Implementing ISO 55000 eBook-Your Complete Guide

Implementing ISO 55000
Implementing
ISO 55000
Your Complete Guide
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Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
PURPOSE OF THIS E-BOOK 3
CHAPTER 1 – STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT 4
CHAPTER 2- WHAT IS ISO 55000? 11
CHAPTER 3 – ROAD MAP TO ISO 55000 COMPLIANCE 15
CHAPTER 4 – ASSET MANAGEMENT POLICY 20
CHAPTER 5 – WHAT DOES A GOOD STRATEGIC ASSET

MANAGEMENT PLAN LOOK LIKE? 26
CHAPTER 6 – WHAT DOES A GOOD ASSET MANAGEMENT

PLAN LOOK LIKE? 33
CHAPTER 7 – INTEGRATING AND ALIGNING ASSET

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND PLANS 39
CHAPTER 8 – KEY ASSET MANAGEMENT PROCESSES 45
CHAPTER 9 – ORGANISING FOR EFFECTIVE ASSET

MANAGEMENT 49
CHAPTER 10 - ASSET MANAGEMENT DATA AND DECISION

MAKING 54
CHAPTER 11– ASSET MANAGEMENT TOOLS 64
CHAPTER 12– ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPETENCE 76
CHAPTER 13 – ASSET MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP AND

CULTURE 86
CHAPTER 14 – ISO 55001 CERTIFICATION 97
CONCLUSION 107
ABOUT ASSETIVITY 108
REFERENCES 109
Contents | 2
Introduction
In this book we will provide an overview of the ISO 55000 series of standards,
the value of implementing an Asset Management System, and practical
guidance on how to complete the ISO 55000 implementation journey.
The Purpose of this eBook

There are a number of questions that people are asking regarding ISO 55000:
• Our organisation is required to comply with ISO 55001 – where do we start?

• What is ISO 55000?
• Isn’t Asset Management just common sense?
• Will being certified against ISO 55001 improve our brand value?
• What are the absolute minimum requirements to get certified against
ISO 55001?
• Is ISO 55000 really relevant to my organisation – we already know how to
look after our assets?
In this book, we will address these questions, and the following topics:
• What is ISO 55000?

• The Road map to ISO 55001 compliance
• Asset Management Foundation Documents
• Organising for effective Asset Management
• Asset Management Leadership
• Key Asset Management Processes
• Asset Management Competence and Culture
• Asset Management Documentation, Data and Decision Making
• Becoming certified against the requirements of ISO 55001
Introduction | 3
Chapter 1:
Starting on the Right Foot

In this introductory chapter we will discuss how to start the journey towards
implementing an ISO 55001 compliant Asset Management systems on the
right foot and what you need to consider before you start. Here is a typical
approach you may follow to starting the journey.
1. Gain an understanding of the fundamental principles of Asset

Management, Asset Management Systems and ISO 55000
2. Understand the fundamentals and value of implementing Asset

Management Systems in general.
3. Pause for a minute and consider will this really add value to my organisation?
4. If yes – how do I start the journey on the right foot?
Starting on the right foot | 4

Gaining an Understanding of Asset Management

Although good Asset Management sound like common sense, the knowledge
of what a comprehensive Asset Management system entails is not all
common knowledge and some investigation or study may be required to
understand the fundamentals. We recommend that the leadership team has
an understanding of the subject in order to guide the organisation down the
correct path. Without this knowledge, there is a risk that the organisation will
over or under estimate the time, effort and resources required to achieve
alignment or compliance.
The following resources are essential sources of information about ISO 55000
and Asset Management and should be your starting point:
• The standards itself. We recommend that you buy (and yes, read) the
full suite of standards, ISO 55000, 55001 and 55002. This will provide an
overview of the requirements but also provide some guidelines to the
application of the standard.
• The World Wide Web. Various sources exist including:
»» assetivity.com.au – in particular see the video which provides an

overview to the ISO 55000 standard at http://www.assetivity.com.au/
article/asset-management/visualising-iso-55001.html;
»» The Institute of Asset Management (theiam.org) and
»» Asset Management Council (amcouncil.com.au).
• Training. Consider attending a conference, training session or similar. In

our experience the dollars spent on awareness training for leadership are
recovered tenfold in alleviating uncertainty downstream.
Fundamentals and Value of Asset Management

A good place to start understanding ISO 55000 is to look at the definition
of Asset Management as given in the standard overview document (ISO
55000:2014 – Asset Management – Principles, overview and terminology). This
document simply gives the definition of Asset Management as:
“Coordinated activity of an organisation to realise value from assets”
This sounds again like common sense, but there are more to this definition
than meets the eye. E.g. What is the real meaning behind “coordinated” and
what is real “value”?
In simple terms “Coordinated” refers to an organisation striving towards a

common goal but also measuring progress along the way.
Value can mean different things to different organisations and part of this
journey is to uncover what matters to your organisation and how to use your
assets to achieve it.

To understand Asset Management better, you should consider the

fundamental principles of Asset Management as defined in the ISO 55000
standard namely:
• Value - Assets exist to provide value to the organization and its

stakeholders. An understanding of value and how your asset contributes
to the value is therefore important.
• Alignment - Asset Management translates the organisational objectives

into technical and financial decisions, plans and activities. Asset
Management requires line of sight from organisational objectives through
to tactical plans and measures.
• Leadership - Leadership and workplace culture are determinants of value

realisation. Asset Management required management to take the lead
and show commitment.
• Assurance - Asset Management gives assurance that assets will fulfil their
required purpose. This requires the organisation to measure progress and
performance with discipline and purpose, and typically include setting up
performance measures and performing periodic reviews and audits.
The Value of Asset Management

What is the value of Asset Management?
ISO 55000 suggests that the following value can be gained from applying
the standard:
• Improved financial performance
• Informed asset investment decisions
• Managed risk
• Improved services and outputs
• Demonstrated social responsibility
• Demonstrated compliance
• Enhanced reputation
• Improved organisational sustainability
• Improved efficiency and effectiveness
The above are some generic examples of the value of good Asset Management
but what is the real value in the context of your organisation?

What is the Real Value to My Organisation?

Take a deep breath and pause for a minute to really understand the value
you want to get out of an ISO 55000 implementation initiative. It seems the
words “real” and “really” appears many times in this chapter - the reason for
that is that if you don’t really understand why you are doing this, you may start
down the wrong track, on the wrong foot, expecting unrealistic or irrelevant
outcomes. Note that this is not just an 18-month project, it is a long term
commitment that will require resources and commitment for the long term,
and is bound to fail if the wrong expectations are created at the start, especially
to senior leadership. A suggested starting point would be to develop a business
case to determine and document the value of Asset Management - consider:
• Which of the major risks in your organisation will be addressed through

this approach? By how much will the risk be reduced?
• What benefit could I gain from implementing a more holistic and

integrated approach to Asset Management – e.g. Increasing revenue,
production or productivity?
• What costs can I save by taking decisions that consider cost risk and
benefit of the life cycle of an asset?
The diagram below shows some of the value drivers that could be considered:
Figure 1. Value drivers of Asset Management

When considering the question of value, it is also worth considering that it

seems likely that the status of ISO 55000 as a series of ISO standards will move
Asset Management from the historic “bottom-up” drive to a “top-down” drive.
That is, instead of the technical elements of a business seeking to push Asset
Management concepts up through their organisation to improve efficiency we
will now see regulators and boardrooms drive implementation for one or a
combination of the following reasons:
• Regulatory Compliance – With its status as an ISO standard, ISO 55000

will most likely become the basis on which economic regulators
will assess the adequacy of pricing submissions received from the
organisations that they regulate in ensuring that the represent “value for
money” while also protecting the longer term integrity of the assets and
satisfying public interests.
• Contribution to Due Diligence – For those not working in regulated

industries, ISO 55000 is likely to serve as a benchmark for appropriate
stewardship of an organisation’s assets and therefore afford some legal
protection in the event of safety, environmental or financial issues.
Insurers may also assess the adequacy of an organisation’s Asset
Management system using ISO 55000 when determining premiums,
providing additional incentive.
• Marketing strategy – Some organisations may simply see some form

of certification as offering an inducement to investors or providing
some other commercial advantage. If the objective is merely to “tick
the box” with certification rather than improve their Asset Management
performance, then this may drive inappropriate behaviours.
• Competitive advantage – Some boardrooms may see the potential for

organisational efficiencies and subsequent commercial advantage
inherent in good Asset Management practices. This will most likely drive
the most committed and holistic approach to implementing ISO 55000,
with a focus on improving the business over certification.
It may still not be 100% clear what the benefit will be to your organisation,
but be sure to start this conversation before committing to the Asset
Management journey.

Another aspect to consider is the cost and time required for implementing an
ISO 55000 Asset Management system. A key consideration here is the level of
alignment or compliance with ISO 55001 that you may wish to achieve. There
are a range of ways that an organisation might seek to apply ISO 55000:
• Alignment – an organisation might choose simply to benchmark its

current practices against ISO 55000 and adopt those elements it considers
appropriate. This might be appropriate for existing, large organisations
in lightly regulated industries, where the cost of changing embedded
practices might exceed the benefits of moving to an ISO 55000 compliant
Asset Management system (at least in the short term!). There is a sliding
scale here, from simply benchmarking to almost full compliance and we
would recommend any asset-owning organisation give at least some
consideration to aligning their practices with the ISO 55000 standards.
• Compliance – an organisation may choose to develop an Asset

Management system that is fully compliant with the requirements of
ISO 55001, but not seek certification. This could potentially yield all of
the benefits of a certified Asset Management system, but without the
initial and on-going cost of certification. This might be appropriate for
a medium to large start-up organisation in a lightly regulated industry.
In this case, using ISO 55001 to guide the development of an Asset
Management system will likely be both less expensive and more effective
than starting with a blank sheet of paper or practices “borrowed” from
similar existing organisations.
• Certification – an organisation might choose to embrace the full

certification process. This will obviously incur costs in both achieving and
maintaining certification and we would tend to recommend this approach
only where there is a clear business case. Examples would include a
mandatory regulatory requirement or a clear market/insurer incentive.
One way to get an understanding of the potential

value and cost, time and resources associated with
an ISO 55001 implementation is to perform an ISO
55000 readiness assessment. Whether you want to do
it yourself or get external assistance is up to you but be
sure to get some experienced assistance if you don’t
have the experience internally.
Up to now we have covered some fundamentals of

Asset Management and the typical value you can gain
from implementing ISO 55000. What approach do you
need to follow in order to start this journey on the right
foot? The following section will look at a few basic steps
you can use to right at the start of the initiative.

