What is BS EN 61355-1 – Rules and classification tables of documents for plants, systems and equipment about? 
Documentation is necessary for the provision of information for all activities during the lifecycle of technical products which include plants, systems and equipment. It may be produced in any phase or activity. Documents may be received from and delivered to other parties. Different parties may need different information or different views on the same information, depending on what is most suitable for the intended purpose.
BS EN 61355 is a European Standard that discusses classification and designation of documents for plants, systems and equipment.
BS EN 61355-1 is the first part of the series that provides rules and guidelines for the classification of documents based on their characteristic content of information. A letter code indicating the document kind class is provided together with rules and guidelines for its application in a document designation code.
BS EN 61355-1 is relevant for documents in all technical areas which are in use during the life cycle of a plant, system or equipment.
Who is BS EN 61355-1 - Rules and classification tables of documents for plants, systems and equipment for? 
BS EN 61355-1 on documents for plants, systems and equipment is relevant to: 
- Technical experts
- Entities involved with technical product documentation
- Mechanical engineers
Why should you use BS BS EN 61355-1 - Rules and classification tables of documents for plants, systems and equipment?
BS EN 61355-1 aims to establish a method for better communication and understanding between parties involved in document interchange. In order to get a basis for a system, it is necessary to disregard, more or less, what a document is called today. Different names are in use for the same document kind or the names may have different meanings for different parties. The purpose and object of interest are sometimes also part of document titles, which hampers general understanding. Therefore, the basis for a common understanding should be a document kind classification which is based only on the content of information.
Another aim of BS EN 61355-1 is to cover the need for data retrieval as it is often based on the need for the information content of the document.
The third aim of BS EN 61355-1 is to set up rules for a specific method of correlating documents and objects, i.e. to indicate to which object a specific document belongs. For this purpose, a document designation system is provided, linking the document kind designation to the object designation used within the plant, system or equipment. Following the rules and recommendations given, the documentation reflects the structure of the "real installation". By
that also guidance is given for sorting and grouping as well as for structured searching for information, for example in document retrieval systems.
