Developing an Estonian national facilities management standard

Numerous strategies are used to identify and regulate facilities management activities in different countries. Thus, there is a common requirement that the managed facilities should be safe and acceptable for the user. The availability of a national facilities management standard is essential to understanding the obligations of the owners, users and the different service providers. Standards are also required for the facilities management service assisting companies to plan the workload for the contractors. By 2001, Tallinn Technical University in co‐operation with the Estonian Association for Property Management and Maintenance developed the national standard for facilities management activities. The standard is built up as a hierarchic list of activities to satisfy the goals described in the standard. The aim of this standard development project was to simplify and rationalise the understanding of all the activities required when running different properties and maintaining them in proper state of repair and suitable for the user. This standard defines the relevant terms and the major obligations for the related parties to develop a common understanding about facilities management, but also defines the major performance criteria for the definition of quality.