Starting on the Right Foot

Consider covering the following basic steps before commencing on your Asset
Management journey.
1. Get leadership buy in – this is definitely a top down initiative. Make the
leadership team has a good understanding what an Asset Management
is and the benefits. An introductory course or conference would be a good
starting point.
2. Get input from stakeholders on what benefits they expect to gain from
Asset Management will be and therefore what will the drive behind the
journey will be.
3. Get alignment internally – communicate, share and negotiate but make

sure all internal stakeholders agree on what the major benefits will be and
ensure that it matters to the organisation and constitutes REAL value.
4. Determine your approach to compliance. As mentioned previously, there

are at least three options here.
»» Certification - certification usually applies where regulators

explicitly require certification or if there is a competitive advantage
in certification
»» Compliance - aiming to comply but not certify, this may cost less but
have significant benefit.
»» Alignment - also a lower cost option than certification but with some
value gained.
5. Get agreement that the funding and resources will be required for this
initiative and create a clear picture of what will be required in order to
minimise surprises down the track.
6. Build a road map for the journey. Do this by understanding / taking

stock of what you have and what you need to still develop. This can be
determined through an ISO 55000 readiness assessment. The output of a
readiness assessment will give you a road map for the journey but may
also uncover some benefit to the organisation. We will discuss the Road
map to ISO 55001 alignment and compliance in Chapter 3 – Road map to
ISO 55000 Compliance.

Chapter 2:
What is ISO 55000?

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) released its first series
of standards on Asset Management in January 2014. In our opinion, this was
a landmark event in the history of Asset Management. This chapter provides
some background on the standards and their implications for the Asset
Management community.
Firstly, there is not one new standard for Asset Management. What is
commonly referred to as “ISO 55000” is really a suite of three documents.
These three documents are:
• ISO 55000:2014 – Asset Management – Overview, principles and terminology
• ISO 55001:2014 – Asset Management – Management systems – Requirements
• ISO 55002:2014 – Asset Management – Management systems – Guidelines

for the application of ISO 55001
Collectively, the three documents provide a “consensus of experts” on the

topic of Asset Management. We should, however, note carefully the phrase
“management system for Asset Management” – this is an accurate description
of what you can expect in this series of standards. They will not tell you how to
“do” Asset Management, they will tell you what needs to be in place in order to
manage how you do it. If that sounds confusing, think of ISO 9000, ISO 14001
or ISO 31000 – all of these documents provide requirements for management
systems rather than detail on the task itself. They tend to be less detailed
than the technical standards they replace, with fewer strict requirements and
more principles and concepts. They are also intentionally generic, covering as
many industry sectors and technologies as possible, so the terminology is a
compromise and may be unfamiliar to you.
What is ISO 55000? | 11

Let’s have a look at the content of each standard.
ISO 55000:2014
This standard provides an overview of the principles, concepts and
terminology relating to Asset Management. It provides an outline of the
business case, as well as a brief description of how each element of an
ISO 55000 management system interacts (as opposed to the prescriptive
statements in ISO 55001:2014). These elements are:
• Organisational context
• Leadership
• Planning
• Support
• Operation
• Performance evaluation
• Improvement
It finishes with extensive definitions relating to both management systems in

general and Asset Management systems specifically.
ISO 55001:2014
This standard is the document against which auditing is undertaken. It
specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and
improving a “management system for Asset Management” that complies with
ISO requirements. There are no diagrams and, depending on how you divide
up sub-clauses, you can count up to 177 “shall” statements that must be met
to achieve certification.
What is ISO 55000? | 12

ISO 55002:2014
This standard provides guidance and explanatory notes on the requirements
in ISO 55001:2014 – that is, it is intended to support implementation. It follows
the same 7 element structure as the other two standards, but with more
elaborate “should” statements in place of the “shalls” in ISO 55001:2014.
Of note, it contains a diagram showing one possible model for an Asset
Management system, annotated with clause numbers from ISO 55001:2014.
History of Development
It has been a long road to consensus on an Asset Management standard. The
project was launched in London in June 2010, followed by meetings of the full
PC251 (Project Committee 251) at regular intervals across the world. Each of
the 31 participating countries has its own mirror committees and processes to
review and comment on the various drafts, resulting in thousands of hours of
time going into the process. This culminated in a meeting in Calgary Canada
in April 2013, where the final drafts of the standards were presented. Following
this meeting – and some last minute work – the standards were released to
the world slightly ahead of schedule on 15 January 2014.
Obviously, however, these standards do not represent the first attempts

to codify good practice in Asset Management. In the sense we use it here,
informal and proprietary Asset Management systems began to appear in the
late 1990’s. The discipline as a whole gained considerable impetus following
a series of high-profile asset failures in out-sourced public utilities and
infrastructure in the United Kingdom in the early 2000’s and has spread from
there. Some of the key dates are as follows:
• 2000 – First publication of the International Infrastructure Management

Manual – an Asset Management publication targeted at local
government and with a focus on appropriate Asset Management
practices (vice systems)
• 2004 – First publication of PAS 55 – a “publicly available specification”

aimed at establishing appropriate Asset Management system (vice
practices)
»» Early adoption in UK rail/utilities and growth as a default standard

across the world
• 2008 – Second publication of PAS 55
»» Continued growth in international acceptance
• 2011 – Second publication of the International Infrastructure Management

Manual – aligned with PAS 55:2008
What is ISO 55000? | 13

• 2011 – First publication of the Asset Management Landscape – consensus

of peak bodies (through Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset
Management – GFMAM) on the content of the Asset Management discipline
»» Definitions of 39 subjects in 6 groups
• 2012 – First publication of Asset Management – An Anatomy – practical

guide to the Asset Management Landscape
• 2013 – Second publication of Asset Management – An Anatomy
• 2014 – First publication of ISO 55000
• 2014 – First publication of ISO 17021-5 – a guide to auditor competency

requirements for Asset Management assessment and auditing
• 2014 – First publication of GFMAM Competency Specification for an ISO

55001 Asset Management System Auditor/Assessor– GFMAM consensus on
the requirements for auditing against ISO 55001
These documents have been supported by various initiatives by the

peak bodies to both train and recognise Asset Management skills and
competencies, including:
• 2009 – Institute of Asset Management Competencies Framework and

Endorsed Trainer Scheme – a coordinated set of Asset Management
competencies with links to an associated schedule of role-based
training courses and a scheme to authorise suitable organisations to
deliver the training
• 2009 – Asset Management Council Fundamentals of Asset Management

course – a single day course to teach the fundamentals of the discipline
• 2012 – Institute of Asset Management Certificate and Diploma – a set of

“qualifications” linked to a formal assessment (examination) of knowledge
and the pre-existing training scheme
• 2012 – Asset Management Council Certification scheme (Associate,

Practitioner, Senior Practitioner, Fellow) – a set of Asset Management
competencies linked to an experience-based system of certification
• 2014 – World Partners in Asset Management (WPiAM) Certified Asset

Management Assessor scheme – a certification scheme linked to a formal
assessment (examination) of knowledge against the GFMAM competency
specification
These lists are not comprehensive, but they clearly show the growing
awareness of Asset Management and professionalisation of the discipline over
the last two decades. The release of ISO 55000 has accelerated the pace of
change and promoted a consensus approach to the discipline.
What is ISO 55000? | 14

Chapter 3:
Road map to ISO 55000

Compliance
As mentioned in Chapter 1 – Starting on the Right Foot, some introspection
will be required before starting the journey towards ISO 55000 compliance.
Getting ready to start the journey will require as a minimum:
• Getting leadership buy-in
• Get input from stakeholders
• Get alignment internally on where the value lies
• Determine your approach to compliance with the standard which could

either be one of Certification, Compliance or Alignment.
• Identify high-level funding and resource requirements
• Build a road map for the journey.
Although the above already sounds like a journey in itself this will set you up
to start the bulk of the work towards compliance (or certification) ‘on the right
foot’. Once you have a clear mandate to proceed we recommend stepping
through the journey as shown below.
Figure 2. Typical ISO 55000 Certification Journey
Road map to ISO 55000 Compliance | 15

Readiness Assessment
To gain an understanding of where the major gaps in your Asset Management
system are the first step usually is to do an ISO 55000 readiness assessment.
This could be done internally or externally and should provide you with a high-
level assessment of your organisations level of maturity and whether it will
be feasible to embark on the journey. The readiness assessment will typically
assess the existence and level of application of the foundation documents and
should give you an opinion on where to start.
Develop the Asset Management System

Next you need to develop your Asset Management System. Our
recommendation would be to set the foundation first. Figure 3 shows a logical
sequence of how the building blocks of an Asset Management system can be
established.
Figure 3. The Journey to ISO 55001 Compiance
Foundation Documents
Start developing your Asset Management System by ensuring that the Asset
Management ‘Foundation Documents’ are in place namely:
• An Asset Management Policy
• Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) and
• Asset Management Plans (AMPs)
We discuss the Asset Management Policy in Chapter 4, the Strategic Asset

Management Plan in Chapter 5, and Asset Management Plans in Chapter 6.
In Chapter 7 we will discuss how to ensure that these documents are

integrated and aligned.

