As the saying goes, if it seems too good to be true it probably is. While not as widespread as diploma and degree mills in higher education, certificate mills producing impressive-looking ISO-styled certificates on quality, environmental and energy management are on the rise. Why spend months implementing a new management system to improve your facility management when you can buy a certificate off the shelf that says you have already done it?
We can cite one case where a mill declared that it had certified a company even before ISO 41001 Facility Management Systems (upon which AS ISO 41001 is based) had been published. Maybe they had contact with the developers of ISO 41001; however, no one had heard of them. It is not so much that they were off the starting blocks before publication, it was the astonishing ability to simultaneously establish, operate and audit a Facility Management System (FMS). Time is needed to implement the FMS before it can be audited. It is plain common sense, not a game, as well as sound management practice.
Mills have been sprouting up in the Middle East and India alongside legitimate firms offering auditing and certification services. Identifying a bogus outfit – a mill – might not be easy; however, certifying a management system within days of its introduction is nonsense and not worth the price of the paper it is written upon. Dealing with a mill could mean that your business is buying trouble, because discovery sends entirely the wrong message to everyone – this company is prepared to cheat.
(With apologies to Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) and Warren Buffet for borrowing their words)
