.”
Later this year, ISO expects to publish a third technical report: ISO 41013, Facility management — Scope, key concepts and benefits.