Processes and Procedures

Processes and Procedures follow, since the foundation documents will
mandate their requirement and their relative priority. We will discuss the key
Asset Management processes in Chapter 8.
Organisation Structure
Processes and Procedures, in association with RACI charts, help to determine
the organisation structure required to execute them. We discuss organisation
structure issues in Chapter 9.
Support Tools
Specific support tools and systems (such as decision support tools and ERP
systems) will be identified when the processes and procedures are developed.
Competence
Once you have determined what needs to be done, who is going to do it,
and the tools that are to be used to perform the relevant tasks, you are in
a position to identify the training and coaching that will be required, and
who will need it, in order to build competence in applying the Processes
and Procedures using the specified Tools. We discuss Asset Management
Competence in more detail in Chapter 12.
Execution
Given competent personnel with adequately documented processes and
procedures, and properly implemented tools and systems, your are then in a
position to execute the actions from the SAMP and AMPs.
Performance Measurement
Performance measures need to be set up to measure performance against
process requirements and against the requirements from the SAMP and AMPs.
This is an important aspect of ISO 55000. We discuss Asset Management Data
and Decision-making in Chapter 10.
Improvement
Following measurement of performance, the appropriate management

systems and processes need to be in place to ensure that improvement is
undertaken. In addition, there are two important golden threads that make
the implementation process work and ensure that systems are embedded and
sustained. These are Leadership and Organisational Change Management.
Leadership and Organisational Change Management

It is important to establish an ‘Asset Management Champion’ with the right
level of authority is discussed. A visible champion amongst senior leadership
will be able to lead the journey and deliver results. Effective leadership also
establishes the type of culture within the organisation that ensures that
behaviours are aligned with documented processes. We will discuss the
importance of Asset Management Leadership and Culture in Chapter 11.

Organisational Change Management ensures that all levels of the organisation

are engaged and informed to ultimately change the culture of the
organisation. Figure 4 (adapted from the Kübler-Ross Grief Curve) shows that
to move an organisation from blissful ignorance when ISO 55000 ‘sounds like a
good idea’ to a fully developed and adopted management system – requires a
minimum of two activities to be done well. First, it is important to engage with
the business across functional boundaries. Here the emphasis is on providing
information about what Asset Management means to the organisation and on
providing clarity regarding the benefits that are accrued as a result. Second,
the process requires a ‘champion’ to push through and implement the
changes required by the new policy, plans and procedures and make it stick.
This is primarily done through visibly leading by example; showing others how
it’s done.
Figure 4. Organisational Change Management
Project Management
Project management is a key component to delivering a comprehensive
Asset Management system through your journey to alignment or compliance.
Although leadership and change are important, there is usually a fair amount
of actual work that needs to get done. Planning and resourcing the work to be
performed during the journey could be challenging since this requires extra
effort from people over and above their normal duties. Active management
of timelines and risks will be required to ensure the work gets done. A project
schedule is essential, and regular management review will be required to
ensure sustained progress.
Detailed Gap Assessment

Once your Asset Management system has been developed and implemented
you should consider performing a detailed gap assessment.

Deciding exactly when to do the detailed gap assessment is a question of

value. If you are not very far down your journey, the detailed gap assessment
might not deliver much value. Typically, the best time to perform a detailed gap
assessment is after your Asset Management system has been implemented and
running for a few months.
To perform the detailed assessment, there are at least two options:
• Internal assessment using the Institute of Asset Management Self-

Assessment Methodology
• External Assessment using consultants.
Ideally, a Certified Asset Management Assessor (Internal or External) should

perform this assessment. They will be able to give you a clear indication
of where the gaps lie in your Asset Management system. The detailed gap
assessment involves a period of data and document reviews followed by
interviews to back-up and confirm the documented information, and confirm
the organisational behaviour required by the ISO55001 standard and the
organisational Asset Management system. Assetivity can provide this service if
desired – just contact us here.
Bridge the Gap

After the detailed gap assessment, attention can be focused on bridging the
gaps and using and improving your Asset Management system.
Operate and Fine-tune

In this phase you will have implemented processes and systems that now need
to be operated, measured, audited and continuously improved.
From here certification might be an option to pursue if you so wish.

Chapter 4:
Asset Management Policy

One of the core documents required by ISO 55001 is an Asset Management
Policy. In this chapter, we will discuss the types of things that this policy should
contain, how long it should be, and, most importantly, how you should go
about developing this for your organisation.
Before starting, it is important to note two key definitions which are contained
in ISO 55000:2014.
• A “Policy”, is the “intentions and direction of an organisation as formally

expressed by its top management” (International Organisation for
Standardisation [ISO], 2014a, p.12).
• “Top management” is, in turn, defined as being “person or group of people

who directs and controls an organisation at the highest level” (International
Organisation for Standardisation [ISO], 2014a, p.13).
Asset Management Policy | 20

ISO 55001 and the Asset Management Policy

A good place to start when considering what to put in your Asset Management
Policy is by considering the mandatory requirements of ISO 55001.
Alignment
First, ISO 55001:2014 states (in Section 4.3) that the scope of the organisation’s
Asset Management system should be aligned with the Asset Management Policy
(International Organisation for Standardisation [ISO], 2014b, p.2). By way of
a reminder, as far as ISO 55000 is concerned, the Asset Management System
is the management system for managing the organisation’s assets. It is used
by an organisation to plan, coordinate, control, execute, monitor and improve
the activities associated with managing assets. It is not just a computerised
information system, although this may form part of an organisation’s Asset
Management System. In addition, Section 5.2 of ISO 55001:2014 requires that
the policy is aligned with and consistent with other organisational policies
and plans (including the Strategic Asset Management Plan) (International
Organisation for Standardisation [ISO], 2014b, p.3).
Top Management Commitment

Second, it is a requirement of ISO 55001:2014 (in Section 5.1) that Top
Management demonstrates leadership and commitment by, amongst other
things, ensuring that the Asset Management policy is established and is
compatible with the organisation’s overall business objectives (International
Organisation for Standardisation [ISO], 2014b, p.2). Top leadership involvement
in the development of the Asset Management policy is clearly important.
Asset Management Policy Content

Third, Section 5.2 of ISO 55001:2014 has some specific requirements regarding
the content of the Asset Management Policy (International Organisation for
Standardisation [ISO], 2014b, p.3). Amongst these are that it should:
• Be appropriate to the purpose of the organisation
• Provide a framework for setting Asset Management objectives
• Include a commitment to satisfying applicable [mandatory and legal]

requirements
• Include a commitment to continual improvement of the Asset

Management System
In addition, there are a number of other requirements concerning things such

as:
• A requirement for the policy to be documented, available and

communicated, and
• A requirement for the policy to be reviewed on a regular basis and updated

if required.

Non-Mandatory Requirements for the

Asset Management Policy
While the requirements of ISO 55001:2014 are mandatory (at least for those
seeking alignment or certification against this standard), ISO 55000:2014 (the
Overview, Principles and Terminology document) and ISO 55002:2014 (the
Application Guidelines document) contain a number of other items which
provide guidance when developing your Asset Management Policy. These
include:
• A suggestion that the principles by which the organisation intends to

manage its assets are set out in the Asset Management Policy, while the
approach to implementing these principles is contained in the Strategic
Asset Management Plan (International Organisation for Standardisation
[ISO], 2014c, p.7).
• A suggestion that the Asset Management Policy should be a short

statement, and need not be a separate document – it could, for example,
be contained within the Strategic Asset Management Plan (International
Organisation for Standardisation [ISO], 2014c, p.7).
ISO 55002:2014 also (in Section 5.2), suggest that the policy commits the
organisation to applying specified principles when making decisions relating
to Asset Management, and gives some examples of the types of commitments
that could be made, such as (in addition to some already mentioned earlier)
(International Organisation for Standardisation [ISO], 2014c, p.7):
• A commitment to providing the resources necessary to deliver the

organisation’s Asset Management objectives
• A commitment to using specified decision making processes or guidelines

when making decisions about assets
• A commitment to measuring and reporting on asset and Asset

Management performance
• A commitment to the achievement of long-term, sustainable outcomes
What should your Asset Management Policy contain?

So putting all of this together, what are the key attributes of a good Asset
Management Policy?
First, it should be short – no more than one or two pages. Consider your Asset
Management Policy as being similar in nature to your organisation’s Safety
Policy or Environmental Policy. Typically, these are one page documents that
are posted conspicuously around your organisation – in the main reception
area if nowhere else! Remember that the policy should provide high level
guiding principles only, and the detail should be contained in other documents

– most likely in your Strategic Asset Management Plan, or in other related

policies, plans and procedures (we call these related policies, plans and
procedures the Asset Management Framework – and recommend keeping
these separate from the Strategic Asset Management Plan.
Second, the policy should be useful in providing guidance regarding Asset

Management and asset-related decisions. If members of the organisation are
unsure regarding how they should go about making a decision, then the Asset
Management Policy should indicate high level principles that they should
apply when making that decision. The exact principles to be contained in the
policy will depend, at least to some extent, on your organisation’s industry, its
overall strategy, and the environmental context within which your organisation
operates. Nevertheless, there are likely to be many common elements that will
apply to most, if not all, organisations (just in the same way that there are many
common elements to most organisations’ Safety Policies).
Third, there are some mandatory elements that should be in any Asset
Management policy. These are:
• A commitment to comply with all relevant legislative, regulatory and legal

requirements, and
• A commitment to continual improvement of the Asset Management

System
How should your Asset Management Policy be developed?

At least as important as what the Asset Management Policy contains is how it is
developed. As mentioned earlier, Top Management needs to demonstrate their
commitment to the effective management of assets within their organisation,
and one of the key ways that they do this is through the Asset Management
Policy. It makes sense, therefore, that they are involved in developing and
agreeing to the policy, and that this policy is subsequently signed by Top
Management, or a member of the Top Management team. In this sense,
the Asset Management Policy should be considered as being similar to the
Safety Policy or Environmental Policy that exists at most organisations. So we
recommend that the Asset Management Policy is developed, if possible, by
the Top Management team in an interactive workshop or workshops. For this
workshop to be effective, the Top Management team must have a fundamental
understanding of the key principles and scope of Asset Management. In fact,
the Institute of Asset Management, in its Asset Management Competencies
Framework, includes a specific course for Senior Management (Course A2),
aimed at providing them with this overall understanding to a level that permits
them to make an informed contribution to the development of this policy.
Assetivity, as an endorsed Institute of Asset Management trainer, is able to

deliver this course, so if you are interested, please let us know.

