BusinessDay 19 Dec 2017

26 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556 Tuesday 19 December 2017
Homes&Property
Infrastructure
Maintenance
With
Tunde Obileye
Choosing the right FM company
Choosing the right facilities
management (FM) company
is essential to the
safety and longevity of any built
environment. When proper and
appropriate FM is put in place, it
will lead to an increase in value,
ensure longevity and bring pride
to the owners and end users.
For instance, with most
buildings in Lagos, one can say
without an iota of doubt the
number of times such buildings
have been seen in a very good
state—well painted walls, leakfree
roofs, and surroundings
looking like a perfect picture
from a new book. Even new
buildings in their first year or few
years can be seen with patches,
overgrown grasses within its
surrounding. The question
often asked is, ‘is it the people
involved or a culture thing?’
According to the Merriam
Webster dictionary, maintenance
can be defined as the upkeep
of a property or equipment.
This allows for preservation.
Maintenance is good because
it brings beauty in a real sense.
Everything is considered even
better when the right person is
found to do it.
It has been observed that
those who try to look after their
property without the expertise of
qualified FM personnel hardly
pay attention to every part of
the building. They will rather just
paint and fix minor issues rather
than have planned and preventative
maintenance in place.
To consider choosing the
right FM personnel or company,
parameters must be set from the
Fresh hope for safety as SON set to review
cement production standards
Hope for safety of
lives and quality
product is
in the horizon
as the Standards
Organisation of Nigeria
(SON) has begun the process
of reviewing industrial
standards for cement manufacturing
in the country.
This was disclosed to
journalists by Osita Aboloma,
the Director-General
(DG) SON at a Stakeholders’
Technical Committee Forum
on the review of standards
for cement - NIS 441-2014-
with the theme, ‘Repositioning
the Cement Sub-sector’.
In his welcome remarks
read on his behalf by his
representative, Chinyere
Egwuonwu, director, Standards
at SON, who also
chaired the meeting, the
DG noted that it had become
necessary to review
the standards in line with
global recommendation of
standards review every five
years.
“We all know that we
have life span for a standard.
Standards can be reviewed
after five years or at any
time at the instance of the
stakeholders or if found
inadequate due to changes
in technology, test methods
and government policy,” the
DG said.
According to him,
“Standards development is
a stakeholders’ responsibility
to which SON provides
the secretariat.”
He saluted the sense of
patriotism of members of
the technical committee for
“answering the clarion call
for this important national
assignment.”
“I urge you to bring your
experience and wealth of
knowledge to bear in ensuring
global best practices in
the final draft of the standards
to be submitted to the
Standards Council for consideration
and approval”,
he added.
Expressing the optimism
that Nigeria would soon get
new standards for cement,
the DG said: “I have no
doubts that with the calibre
of professionals and experts
on the committee, you will
produce quality cement
standard that will help to
monitor the quality of cement
in Nigeria as well as
checkmark the high incidence
of collapsed buildings
collapse and concrete
structures occasioned by
poor cement quality and
applications.”
Earlier in her remarks
in her capacity as director,
Standards, SON, Egwuonwu,
said it was important
to review the standards for
cement and to ensure that
cement produced locally
meet global best practices.
“Cement is used for
many things- construction
of buildings where we live;
AMDC, AMF soar above peers with certification on quality, global best practices
Commitment to quality
products and service
delivery coupled
with strict adherence to global
best practices have positioned
Alpha Mead Development
Company (AMDC) and Alpha
Mead Facilities & Management
Services Limited (AMFacilities)
well ahead of their peers as
these attributes have earned
them the coveted Quality Management
System (QMS) certification
– ISO 9001:2015.
Both firms are part of strategic
business units (SBUs)
of the Alpha Mead Group—a
conglomerate that provides
a range of products and services
to local and international
investors in terms of facilities
management, real estate
development and advisory,
security systems and technologies,
training, and healthcare
management services.
This certification means
the company’s quality and risk
management processes and
systems are at par with global
best practices which implies
beginning to make the selective
process worthwhile. Such
parameters must include capabilities,
financial stability and
experience with similar projects.
As a service, FM encompasses
multiple disciples to
ensure smooth functionality
of the built environment. A
good FM company will know
how best to integrate its people,
place, processes and technology.
Therefore, prospective clients
must know what questions to
ask and how to evaluate their
answers.
The following considerations
will surely help prospective
clients in choosing the right FM
company or personnel:
1. Ability to protect the health
and safety of those involved.
2. Willingness to solve the
problems most facilities are
dealing with at the moment.
