Europe Agrees on Terms for Facility Management
In the near future it will be much easier for facility managers all over Europe to prepare agreements. The European Standards Committee on "Facility Management" has finished the first phases of its work. Two draft standards for Facility Management are published for public enquiry. This means all interested market parties have the opportunity to give comments on the documents. They can do this via the National Standardization Bodies in their countries before 2005-10-27. Facility management is the management of buildings and services in oreder to support and improve the primary activities of an organisation. It is the role of facility management to ensure that everything is available for the other staff in an organisation to do their work in the broadest sense. Facility management may range from the small scale (e.g. a school caretaker or janitor) to the large scale such as total take-over of all operations and management for facility processes. Some facility management companies have grown to simply provide environments which other organisations may rent on demand in order to do business in a 'hotel' environment. The first European draft standard, prEN 15221, gives terms and definitions of Facility Management. This standard structures the field of Facility Management.The basic terms of Facility Management and their defionitions are defined and their relation is explained. A list of examples of services and activities and facilities is given. The second European draft standard, PrEN 15222, is a guidance on how to prepare an effective Facility Management agreement. This standard harmonizes with an important principle in the European Commission’s Directives; namely that all public contracts with a certain amount must be made available to Facility Management contractors throughout the European Community. The purpose of EN 15222 is mainly to promote cross-border client/Facility Management contractor relationships within the European Common Market. It helps to produce a clear interface between the client and the Facility Management service provider. The standard may also improve the quality of Facility Management agreements and simplify comparison between Facility Management agreements. In order to promote professionalism and clarity on both FM and FM standardization, the secretariat of the European Standardization Committee on this topic – CEN/TC 348 – believes it is important to send a uniform message to the European market. Therefore a range of events wil be organised throughout Europe. More information can be found on www.fm-standards.net For Germany the European activities are mirrored in the Standards Committee for Heating and Ventilation (NHRS). The German standard DIN 32736 "Building Management – Definitions and scope of services", published in the year 2000, served as an important document for the development of prEN 15221.