As anyone who has been involved in these types of workshops before will
know, getting alignment and consensus amongst Senior Managers regarding
the content of this type of document is not easy, and can often take longer than
you might expect. One of the casualties of gaining consensus, frequently, is
brevity – and so, while we recommend that the Asset Management Policy be
no longer than one or two pages, if a longer document is required in order to
gain consensus and commitment from Top Management, then be prepared to
accept that gaining this consensus and commitment is much more important
than the document length. It is also important that the structure and length
of your Asset Management Policy is consistent with other policies (such as
Safety Policy and Environmental Policy) that your organisation may have. This
sends a consistent message regarding the importance of all of these policies
– so strive to ensure that the length and level of detail contained in your Asset
Management Policy is consistent with these other policies.
We have an Asset Management Policy – now what?

Once you have developed your Asset Management Policy, it is absolutely vital
that it is communicated to the rest of the organisation, and that it forms the
basis on which Asset Management decision making is founded. So, be prepared
to post it visibly around your organisation – on meeting room walls, notice
boards, on your intranet, in reception areas. Also make sure that its existence
and its meaning are communicated to all personnel. Initially, this could be
via team briefs, a short video presentation as part of a regular communication
meeting or many other ways – but don’t forget to include coverage of your Asset
Management Policy in your induction process for new employees.

And in all cases, make sure that people understand what the implications of
this Asset Management Policy is for them, and the decisions that they make that
have an impact on your assets.
Sample Asset Management Policies

There are a number of Asset Management Policies available on the internet.
These include:
• Yarra City Council’s Asset Management Policy (Yarra City Council manages
buildings and other assets typically owned and managed by a local
authority)
• Transgrid’s Asset Management Policy (TransGrid is the owner and operator

of the high voltage electricity transmission network in the Australian state of
New South Wales)
• Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads Transport

Infrastructure Asset Management Policy (covering roads and related assets)
Note that the first two of these are longer and more detailed than we would
recommend. This does not make them non-compliant with the requirements
of ISO 55001, but it does make them more difficult to communicate to a
wider audience within the organisation. On the other hand, the level of detail
contained in these policy documents could be as a result of wide consultation
through the organisation when developing these policies – which can only be
a good thing. Our suggestion would be to try, if possible, to move some of the
detail contained in these documents either to the Strategic Asset Management
Plan, or to other documents which make up the Asset Management Framework.
For those that may be interested, we have prepared a sample, editable, Asset
Management Policy template which can be downloaded from here.
4 August 2015
Sample Asset Management Policy
[Company] is committed to maximising [Company’s] return on investment in physical assets, while

complying with all legislative and regulatory requirements, and ensuring that all activities are
performed in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner.
To meet this commitment, [Company] will:
 Ensure compliance with all statutory requirements applying to physical assets and asset
management
 Ensure that all Asset Management decisions and activities comply with [Company] policies
relating to Occupational, Health, Safety and Environment
 Ensure that Asset Management decisions and activities consider and balance the needs of all
relevant stakeholders, both within and external to the organisation
 Ensure alignment between all organisational functions that impact on Asset Management,
including Projects/Engineering, Production, Maintenance and Supply
 Ensure that [Company] assets are managed in accordance with recognised asset
management techniques that consider the achievement of both short term and longer term
business objectives
 Formally assess both risk and economic outcomes when making decisions relating to the
management of physical assets
 Ensure that asset purchase, replacement, refurbishment and disposal decisions are made
based on an assessment of expected future customer demand, life cycle costs and risks
 Operate assets in a disciplined manner, and with precision
 Maintain assets in such a manner that they continue to meet operational requirements for
the duration of their expected life
 Ensure that adequate resources are provided to permit the achievement of agreed Asset
Management objectives
 Continually improve Asset Management processes and performance
____________________ ____________________
[Person A] [Person B]
Managing Director General Manager
PO Box 31 www.assetivity.com.au Phone: +61 8 9474 4044

BURSWOOD WA 6100 assetivity@assetivity.com.au Fax: +61 8 9474 4055
AUSTRALIA ACN: 092 112 288
ABN: 32 092 112 288

Chapter 5
What Does a Good

Strategic Asset Management
Plan Look Like?
One of the most common questions we hear in relation to Asset Management
is some variation of “What should my Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP)
look like?” We used to hear this in regards to Asset Management strategies
under PAS 55, but the greater visibility and lower levels of prescription in ISO
55000 have clearly created uncertainty regarding the practicalities of how to
build this important document. While there is no single “right way” to structure
a SAMP, we would like to share our thoughts on how to create a good one that
will work for your business.
Document Purpose
Let’s start with the definition of the SAMP, as drawn from ISO 55000:
Documented information that specifies how organisational objectives are to be

converted into Asset Management objectives, the approach for developing Asset
Management plans, and the role of the Asset Management system in supporting
achievement of the Asset Management objectives (International Organisation for
Standardisation [ISO], 2014a, p.14)
This gives us a broad flavour of the document, clearly showing that its role is to
capture Asset Management objectives that link the organisational objectives
(typically part of the organisational plan/corporate plan/business plan) to lower
level plans. The SAMP therefore has a pivotal role in the Asset Management
document hierarchy as illustrated below:
Figure 5. Asset Management Document Hierarchy
What Does a Good Stategic Asset Management Plan Look Like? | 26

In this role, the content of the SAMP must be driven by the larger Asset
Management planning process. Without going into excessive detail, an ISO
55001 compliant planning process is illustrated in Figure 6.:
Figure 6. Asset Management Planning Process
We see here how an iterative planning process will generate Asset Management
objectives that are aligned with the organisational objectives, informed by
demand information (i.e. Stakeholder wants and needs) and consistent with the
condition, performance and capability of both the asset portfolio and the Asset
Management system. What, however, is an Asset Management objective? These
are the “results to be achieved” or the aims/goals/targets for Asset Management
(ISO, 2014a, p.11). They address both the assets and the tools for managing
them (i.e. The Asset Management system) and examples might include:
• Achieve 94% availability in the process plant,
• Expand capacity to 2.4 million units per annum, or
• Introduce a new ERP system to support expansion to multi-site operations.
As can be seen from the examples, these objectives reflect the outcomes that
Asset Management should produce rather than the methods for achieving
them. They therefore need to be supported with appropriate high level actions
(which we like to call “strategic initiatives”) that will deliver them. As with any
actions, good strategic initiatives will be adequately resourced with clear
timelines, measures of success and accountabilities. These high level initiatives
may, however, be delivered either as a project in their own right or by allocating
appropriate levels of service and detailed objectives to subordinate plans as
illustrated in the figure above. Possible initiatives matched to the objectives
above might be: (illustrative only – initiatives do not need to map directly to a
single objective)
• Apply lean maintenance to the process plant to increase availability by 10%

by the end of the year (GM Reliability)

• Commission Train 3 by the end of 3rd quarter (GM Expansion Projects)
• Implement SAP across the business by the end of the year (Chief
Information Officer)
When combined with the Asset Management objectives, the strategic initiatives
provide the required direction for lower level planning. These are, however, the
deliverables from the planning process and the SAMP is merely the method for
documenting these. The quality of the planning process will determine whether
the Asset Management objectives and strategic initiatives are appropriate,
achievable and accomplished. The quality of the SAMP will determine whether
these objectives and initiatives can be communicated to the people who
need to use them. Consequently, the SAMP will be “good” if it is a successful
communication tool that delivers the right information to the right people at the
right time. Let’s look at each of these individually.
Having the “right information” obviously relates to appropriate, achievable

Asset Management objectives and is mostly dependent on carving out an
appropriate role for Asset Management planning within the organisation’s
strategic planning hierarchy. This can be a challenge since most organisations
have been undertaking strategic planning for a long time but only recently tried
to introduce formal Asset Management planning. Consequently, we often see
organisations where the organisational plan covers the key asset investments
(often with inadequate planning) and implementing the SAMP is merely a “nice
to have”, to be attempted if resources allow.
While the “right people” will clearly vary with organisational structure, the
customers for the SAMP usually aren’t in the Asset Management area, since
these people already know what is happening in the area. The most common
customers are:
• Executives, who need to understand what the assets (and the Asset
Management system) are going to deliver, sign off on the associated
resources and track progress
• Technical managers, who need to write the detailed Asset Management

plans for their specific assets
• Other managers (administration, finance, human resources, learning and

development, procurement and project), who need to understand the
Asset Management system and what they need to deliver to support it
Delivering the information at the “right time” is more about the method of
delivery, since the SAMP is always there waiting. The key is to ensure that the
document is presented in a way that lets the “right people” get the information
they need, which implies a short, readable document that clearly lays out the
Asset Management objectives and strategic initiatives with enough background
to understand why they are important and appropriate.

