Overview

In 2002 the initiative was taken to establish a European Standard for facility management. It was soon recognized that to reach this objective, preliminary standards had to be elaborated and published. The first result of that process was the standards EN 15221-1:2006 and EN 15221-2:2006. Based on the discussions in the development of those two standards the decision was made to develop four new European Standards for quality, taxonomy, processes and measurement. After the realization of those six standards it was possible to pursue developing a European Standard for Benchmarking prEN 15221-7. The standards, EN 15221-3, EN 15221-4, EN 15221-5 and EN 15221-6 have been developed, adopted and agreed as a set of principles, underlying the facility management approach on EN 15221-1, to ensure consistency. These are incorporated in the basic principles of a process-based management system, upon which these standards are founded. These standards also build on widely accepted management principles, in particular value chain (PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act)). The principles of the Deming cycle (PDCA) underpin all of the standards but are applied to a different extent and depth in each. In fact there are different types of PDCA cycles depending on the term (for example, long-term, short-term). These standards align to the EN ISO 9000 family of standards for quality management systems and apply specific guidance on the concepts and use of a process-based approach to management systems to the field of facility management. The term "facility services" is used as a generic description in the standards. The term "standardized facility products" refers to the "standardized facility services" defined and described in EN 15221-4, Facility Management - Part 4: Taxonomy, Classification and Structures in Facility Management. Countries can decide to substitute the term "product" into "service", when they consider that it is important for a good acceptance and use of the standards in their own country. The aim of these standards is to provide guidance to FM organizations on the development and improvement of their FM processes to support the primary activities. This will support organizational development, innovation and improvement and will form a foundation for the further professional development of FM and its advancement in Europe. Therefore, generic examples are provided in the standard to assist organizations. These standards lay the foundation of the work that has to be continued in order to develop facility management, for example, benchmark standards prEN 15221-7. All parts of the series EN 15221 have been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 348 "Facility management" (secretariat: NEN, Netherlands). The responsible German committee is NA 041-04-02 AA "Facility Management (SpA CEN/TC 348)" of the Heating and Ventilation Technology Standards Committee (NHRS) at DIN, the German Institute for Standardization e. V. The standard series DIN EN 15221, Facility Management consists of the following parts: - Part 1: Terms and definitions - Part 2: Guidance on how to prepare Facility Management agreements - Part 3: Guidance on quality in Facility Management - Part 4: Taxonomy, Classification and Structures in Facility Management - Part 5: Guidance on Facility Management processes - Part 6: Area and Space Measurement in Facility Management - Part 7: Performance Benchmarking EN 15221-3 provides a guideline on how to measure, achieve and improve quality in facility management. It gives complementary guidelines to EN ISO 9000, EN ISO 9001 and EN 15221-2 within the framework of EN 15221-1. The standard provides a link to management methods and management theories. This European Standard is applicable to: - facility management in public and private organizations; - client organization and service provider relationships; - full range of facility products or facility services; - both types of service providers in facility management (internal and external); - all types of working environments (for example, industrial, commercial, administration, military, healthcare, etcetera). This European Standard is applicable to business services (not consumer oriented). This standard does not: - replace the quality management systems of the client organization; - provide standard forms: - for performance and quality management systems (delivering a quality management system); - for defining requirements; - for a measurement tool; - for service level; - apply to the certification of the quality system of facility management (covered by EN ISO 9001).

Document: references other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 041-04-02 AA - Facility Management (Mirror committee CEN/TC 348 and ISO/TC 267)  

Responsible european committee

CEN/TC 348 - Facility Management