Effective Asset

Management Practices -
For High Performing
Facility Management
Syed Adil
Principal – Asset Management

Knowledge Series Article

November 2016

As per ISO 55001, "Asset management” enables an demonstrate the asset’s desired performance
organization to realize value from assets in achievement during this hand-over period
of its organizational objectives. An asset is an item, thing
or entity that has potential or actual VALUE to an Assets exist to provide value to
organization (ISO 55000). organization and its stakeholders.
Value of asset is directly
A best practice Asset Management System provide the proportional to its Usefulness or
following benefits to the Facilities Management: Fitness to the Purpose. As the
usefulness diminishes so the
 Increases output with the same set of assets perceived Value.
 Reduces the need for capital replacements Three (3) W’s are important for
Asset’s Value:
 Reduces maintenance cost per unit
What - Signifies the "extent" of
 Improve performance – Cost, Productivity & asset's Value in terms of being tangible, non-tangible,
Safety financial or non-financial
 Increases organization’s competitiveness When - Refers the time the owner/custodian start the
 Increases market share actual process of "Value realization”. Is it during design,
construction or operation phase. Earlier the involvement,
The main factors that affect the management of physical better chances of achieving Asset’s desired performance
assets are:
Who - Refers the person / entity responsible for
 Asset’s Service Life – As we all know, all management of Asset. Lack of or poorly defined
physical assets have finite Service Life. A good responsibilities mean less chances of achieving Asset’s
Asset Management System ensure to define performance (value)
asset’s desired output during the inception phase
and then oversee to maintain it through out As per BS 8536-2 and ISO 15686 (suite of standards),
remaining lifecycle stages till its disposal or following stages can be considered during an asset's
replacement lifecycle:

 Asset’s Ownership – Assets change hands during Strategy – Concept – Design – Construction – Handover
their lifecycle for various reasons such as – Operation - End of Life
transfer of ownership or maintenance. A good
Asset Management System describe and

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The stages related to Strategy, Concept, Design and 1. Setting-Up Asset Register during Project Hand-Over
Construction together called as "Acquire / Create" phase Phase
while last three stages, Handover, Operation (including
maintenance, refurbishments) and End of Life together Facility Handover Phase is like Achilles' Heel of whole
called as "In-Use / Service Life" phase of the Assets. As FM operations. Generally, most of the problems during
per ISO 15686, the Service life can be defined as the FM operations originate from deficient Hand-Over of
period after installation in which the buildings or their Facilities/Assets. Among others, the most pressing issue
parts meet or exceed the minimum performance during handover phase is lack of proper Assets Register.
requirements. In short, value realization actually starts According to BS 8587-2, Asset Register is defined as
from "In-Use" phase of the Asset that also coincides with "collection of records holding information about facility
start of Facility Management operations. assets in terms of their manufacturer, vendor, make,
model, specifications, date of acquisition, initial cost,
maintenance costs and requirements, accumulated
depreciation and written-down value"(BS 8587: 2012).
The key success criteria of an Asset Register is its "Data
Classification" and how it is aligned with Information
Management Systems used during Project Construction.
The commonly used Building System Classification in
construction industry are UniClass, OmniClass,
Uniformat and Masterformat. COBIe (Construction and
Operation Building information exchange) is very useful
tool for data acquisition and validation during project
handover phase for the purpose of setting up the Asset
Register.

2. Designing FM Strategy in-line with Organization’s

Asset Management Strategy

Asset Management Strategy is defined as "long-term

optimized approach to management of the assets, derived
from, and consistent with, the organizational strategic
plan and the asset management policy". (PAS-55: 2008).
BS 8210 highlights that "an organization should
formulate a facilities management strategy and policy
Given below are Five (5) Effective Asset Management that meets its current and likely future needs.
Practices that if applied properly and correctly, can lift Organizations should ensure that suitable expertise is
FM operational performance across FM organization: available for facilities management at all levels within
the organization. Where this expertise is not available in
 Setting-Up Asset Register during Project Hand- an organization, external resources should be employed
Over Phase instead" (BS 8210).
 Designing FM Policy and Strategy in-line with 3. Setting-up Condition Surveys / Facility Assessments
Asset Management Policy and Strategy
Condition Surveys help in updating and validating Asset
 Setting-up Condition Surveys / Facility Register and provide key information for FM Planning.
Assessments With this information, maintenance managers can
identify existing maintenance problems, develop budgets
 Establishing Leadership, Management and for future maintenance and capital renewal projects, and
Controls track deferred maintenance backlogs.
 Setting-up Performance Evaluation System Condition Surveys / Facility Assessments also assess the
compliance to statutory and regulatory requirements and

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help prevent legal and safety problems. These Condition  Records
Surveys provide opportunity to correct any omissions
and mistakes in Asset Register, re-evaluate the
performance requirements, identify any latent issues that
otherwise difficult to find out during routine maintenance Conclusion
and as well as measure success of maintenance
FM Operations can benefit largely by adopting Asset
management policies.
Management global best practices that are tested, used
4. Establishing Leadership, Management and Controls and practiced across multiple industries and sectors. The
listed Five (5) Effective Asset Management Practices
It serve no good, if leadership lacks the necessary covered in this article, deal with most critical aspects of
determination to implement asset management best modern FM operations. If applied correctly as intended
practices. According to ISO 55000, top management and these will eventually support FM organization to achieve
leaders at all levels are responsible for ensuring that its operational and financial objectives.
appropriate resources are in place to support the asset
management system. These resources include appropriate
funding, adequate and competent human resources, and
information technology support. These guiding principles
can directly be adopted in FM operations by defining
proper organization structure, roles & responsibilities,
accountabilities and authorities.

5. Setting-up Performance Evaluation System

As idle water, over time get stale and dirty, same way the
organizations lacking Performance Evaluation System
sooner or later become passive and get left behind in the
competition. According to ISO 55000, “Asset
management performance should be evaluated against
whether the asset management objectives have been
achieved, and if not, why not.

In FM context Performance Evaluation involves

monitoring, controlling and improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of both internal and outsourced service
providers. This should report current and past
performances to highlight where improvement has been
achieved and where it has not" (BS 8210).

As per PAS-55, a robust FM Performance Evaluation

System should consist of

 Performance and condition monitoring,

 Investigation of failures, incidents and non-

conformities,

 Evaluation of compliance

 Audit

 Improvement actions

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