Compliance Requirements and Guidance

Now that we understand its basic purpose, we should attempt to understand
the ISO 55001 requirements for a compliant SAMP. Surprisingly, we find that the
standard does not actually require very much of the SAMP at all. In fact, it only
specifically requires inclusion of the Asset Management objectives (ISO, 2014b,
pp.1, 4) and documentation of the role of the Asset Management system in
delivering the Asset Management objectives (ISO, 2014b, p.2). There are a few
implied requirements such as clause 4.3, which requires the scope of the Asset
Management system to be aligned with the SAMP (ISO, 2014b, p.2) and therefore
implies that the SAMP must provide a basis for this, and clause 6.2.2, which
similarly implies the SAMP must provide a basis for establishing the subordinate
Asset Management plans required to achieve the Asset Management objectives
(ISO, 2014b, pp.4-5). Overall, however, there is little guidance on the content of a
SAMP within ISO 55001.
ISO 55002 provides guidance on implementing ISO 55001 and makes the
following recommendations regarding the structure and content of the SAMP
(ISO, 2014c, pp. 2-5):
• The SAMP should document the approach to implementing the principles

laid out in the Asset Management policy

• The SAMP should document both the framework for achieving the Asset
Management objectives and their relationship to the organisational
objectives
• Asset Management documentation (including the SAMP) should be scaled

to match the organisational size/complexity (from a single document
combining the organisational plan, SAMP and subordinate plans to
separate documents with additional layers of plans below the SAMP)
• The SAMP should include a statement of stakeholder needs
• The SAMP should include a statement of scope for the Asset Management
system
• The SAMP could include the Asset Management policy if desired
There are also a few other items that are required by ISO 55001 as documented
information and are therefore candidates for inclusion in the SAMP (ISO, 2014b,
pp. 4-5):
• The method and criteria for decision making and prioritising
• The processes and methods for managing assets over their life cycles
• The actions to be taken, including resources, responsibilities, timeframes

and evaluation methods
• The planning time horizons and review periods
• The implications of the plans
• Actions to address risks and opportunities
It is obvious from this limited guidance why confusion has arisen regarding the
requirements around the SAMP. Taken all together, the ISO standards leave a
great deal of latitude regarding the content and structure of this document. In
fact, you don’t even need to call it a SAMP – you can call it an Asset Management
strategy or whatever else you like (ISO, 2014c, p. 2).
Our Recommendations
Taking into account all of the above, we believe that a “good” SAMP has the
following key characteristics:
• Driven by an Asset Management planning process that is fully integrated

within strategic planning
• Has a clear role with broad and consistent understanding across the
organisation
• Addresses both asset and Asset Management system requirements
• States the Asset Management objectives with sufficient background to

promote understanding, acceptance and achievement

• Describes the strategic initiatives with sufficient

background to promote understanding, acceptance
and achievement
• Uses appendices and references to other

documents to keep the document short
• Uses graphics and tables to enhance understanding
• References, but does not include, on-going process

information used to generate the plan
In terms of content, we suggest starting with the

following and then adapting it to your requirements:
• Executive Summary – key points for senior

management
• Introduction – purpose of the document
• Asset Management Policy Statement – if including

(we would generally recommend not)
• Organisational Context – enough on the current

state of the organisation to allow the reader to understand the priorities – e.g.
Cost saving, capacity growth or perhaps safety compliance. This would include
brief discussion of the following:
»» Market position (competitors, demand forecast)
»» Stakeholder needs (regulators, customers, staff, owners…)
»» Asset portfolio (general description and condition)
»» Asset Management system (general description and condition, including

process maturity and workforce competency)
• Asset Management Planning Process – summary of the approach used to

develop the SAMP with reference to minutes of meetings or analyses to build
confidence in the robustness of the process
• Asset Management Objectives – a statement of the agreed Asset Management

objectives, mapped to the organisational objectives
• Strategic Initiatives – a description of the selected strategic initiatives,

including: (tables can be helpful here)
»» Mapping against the Asset Management objectives
»» Targets and measures (including links to levels of service in subordinate

plans)
»» Relative priorities
»» Timeframes
»» Accountabilities

• Key Risks – identification of the key risks to achievement and any mitigation
actions required (this should link to corporate risk management systems)
• Conclusion – including administrative items like next review date
Sample Strategic Asset Management Plan

There are a number of Strategic Asset Management Plans available on the
internet. These include:
• Waverley Council’s Strategic Asset Management Plan (Waverley Council

manages buildings and other assets typically owned and managed by a
local authority)
• Central Queensland University’s Strategic Asset Management Plan (CQU is a

tertiary institution with various buildings and other related assets)
• TasNetworks Strategic Asset Management Plan (covering electrical

distribution assets)
We have also prepared a sample, editable, Strategic Asset Management Plan

template aligned with the concepts and structure contained in this chapter
which can be downloaded from here.

TEMPLATE
Asset Management
Assetivity

Chapter 6
What Does a Good Asset

Management Plan Look Like?
As discussed in earlier chapters, the Core Documents in an Asset Management
system are the Asset Management Policy, Strategic Asset Management Plan
(SAMP) and Asset Management Plans. In this chapter we discuss the last of
these – the detailed plans that describe the specific actions that must be
taken to address the gaps between “what is” and “what should be”. As with the
Strategic Asset Management Plan, there is no single “right way” to structure an
Asset Management Plan, but we would like to share our thoughts on how to
create a good one that will work for your organisation.
Document Purpose
Let’s begin with the ISO 55000 definition of an Asset Management Plan:
Documented information that specifies the activities, resources and timescales

required for an individual asset, or a grouping of assets, to achieve the
organisation’s Asset Management objectives (ISO, 2014a, p. 14)
This definition really captures the intent of the Asset Management Plan –
writing down the things that need to be done to deliver the Asset Management
objectives. As these objectives are derived from the organisational objectives
(documented in the SAMP), it also emphasis the hierarchical nature of the core
Asset Management documents as illustrated below:
Figure 7. Asset Management Document Hierarchy
What Does a Good Asset Management Plan Look Like? | 33

We have indicated multiple plans in this diagram, but we should note that this
is not a requirement of the definition, nor is it a requirement of ISO 55001:2014,
which simply states:
The organization shall establish, document and maintain Asset Management

plan(s) to achieve the Asset Management objectives. These Asset Management
plan(s) shall be aligned with the Asset Management policy and the SAMP. (ISO,
2014b, p. 4)
The standard does require documentation of decision criteria, processes and

methods for managing assets, but very carefully does not require these to be
part of an Asset Management Plan, even in the guidance in ISO 55002:2014. The
guidance does, however, emphasise the need for an iterative planning process
that will allow the organisation to balance its objectives with its available
resources (ISO, 2014c, pp. 10-12).
Taking all of this together, Asset Management Plans need to capture the lower
level outcome of a comprehensive Asset Management planning process that is
integrated with other organisational planning activities (in fact, this integration
is an additional requirement of ISO 55001:2014 (ISO, 2014b, p. 4)). Without going
into excessive detail, an ISO 55001 compliant planning process is illustrated in
Figure 8.
Figure 8. Asset Management Planning Cycle

We see here how an iterative planning process will generate Asset Management
Objectives that are aligned with the organisational objectives, informed by
demand information (i.e. Stakeholder wants and needs) and consistent with the
condition, performance and capability of both the asset portfolio and the Asset
Management system. These Asset Management Objectives must then be further
broken down into detailed objectives applicable to specific assets or asset
classes – commonly known as “levels of service”. Detailed information on the
current condition and performance of the assets can then be used to identify
gaps and establish actions to close them.

These then roll up into coordinated projects across multiple asset classes and
eventually into strategic programs across the organisation. At each stage, the
resources required are compared with the resources available and iteration is
undertaken to balance these. The final outputs will be delivered and tracked
through other organisational frameworks such as budgeting, risk management
and project management.The key take-away from this discussion is that the
Asset Management Plans are about communication. The planning process
establishes what needs to be done to deliver the organisation’s objectives and
the job of the plans is to communicate these requirements. In order to achieve
it, the plans communicate from the asset managers (who conducted the
planning) to:
• Internal staff (who need to complete the actions)
• Management (who need to provide the resources)
• Other Asset Managers (who need to know what performance to expect

from this asset class)
• Other specialists (such as Human Resources or Learning and Development,

who need to know what is expected of them)
The success of an Asset Management Plan should therefore be judged on its

performance in these key roles and this allows us to define recommended
content for a “good” Asset Management Plan as well as a recommended
structure for an organisation’s suite of plans.
Recommended Content
In order to deliver on its role as a communication tool, an Asset Management
Plan must clearly be read and understood. To this end, we recommend a
focus on the following three points with regards to the content of an Asset
Management plan:
• Keep it short – everybody is busy and long plans simply don’t get read.
Short plans are also much easier to maintain.
• Make it visual –tables and graphs can convey significantly more information
than the equivalent space in words. They also break up the document,
making it easier to read.
Use references – by referencing other plans and data sources, the information
is available for those that need it without cluttering up the plan for those who
don’t. It also avoids issues with discrepancies between the different data
sources that could lead to incorrect decisions and allows for each document/
reference to be reviewed and updated on a timescale appropriate to its content.
We have found the following format useful in this regard:
• Asset Class information – a description of the scope of the particular plan,

including the criticality and value of the assets and any interdependencies
with other assets for the delivery of that value. For example, customer
facing assets such as trains are often dependent on a large number of
other Asset Classes (track, stations, signals, and so on). Changes in these
other assets can have a significant impact on delivery of value if not well
considered.
• Owners and Stakeholders – a list of roles and responsibilities relevant to

the Asset Class(es) covered by the plan. This supports interaction between
these stakeholders and appropriate distribution of the plan.
• Current and Desired Levels of Service – the Asset Management objectives

specific to the content of the plan. These typically consist of a level of
service statement supported by one or more performance measures with
appropriate targets; for example, “Best in class reliability”, supported by a
Mean Time Between Failure measure with a target of 1000 hours. Historic
performance against the target and anticipated future changes in the target
should be shown as these are indicators of gaps to be closed. This content
is ideal for presentation in tables or graphs.
• Life Limiting Factors – a description of the key factors expected to drive the
equipment out of service – e.g. Fatigue, cost, obsolescence or demand
changes. This content recognises that asset lives from acquisition are
merely estimates used to justify the expenditure and that the true disposal
point requires more careful tracking.