3. Competent workforce
4. Adhere to strict form of
maintenance.
5. Well documented standards
and procedures.
6. Excellent customer service.
This list goes on and on but
this should be the starting point.
Getting the right company or
personnel to provide facilities
management services must be
done with the long term view
of what is expected of the built
environment in the years ahead.
Obileye is a UK-trained lawyer and CEO,
Great Heights Property and Facilities
Management Limited
Email:
Tundeobileye@greatheightslimited.com
... DG tasks technical committee on quality recommendations
Stories by CHUKA UROKO
too that it can operate in any
market and serve any class of
customers anywhere in the
world and the quality will be
acceptable.
The ISO 9001:2015 certification
is an international
quality and risk management
standards that audits the quality
processes and systems of
businesses. It ensures that
businesses and operational
processes are robust enough
to consistently deliver quality
products and services that are
in line with global best practices
to the customers.
“Commitment to global
L-R: Damola Akindolire, Executive Director, Real Estate; Obi Nwasike, Chairman, Board of Directors, both of
Alpha Mead Group; Adenike Akinbote, System Certification Manager, Bureau Veritas, and Femi Akintunde,
GMD, Alpha Mead Group at the presentation of ISO 9001:2015 certificate to AMFacilities and AMDC in Lagos.
Some of the stakeholders at the meeting for the review of cement production standards in Lagos recently.
best practice and dedication to
professional business service
were the key success factors for
the certification of AMDC and
recertification of AMF to ISO
9001:2015”, revealed Adenike
Akinbote, System Certification
Manager at Bureau Veritas,
who presented the certificate
the factories, roads, etc. The
use of cement cuts across
all aspects of our lives that
are very important. So, if
it is not done well, it will
be very dangerous. That is
why we have come to look
at the standards for cement
to make sure that anywhere
it is used, it is covered by
standards.”
Joseph Odiguere, a professor,
who represented
Council of Registered Engineers
in Nigeria (COREN)
and elected as chairman of
the technical committee,
said the job of his committee
was to make recommendations
that would
further be looked into by the
Standards Council.
“All we are trying to do
is to develop those kinds of
standards that manufacturers
in Nigeria should comply
with. Our recommendations
would be passed
on to the Nigeria Standards
Council for approval and I
can’t give you a time frame
when exactly the new standards
will be rolled out. That
will depend on the Standard
Organisation of Nigeria,”
he said.
Speaking with journalists
on the sidelines of the
event, Kunle Awobodu, vice
president, Nigeria Institute
of Building (NIOB), noted
that high cost of cement
could lead to unwholesome
practices.
Awobodu, who said it
was necessary for manufacturers
to reduce prices
of their cement, however
said that high cost of cement
could be a direct consequence
of production and
lifting costs. He urged government
to provide environment
necessary for business
to thrive.
“Government can help
by providing conducive
environment for manufacturing.
We have problem
with our electricity. We have
erratic power supply; again
the gas supply from the
Niger Delta should be stabilised.
The road infrastructure
also should be looked for
easy transportation of the
product. All these are the
factors that determine prices
of cement. So, if government
can address the issues, it will
go a long way to lower the
prices,” he said.
to the Alpha Mead Group.
The Group described the
new certification as a milestone
as it positions AMDC as
the first real estate development
company in Nigeria to
be certified to international
standards and AMFacilities
as the first facilities management
company to transit from
the ISO 9001:2008 to ISO
9001:2015.
“This remarkable achievement
reinforces our leadership
position in the market; our
aim is to ensure that consumers
of real estate products and
services in Nigeria continue to
get quality comparable to what
is obtainable internationally.
And we keep improving our
processes to demonstrate to
the industry that it is possible
to have international quality in
Nigeria”, said ”, Femi Akintunde,
Group Managing Director,
Alpha Mead, on receiving the
certificate in Lagos recently.
The certification, he noted,
would assure our customers of
our commitment to quality services
in line with the changing
realities in the market, the sophistication
of real estate assets
and the increasing demand for
quality products and services.
“For an organization like
ours that provides business
and strategic support services
to multinationals in different
locations around the world,
this for us is a means of reassuring
our customers that we
are in touch with global trends
and we have the capacity to
continue to serve them well”,
he noted.
Wale Odufalu, Deputy
Managing Director of Alpha
Mead Group said “this certification
demonstrates that we
are happy and willing to take
on new challenges. It speaks to
our culture of continuous improvement
and our resolve to
ensure that our mission to engage
the best people and equip
them with the best processes
and standards is alife. We are
committed to this mission and
this is one of the things that
keep us going.”