Editorial

Citation

Brian Sloan, P. (1998), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 16 No. 11. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.1998.06916kaa.001

Editorial

This issue of Facilities brings together several papers from the conference "Facilities Management in Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States", which was held on 14-15 May 1998 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The conference was jointly organised by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and Napier University, Edinburgh. The conference was actively encouraged by the Lithuanian Construction and Urban Development Ministry, the Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation, together with international organisations representing facilities management.

The conference proceedings [ISBN 9986-05-356-0) bring together 47 papers from academics and practitioners from 12 countries world-wide who are interested in facilities management (FM) and its application to the former Soviet countries. The conference was organised under several themes, namely:

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  facilities management;

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  housing management;

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  valuation;

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  IT and computer-aided systems;

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  education and training;

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  maintenance and refurbishment of buildings.

At the conference the need was identified for central and eastern European (CEE) countries to develop systems and techniques for FM which matched their specific needs and not necessarily adopt methods from the west without alteration. Also it is evident that many CEE countries see the facility as a major absorber of resources (maintenance, etc.), without necessarily appreciating that it should be seen as a strategic weapon which can assist in creating a competitive advantage for a company and even a nation.

While it is not possible to deal extensively with all aspects of such a conference in a special issue of a journal, the papers selected for publication represent some of the ideas on FM emerging from CEE countries themselves, together with ideas which are worthy of consideration by a wider audience throughout the FM community.

Interestingly after selecting the papers and editing them, it became apparent that a unifying theme runs through all of them, namely, "housing management". This has not been deliberate on my part, but coincidental. The papers are arranged in the following order:

In his paper, Liias looks at the issue of housing management and transition economies. He seeks to draw out that housing management is an important issue for facilities managers particularly in transition economies, but this is greatly influenced by the notion of "sustainability".

Following independence, Lithuania, like many CEE countries, has dismantled the central system which was in place for the development and maintenance of apartment blocks. Burinskienë deals with the issue of how these apartment blocks must now be managed and the need for government involvement in the financing and organisation of refurbishment work, through the establishment of assistance programmes.

The three papers by Roerup, Fine and Ngowi and Mselle all deal with differing aspects of tenant involvement in the management of housing resources. Roerup considers the establishment of homeowners' associations within Lithuania, Fine deals with the involvement of tenants in managing housing estates in the UK and the lessons to be drawn from the process, while Ngowi and Mselle consider community participation in Botswana. All have valuable insights into the process of tenant involvement and the problems which this may raise, together with the benefits to be realised.

Sobotka and Wyatt seek to apply the principles of "sustainable development" to the problems being faced in Poland when managing properties constructed from large panels.

Melnikas considers the management and modernisation of housing facilities and draws out specific characteristics of the market within CEE countries. He develops the idea of the building as a "biosocial" entity which displays individual characteristics and which must be effectively managed to ensure that the competing needs of owners and tenants may be met.

Zavadskas, Bejder and Kaklauskas describe a system developed to assist in making maintenance decisions on the basis of establishing the efficient use of resources throughout a building's lifetime. They seek to show that the use of multi-criteria analysis may enable better use of resources through the consideration of the variables and the potential choices to be made.

I trust this selection of papers proves of interest to the readers of Facilities and, moreover, does justice to the wide range of views and ideas which are contained within the collective proceedings for the conference.

Professor Brian Sloan

Please note that copies of the full conference proceedings Facilities Management in Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (ISBN 9986-05-356-0) are available at a cost (including postage) of US$20. Orders (with cheques) should be sent to: Dr Arturas Kaklauskas, FM Conference Organiser, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio al. 11, LT-2054 Vilnius, Lithuania.