• Health, Safety and Environment – a description of any issues in these areas

affecting the management of the asset. For example, this area might record
a known change in legislation requiring the existing fleet to be retired
before a specified date.
• Life Cycle Strategies – this section describes the approach to each phase
of the asset’s life cycle and any known issues. It would typically reference
detailed content such as the maintenance program, basis of design
documentation, statement of operating intent or similar information. It
would, however, identify issues with these documents, such as a recent
change in operations that is outside the original strategy.
• Budget – a summary of the detailed budget showing the required and

allocated resources for management of this asset, divided into segments
appropriate to the organisation (e.g. Sustaining capital, expansion capital
and so on).
• Risks – a summary of the key Asset Management risks (not the entire risk
register – though this might be referenced) that currently affect the asset.
• Actions – the list of prioritised and resourced actions to address the gaps.
Examples of actions might include:
»» Acquisition of additional assets to meet increasing demand or to

replace old assets
»» Disposal of old assets to meet declining demand or control risks

associated with failure
»» Application of Reliability Centred Maintenance techniques to reduce

maintenance costs or to improve reliability
»» Modification of assets to expand their functionality or increase

reliability
»» An Operator Driven Reliability program to reduce failures associated

with operator error or misuse
As can be seen, this structure “tells the story” of the asset, with the final actions
building from the issues identified in each section. We suggest that you aim
for no more than 6-8 pages of content per asset class, bearing in mind that
the audience for the document is not the technical experts in the asset – they
already know (or should know!) what is required.
Recommended Structure
We have already discussed how there is no one “right way” to structure your
Asset Management plans. There are, however, some broad classes that you
might consider, and these are discussed in this section.

The simplest case is for discipline-led organisations. Here, the organisation has
a strong central technical group broken into “disciplines” with clearly defined
responsibilities for specific areas of the asset portfolio (for example, many
organisations recognise structural, mechanical and electrical disciplines). In this
case, it is generally sensible for each discipline to maintain one or more Asset
Management Plans, each covering a specific Asset Class. Risks associated with
this approach include a prioritisation of technical requirements over business
objectives, including inadequate interfaces between the disciplines and poor
overall prioritisation of activities. These can be addressed by a strong SAMP
process to force cross-functional collaboration.
Another option is a single Asset Management Plan covering the entire asset
portfolio. This minimises the effort required in the preparation and maintenance
of the plan, and is therefore suited to organisations with simple asset portfolios
or minimal Asset Management resources. The risk is, naturally, that the single
plan does not provide enough resolution to identify key Asset Management
issues lurking in the detailed performance information for the assets.
Our final option is a zone-led approach. Here, the organisation is divided into
operational regions or zones that are largely independent. If there is limited
central technical support, it makes sense for each zone manager to run their
own Asset Management Plan(s), even where they operate similar assets. In this
case, the risk is generally around inconsistent approaches to the same Asset
Class, resulting in sub-optimal performance. This can be offset by establishing
exchange forums to ensure differences in practice are discussed and best
practice is shared across the organisation.
You may, of course, utilise different structures for your Asset Management Plan.
For example, you may operate a zone structure, but allocate specific Asset
Classes to each zone manager to conduct planning. If this works for you, then
we would be delighted to hear about your experience and share it with others.
Ultimately, the test of the Asset Management Plans must be the effectiveness of
the organisation in achieving its Asset Management Objectives.
Sample Asset Management Plan

We have prepared a sample, editable, Asset Management Plan template
aligned with the concepts and structure contained in this chapter which can be
downloaded from here.
Asset Management Plan
(AMP) Template

Chapter 7
Integrating & Aligning Asset

Management Strategies &
Plans
In previous chapters we have discussed the ISO 55000 requirements for the
Strategic Asset Management Plan and Asset Management Plans and also
provided practical advice and templates that could be used to create both
compliant and usable versions. In these earlier chapters, we presented the
following diagram to describe a compliant planning process without justifying it
or examining the practicalities of implementing it.
Figure 9. Asset Management Planning Cycle
This chapter remedies the situation, providing useful advice on how to

establish an integrated planning approach that will generate cohesive planning
documents. We do need to warn you, however, that the ISO standards are not
very explicit on this topic, so we are basing this on what we’ve seen work (and
fail) in practice.
Starting from the Top – The Organisational

Strategic Plan
Figure 9 shows the organisational objectives as a given, but many of the
corporate business plans or other organisational level strategy documents we
see don’t do a very good job of making these explicit. This is a critical first step,
since it ensures that all of the remainder of the planning proceeds from a single
set of requirements. To get it right, the organisation needs to spend some time
understanding what it does and the environment it is doing it in. The relevant
factors vary greatly with industry, but include external factors such as economic,
social and environmental conditions and internal factors such as governance
Integrating & Aligning Asset Management Statergies & Plans | 39

and culture (ISO, 2014c). There are many ways to do this, but the Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) approach is a good way to start.
The analysis at the organisational level doesn’t end there. An understanding

of context leads to identification of the stakeholders, whose needs will
be key to understanding the organisation’s value proposition and setting
appropriate objectives. A particular failing we have seen is to skip some of
the stakeholders, resulting in an incomplete definition of value. Most people
recognise their customers and owners as stakeholders, but forget about their
regulators, contractors and internal employees, all of whom have a critical
role in establishing value. In practice, you should have a proactive relationship
with all of your key stakeholders and a deep understanding of their needs and
objectives and how they interact with your own.
In our diagram above, these two activities (understanding context and engaging
stakeholders) are part of the “demand analysis” process shown on the right and
is the key to success in the planning process.
Getting the Strategic Asset Management Plan

Right
At the Strategic Asset Management Plan level, the demand analysis process is
about understanding how the asset base works to deliver the organisational
objectives (e.g. Which systems are the most critical from each of cost, risk
and performance perspectives) as well as the appropriate level of Asset
Management maturity to manage cost, risk and performance. The various
Asset Management objectives will fall out of this process and will reveal further
stakeholders that must be engaged – for example, manufacturers and prime
contractors when you wish to expand your assets and perhaps employees
and unions when your market is contracting. Again, we’ve seen a number of
organisations that don’t recognise the importance of these stakeholders and
therefore don’t engage them early enough or deeply enough. A greater problem
at this level, however, is the generation of “shelfware” – documents that meet
the ISO 55000 requirements, but that are not really accepted or adopted by the
organisation and therefore spend all of their time (at least, between audits!)
sitting on the shelf rather than adding real value to the organisation. When we
see them, they are usually out of date and any success is “despite” rather than
“because of” the documents.
There are a number of reasons that organisations generate shelfware as follows:

• Bolt-on documentation. Almost every organisation already has some form
of corporate strategic plan, and many already have a range of subordinate
plans for divisions, branches or other groups. These usually already include
Asset Management tasks and objectives (even if not explicitly recognised)
and staff are used to using them. When specific documentation to support
the Asset Management system is “bolted on” to this framework,

it becomes an unnecessary additional burden and there is a tendency

to produce the required document and then shelve it and get back to
business as usual.
• Compliance without consideration. We often see organisations that have

rushed into the implementation of ISO 55000 (or PAS 55) without spending
enough time thinking about the appropriate structure for them. Their
Strategic Asset Management Plans are compliant with the requirements of
the relevant standard, but are not fit for purpose given the structure and
nature of the organisation. For example, one organisation produced a very
technical strategy document and then passed it to a group of regional
managers that did not have the background to understand or apply it.
• Excessive length. Many organisations make the document too long and
then find that their people don’t have the time to read and understand it or
the organisation as a whole doesn’t have time to maintain it.
• Lack of engagement. If the Strategic Asset Management Plan is the product

of a small Asset Management elite within a larger organisation, the staff that
should be using it to guide their activities can lack the sense of ownership
they need to encourage compliance. On other occasions, they are simply
unaware that the document exists at all.
These issues are not new – similar problems emerge with any change to an
organisation’s key planning documents. Consequently, we have a good idea of
what will work to solve them: design the Asset Management planning process.
Some good steps:
• Plan first, write later. The planning process itself needs to be at the heart
of the activity. As we said in our Strategic Asset Management Plan chapter,
the document is a communication tool. Start by designing a process that
gets the right people in the room with the right information to genuinely
understand the organisation’s objectives and translate these into Asset
Management objectives. This will usually occur through a workshop or
series of workshops, and we suggest the following tips to get the best out of
these:
»» Distribute useful pre-reading (the organisation’s strategic plan, audit

reports, KPI records, and so on) to attendees with a clear expectation
they will be reviewed.
»» Formally assign responsibilities for additional preparation (e.g.

Operations manager to have the production plan on hand,
maintenance manager to have the statutory maintenance
requirements).
»» Consider using an external facilitator to provide an impartial mediator

and secretariat for the process.

»» Formally minute the workshops/strategy sessions.
• Reuse existing documentation. Have a critical look at the organisation’s

current planning documents. Do they work? If so, it is far better to
incorporate an Asset Management section into them rather than to create a
new document. Remember, ISO 55000 cares about the achievement of the
intent of the requirements rather than the specific documents used.
• Define the audience. Regardless of the specific documents in use, you need
to have a very good idea of who the reader is for each document. This will
allow the structure, content and length to be match to them and create
a document that they are much more likely to actually use. For example,
executives need to get to the heart of the matter very quickly and with a
focus on the linkage to the organisation’s objectives and the resources
required to achieve them. Lower levels need more technical detail so they
can execute their specific responsibilities.
• Keep it simple, sunshine. Work out how to match the content to the
audience. For example:
»» Executive summary for the senior executive (surprise!) so they can

understand the key activities and the resources required.
»» Short body summarising the process followed (builds confidence in

the outcomes) and outcomes reached.

