UPTIME This column is the first in a series discussing the ins and outs of the new ISO 55000 Asset Management Standard. Look for others intermittently over the next several months.
Bob Williamson, Contributing Editor
ISO 55000: Management Systems For Asset Management, Part I Facilities and equipment management is about to be taken to a whole new level with the release of ISO 55000 Asset Management Standard scheduled for early 2014. Or is it? The long-awaited rollout of this new global standard might not be what many are assuming it will be. Then again, maybe it will. That’s the way it is with the introduction of global standards. Remember the launch of ISO 9000 and ISO 14001? Regardless, even if ISO 55000 isn’t perfect when it rolls out, it will still provide a very sound foundation for organization-wide life-cycle asset “ownership.” Readers will soon recognize that the ISO standard is NOT solely about fixed assets, either: Instead, it identifies assets as items having “potential or actual value to an organization.” It would have been simpler if it were focused on “physical” or “fixed” assets alone. However, this new definition of an “Asset Management System” will serve as a framework that has long been missing in our fixed/physical asset-based business and industry. The push for ISO 55000 I expect that the directive to conform to ISO 55000 requirements will come from outsiders (i.e., owners, investors, insurance underwriters and regulators)—and it won’t be optional. For the most part, these entities want an assurance that the organization is systematically addressing risks associated with unreliable assets: high costs, lagging ROI, catastrophic damage, and safety, health and environmental incidents. Compliance with this new global standard goes a long way to assuring that the value assets bring to the business increases. But ISO 55000 does not specify HOW to manage the assets. What, then, is this Asset Management Standard all about? Simply stated, the intent of the new ISO 55000 Asset Management Standard is to provide a framework that specifies and links life-cycle asset decision making and actions to the strategic goals of the business. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. Let’s review the recent history of Asset Management. The precursor to ISO 55000 was PAS 55 Asset Management Specifications, issued in 2008 by the British Standards Institution as a “publicly available specification for the management of physical assets.” 12 |
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While PAS 55 has been evolving since 2004 and has developed a significant body of knowledge and track record, the ISO 55000 suite of standards is mostly new content with no track record yet. A committee of committees The global committee work devoted to developing the ISO 55000 structures and language took on a Herculean task. It eventually involved representatives from 31 participating countries and 13 observing countries under the guidance of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) located in Geneva, Switzerland. The primary players in the ISO 55000 project included PC/251 (ISO Project Committee 251), The British Standards Institution and Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) from around the world (for the United States, they were ASTM International, ANSI [American National Standards Institute] and the US/ TAG [U.S. Technical Advisory Group]). Visualize a “committee of committees” structure that pulled all of the pieces together. No doubt, the big challenge was combining all the various perceptions, beliefs and assumptions about “asset management” into a cohesive working document. Turning such a working document into a draft standard is yet another huge challenge. Ultimately, the international organization must compile, format and publish the new Asset Management Standard conforming to their standard format and style. As you can imagine, there were many compromises and disagreements along the way. But once ISO 55000 is released, it will provide one of the most comprehensive global guidelines for improving the fixed assets (and more) for a wide variety of businesses around the world. Expect a steep learning curve leading up to informed discussions regarding the ISO 55000 revision and updating process in about five years. Defining ISO 55000 Let’s review the elements. ISO 55000 is a “suite” of international standards developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These include ISO 55000, 55001 and 55002. Each of these various elements has a specific purpose OCTOBER 2013