»» Appendices with details for those who need them – minutes of the
workshops, project plans for the strategic initiatives, stakeholder
analyses and so on.
»» Diagrams throughout – a picture really is worth a thousand words.
The outcome of this process should be a relatively short document – a body

of less than 10 pages – that forms part of an integrated suite of strategic-level
planning documents and sets the Asset Management objectives that will be
delivered by the detailed Asset Management planning to follow.
Building a Set of Asset Management Plans

Our planning process clearly shows how the Asset Management objectives
flow down to the asset classes, usually in the form of a Level of Service table
or similar. It also shows further “demand analysis” activity. In this case, the
activity is to obtain a detailed understanding of the context in which the specific
asset class is operating. A few of the relevant considerations include how hard
it is working, the extent and quality of maintenance activities and the support
environment. New stakeholders will again emerge, particularly maintenance
contractors and specific equipment manufacturers or vendors, who must be
engaged to understand the environment and appropriate actions that need to
be taken. For example, a key question for electronics is usually “How long until
these are obsolete?” and the relevant vendors are usually well positioned to
help organisations with this.
Shelfware is again a common problem we see with Asset Management Plans,

but in the earlier chapter “What does a good Asset Management plan look like?”
we addressed this issue with a good discussion of both content and structure,
including options for different types of organisational structures. Consequently,
we’ll only touch on the highlights here:

• Each Asset Management Plan should be short and visual, which can be
achieved by using references to access other plans (e.g. the maintenance
plan) or data sources (e.g. risk registers and full budgets) for those who
need them.
• Be clear on the audience and use the Asset Management Plan to tell
the “story” of the asset that lets them understand and execute their
responsibilities, including:
»» Internal staff – complete their allocated actions
»» Management – provide the resources
»» Other Asset Managers – understand what performance to expect from

this asset class
»» Other specialists (e.g. Human Resources, Learning & Development) –

understand what is expected of them
Above all, strongly resist the temptation to make the Asset Management Plan
the repository for every single piece of information the organisation possesses
on an asset! This is probably the number one reason for the creation of
shelfware Asset Management plans and represents a significant lost opportunity
for the organisations that succumb to it. There is no doubt that detailed
information is valuable, but it needs to be kept in the right location for those
who need to use it.


Chapter 8
Key Asset Management

Processes
Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 have already explored the processes for developing
Asset Management Policies and Plans in some detail. These are obviously
key processes for successful Asset Management, but are equally obviously
insufficient as the actions identified in the plan(s) will need to draw on other
organisational processes. The requirement is laid out in clause 8.1 of ISO
55001:2014:
The organisation shall plan, implement and control the processes needed to
meet requirements…(ISO, 2014b, p. 8)
The clause goes on to identify, implement and monitor the processes and
treat/monitor risks, but it does not dictate specific processes. ISO 55002
does not provide much additional guidance, so we turn to the Institute of
Asset Management’s (Institute of Asset Management’s) Conceptual Asset
Management Model shown in Figure 10.
Commercial
Customers Legislation Investors
Environment
Organisational Strategic Plan

Scope of Asset Management
Strategy & Planning Acquire Operate
Lifecycle
Delivery
Organisation Dispose Maintain Risk &

Asset Management
& People Review
Decision-Making
Asset Information
© Copyright 2016 Institute of Asset Management (www.theIAM.org/copyright)
Figure 10. IAM Conceptual Model

This model shows very general process requirements, including the planning
and decision making processes we already discussed, as well as processes for
life cycle delivery, asset information management, organisation and people
management, risk management and performance management/review
and these will apply to all organisations. Unfortunately, the details of these
processes depend on the nature of the organisation and its assets, so there is
no “one-size fits all” set of processes.
Key Asset Management Processes | 45

For example, an organisation that builds civil assets from raw materials will
need quite different acquisition processes to an organisation that buys and
operates vehicles from the manufacturer. This means your organisation is
going to have to do some work to identify what processes it needs and how
sophisticated they need to be. Luckily, there is a global consensus to start from
– the Asset Management Landscape.
The Asset Management Landscape

The Asset Management Landscape is published by the Global Forum on
Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM) and is currently in its second
edition.
Figure 11. The Asset Management Landscape

It divides the discipline up into 39 subjects and 6 groups as shown in Figure 11:
The colour coding on this diagram aligns with the Institute of Asset
Management conceptual model above, helping you get an idea of where each
subject fits. There are also good references around to help you understand the
content of each subject, including the Institute of Asset Management’s Asset
Management – An Anatomy, the Asset Management Council’s Asset Management
Body of Knowledge and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia’s
International Infrastructure Management Manual.
Once you’ve got an understanding of each subject, you will be in a good

position to identify the processes your organisation requires. ISO 55001:2014
links these requirements to the actions identified during planning (ISO, 2014b,
p. 8). This both emphasises the importance of planning and gives you the
flexibility to customise the extent and complexity of your Asset Management
processes to your organisation.
The following examples provide illustrations of what may be appropriate:

• An organisation that undertakes complex procurements (e.g. Construction

of buildings or integration of complex systems) would require robust
project management processes based on a suitable standard methodology
(e.g. Project Management Body of Knowledge). Conversely, an
organisation that buys assets “off the shelf” may have simple procurement
processes focussed on achieving value for money and compliance with
specifications/standards.
• An organisation that operates passenger vehicles (aviation, marine, rail, etc)

would require robust operational procedures to ensure the competence
of its operators and subsequent safety of its customers. Conversely,
organisations that primarily own and manage roads or other fixed assets
may have essentially no operational procedures since the assets are not
“operated” in the usual sense.
• An organisation that employs large numbers of operators or technicians

would require robust human resources processes to ensure the personnel
are competent and the workforce size is appropriate. Conversely, a smaller
organisation may have simple processes in this area.
In many cases, the required processes can even vary within the organisation.
For example, an airline might apply strict processes to the maintenance of its
aircraft but much simpler processes for the maintenance of its office facilities.
These distinctions are driven by the different risk profiles of the two asset types
and highlight the fundamental importance of risk in determining the processes
required in an organisation. It is worth spending some time discussing this
process.
Risk Management Processes

Every organisation considering implementing ISO 55000 needs to have a
clear process for identifying and managing risks. Typically, this process is built
around ISO 31000:2009 – Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines and
is absolutely key to successful Asset Management. Every Asset Management
decision, including selection of processes, needs to balance the competing
factors of performance, cost and risk and processes must exist to identify and
quantify risks in order to include them in this trade off.
It is important to note that there is no need – nor is it desirable – to maintain

a separate risk management process to support Asset Management. The
organisation’s risk appetite and identification, analysis and treatment tools
should be consistent across the organisation and every decision it makes,
including non-asset decisions. This has the added benefit of reducing the
amount of process documentation that must be developed and maintained,
with follow on reductions in areas such as training.

Process Documentation
ISO 55000 draws a distinction between process and procedure that is important.
Under clause 7.6.1, ISO 55001 requires an organisation’s Asset Management
system to include:
Documented information determined by the organisation as being necessary for

the effectiveness of the Asset Management system (ISO, 2014b, p. 7)
The notes following this clause state that the extent of documentation will
vary with, amongst other things, the complexity of processes. The message is
clear. ISO 55000 requires organisations to think about risk associated with its
processes and to document only those processes where failure to do so would
threaten the effectiveness of the Asset Management system.
With this clause in mind and a view to reducing the administrative burden
associated with implementing ISO 55000, we recommend the following
principles be applied when identifying necessary procedures:
• Don’t write unnecessary documents – As we discussed above, the

requirements for documented information within ISO 55001:2014 are not
as onerous as you might think. This is a deliberate strategy, since many
organisations excel at burying themselves in written procedures that
nobody has time to read anyway.
• Second hand can be just fine – Following on from the previous point,
your first preference when you do need a document should be to modify
something that already exists. This is usually quicker, reduces the total
number of documents and gets better buy in. It is, however, good
practice to maintain a cross-reference matrix that shows how each of the
requirements in ISO 55001:2014 is met within your structure.
• Keep it Simple, Sunshine – At all times keep written procedures as short

and simple as possible – swim lane flowcharts and RACI (responsible,
accountable, consulted, informed) charts are a good way to show
people their responsibilities without telling them how to execute those
responsibilities. That’s the job of training…

Chapter 9
Organising for Effective Asset

Management
At this point in the book, we have answered many of the technical questions
regarding Asset Management. This chapter moves on to some of the human
issues – how to build an Asset Management organisation and how to lead it to
success. Nothing happens without an appropriate workforce structure, so let’s
start with the organisation chart.
Creating an Asset Management Department

If you’re considering how to implement ISO 55000, you are probably working for
an existing organisation. That means you are grappling with the complexities
of locating and arranging human resources for Asset Management tasks in
an environment where existing personnel are already fully employed and
additional resources are difficult or impossible to obtain. This segment
discusses the options, including the costs, risks and benefits and should help
you prepare your business case.
While neither ISO 55001:2014 nor ISO 55002:2014 provide significant guidance
on how to build an appropriate lower level structure to support an Asset
Management system, our experience suggests that the possible models fall on a
spectrum between the following two extremes:
• Fully dispersed model – everybody in the organisation is an “asset

manager” with knowledge and skills matched to their specific role
• Fully centralised model – “all” Asset Management activities are undertaken

in a single central area, staffed with genuine experts in the discipline of
Asset Management
Figure 12. Asset Management Organisation
Organising for Effective Asset Management | 49

As with most spectra, there are costs benefits and risks associated with each
option. The trade-off is illustrated in Figure 12.
As an organisation moves towards the dispersed end, it imposes higher and

higher skill requirements on personnel that are not specialists in the Asset
Management discipline. For example, maintenance experts might be required
to lead the design of an Asset Management plan and then integrate content
from projects, operations and disposals that they don’t really understand. This
has the benefit of breaking down silos and forcing a “whole of organisation”
approach, where everybody has an understanding of the purposes and benefits
of Asset Management, but it creates risks around a lack of specialist
Asset Management skills/knowledge and a lack of focus as already busy
people add more tasks to their “to do” list. Ultimately, this has potential
to undermine the effectiveness of the Asset Management system, with
inconsistent, incomplete and inaccurate planning and execution of tasks.
One organisation we worked with was close to this extreme, where the
division of responsibility was primarily functional, with each operational
manager taking responsibility for a group of assets that were geographically
and functionally linked. These managers had their own operational and
maintenance resources, with central “technical” support minimised. This
central support was also functionally grouped into (for example) projects,
maintenance and information systems. There was no dedicated Asset
Management workforce, although a reliability manager was appointed as
part of the development of Asset Management capability and the technical
manager would be considered the “champion” for Asset Management
within the organisation. This arrangement was close to the “fully
distributed” model and required minimal on-going investment in personal
and modest temporary investment in consulting resources. Unfortunately,
it was only partially effective as the various operational managers could not
be held to account by the centralised technical support. More “teeth” in this
organisation were required. If the organisation reverses direction and tries
to centralise its Asset Management activities, we see the above problems
go away and another set of issues appear in their place. Firstly, the organisation
needs to establish new positions with dedicated Asset Management skill sets
and finding the resources to do this can be a challenge. Next, these highly
skilled Asset Management experts need to find a way to engage with the day to
day maintenance and operating activities of the organisation without creating
a silo mentality, where Asset Management is seen as something done “over
there” with no real connection to the actual workings of the organisation. If
these challenges are not navigated successfully, then the Asset Management
department will be under-resourced and disconnected from the remainder of
the organisation. It will (quite rightly) be seen as an ineffective overhead and the
Asset Management system will fail.

Another client organisation we worked with had an existing, strong, centralised

Asset Management group which was charged with supporting the operational
managers. This model was initially close to the fully centralised model, with the
operational managers and their staff having minimal Asset Management skills.
Unfortunately, it became clear that these operational staff had the essential
knowledge to conduct Asset Management planning and the organisation
needed to shift its strategy to build skills in this workforce. In this model, a larger
investment in on-going resources was required to staff the Asset Management
group, although consulting resources were minimised.
Perhaps the best gains we have seen with the implementation of Asset
Management were in an organisation where there was already a strong
discipline-based technical workforce (i.e. An electrical engineering department,
a mechanical engineering department and so on). An Asset Management ‘centre
of expertise” of just a few personnel fitted naturally into this organisational
model and was able to focus on building processes and templates while the
disciplines applied these templates to their particular classes of asset. This
required a moderate on-going investment to staff the centre of expertise, but
with consulting resources only required to transfer new knowledge and skills
into the organisation.
In our opinion, this “centre of expertise” structure located between the two
extremes is the most likely to generate a sustainable improvement in Asset
Management capability. The exact size and structure will depend on the
organisation, so we offer the following guidance to support selection of an
appropriate structure:
• There must adequate resources to prepare Asset Management tools,

templates and processes as required
• These resources may be any mix of consulting, specialist Asset

Management or other staff as appropriate to the specific organisation

• The asset “owners” must be actively engaged with asset planning,

regardless of who is nominally responsible for this process
• Every individual must possess competencies appropriate to their specific

roles and responsibilities
There is one more key ingredient – there must be what we like to call a “visible
champion” amongst top management and they must have sufficient control
over the Asset Management resources to drive the system forward. Of course,
control over the resources is not the only requirement for this visible champion,
so let’s take a deeper look at who they might be and where they might fit.
Finding an Asset Management Champion

The requirement for a visible champion is part of the ISO 55001:2014
requirement for the organisation to assign and communicate relevant roles,
responsibilities and authorities (clause 5.3) (ISO, 2014b, p. 3). This occurs
through ISO 55002:2014, which clarifies in clause 5.1 that the intent is to
retain ownership and accountability at the top management level (ISO, 2014c,
p. 6). These clauses recognise the fundamental importance of high level
accountability for the Asset Management system if the system is to be effective.
Where, then, should this high level accountable manager sit?
In one organisation we have worked with, a specific but temporary position was
created at the executive level to oversee the creation of the Asset Management
system. When this temporary position ceased, the responsibility reverted to
another executive who was already heavily tasked with line management of a
significant element of the asset portfolio. A small number of staff, including a
mid-level manager were also transferred. We saw the following:
• The organisation made good progress while the temporary position was in
place
• The true “champion” of Asset Management became the mid-level manager

when the temporary position ceased
• Progress slowed significantly when the temporary position ceased
• The organisation had no success in implementing Asset Management

practices beyond the executive’s area of responsibility
In another organisation, the “champion” was the senior technical manager, who
reported to the operations executive. In this structure, we observed a reluctance
for Asset Management activities to be directed at the organisation’s real
problems, with artificial boundaries drawn around the technical and operating
disciplines.
We note from these examples that accountability is not enough. To create

a reasonable chance of success in an Asset Management implementation,
we suggest that the accountable manager needs to have the following
characteristics:

• The executive’s existing responsibilities must span the full asset portfolio
• The executive’s existing responsibilities must span the full asset life cycle
• The executive must be motivated and committed to implementing an

effective Asset Management system
This last criterion is particularly important and is why we prefer the term
“visible champion”, which gives a sense of how the individual must act to
engender success. Given the criticality of visible top management support to
success of any change initiative, the preferred approach to implementing an
Asset Management system must be to appoint a dedicated executive-level
“champion.” We acknowledge, however, that this is simply not practical for most
organisations and a suitable position must be found from within the existing
executive workforce. Our criteria suggest allocation of Asset Management
accountability (and, therefore, associated resources) to either the operations
executive or a corporate strategy/risk executive. It should be noted, however,
that such individuals may require significant support to understand their
responsibilities as the majority of Asset Management professionals currently
come from technical backgrounds.
One more note on leadership: top level involvement is essential, but this does
not mean that mean that Asset Management leadership stops with the CEO.
Leadership is independent of organisational position, and a Maintenance
Manager, an Operations Supervisor, or even a Reliability Engineer can still
shape the culture within their circle of influence and create meaningful change.
There will be limits to what you can achieve at lower levels in the organisation –
particularly where your people interact with those from other workgroups who
may not share the same cultural beliefs or perspectives. Nevertheless, you CAN
make a difference.

Chapter 10
Asset Management Data and

Decision Making
A vital element of effective Asset Management is decision-making that is
evidence-based and data-driven. In addition, sufficient, accurate data and
documentation must be collected in order to:
• Meet legal and statutory requirements, and
• Permit effective communication with stakeholders
We will discuss this in more detail in this chapter.
Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom

The common definition of the term “data” is that is represents unorganised and
unprocessed facts, and is usually static in nature. However, for us to be able to
make decisions using that data, it first needs to be processed and organised
into “information”. Information usually has some meaning or purpose, and has
typically been processed with a particular aim or objective in mind (e.g. To be
used to make a decision). Decisions are then made using that information by
people who have “knowledge”. Knowledge is the interpretation of information
using human understanding based on study and experience. Data is not
information, and information is not knowledge. Rather, information is derived
from data, and knowledge is derived from information. Finally, we could
also define the term “wisdom”, which combines knowledge with experience
and judgement, and which allows us to better understand what knowledge,
information and data we need in order to be able to make an effective decision
(“DIKW Pyramid” n.d.). All of this can be visualised as shown in the DKIW
pyramid shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13. DKIW pyramid
Asset Management Data and Decision Making | 54

In the context of this chapter, when we use the term “data”, we are generally also
referring to “information” and occasionally “knowledge” – especially when this
knowledge is captured in the form of documents and procedures.
ISO 55001 Requirements Regarding Asset

Management Data
The requirements contained within ISO 55001 regarding Asset Management
Data are fairly general and high level. At face value, they seem deceptively
simple.
Essentially, ISO 55001 requires organisations to (ISO, 2014b, p. 6):
• Understand what their information needs are to meet the requirements of

stakeholders (internal and external) regarding information and reporting
(financial and non-financial). This, by definition, would include data and
information required to meet any statutory or legal reporting and record-
keeping obligations, including ensuring that traceability meets any legal
and regulatory requirements.
• Understand what data and information is required in order to support the

achievement of organisational and asset management objectives.
• In addressing the previous bullet point, consider the impact of quality,

availability and management of information on decision making.
• Determine
»» What data is to be collected
»» The level of quality of data collected
»» How and when to collect the data
»» How and when to analyse and evaluate the data collected.
• Have processes in place for the effective management of information.
• Have an effective document management system in place.
However, the devil is in the detail. When was the last time that the organisation
you work for seriously considered what data it needs in order to make effective
decisions? Are there adequate specifications in place which describe the
quality of data required? And if there are, to what extent are these specifications
adhered to?
Data as an Asset
There is a comparatively strong case for considering data, information and
knowledge within an organisation as assets in their own right. Certainly the
ISO 55000 definition of an asset as being “something of potential value to an
organisation” (ISO, 2014a, p. 13) could well apply.

And the similarities do not end there. It is also possible to consider that data
and information and the systems that collect and process data and information
have lifecycles, just as physical assets do. It could be visualised as shown below.
Figure 14. Data/Information Lifecycle
Of these elements of the data lifecycle, the most important aspect is the first –
Identifying the Need, and we will discuss this element in more detail.
Specifying Data and Information Needs

ISO 55001 clearly states that data and information should be collected in order
to ensure that:
• Stakeholders’ needs for information and reporting are met, and
• The organisation can meet its asset management and organisational

objectives (ISO, 2014b, p. 6).
It therefore makes sense that these should be the starting points for
determining what data and information you need, and for designing the
systems and procedures for collecting, managing and analysing this data and
information. This is, in essence, a top-down approach.
Most of the data collected will go towards making more effective asset
management decisions. Accordingly, you should consider the types of asset
management decisions that will be made and the comparative importance
of those decisions in the context of achievement of the organisation’s Asset
Management objectives.
Note that decisions can be made at many different organisational levels,

including:
• Strategic Decisions – potentially those with the greatest potential business

impact, but also those for which objective data is most likely to be difficult
to obtain and analyse
• Management Decisions – such as those relating to the replacement or

upgrading of assets to better meet business needs
• Operational Decisions – involved with short term control of maintenance

and operational activities
The data to support these decisions can come from both within and outside
the organisation, and both sources must typically be consulted to make
informed decisions.

Data from within the organisation may come from corporate Information
Systems, from Operational Technology systems, or from neither of these.
For all the data being considered, it is not sufficient to just identify what is
needed, ISO 55001 also requires you to assess:
• The quality required of the data collected
• How and when to collect the data
• How and when to analyse and evaluate the data collected (ISO, 2014b, p. 6)
Data quality can be specified in terms of many attributes (Bowman 2015),

including:
• Completeness (is all of the data to be collected, or only some of it)
• Accuracy (does the data accurately represent reality – particularly a concern

when human data input is required)
• Timeliness (is the data available as and when required)
• Accessibility (is the data readily available to those using it)
• Consistency (are the same definitions and standards applied across the
organisation)
• So you can see that assessing and specifying an organisations’ data

requirements is potentially vast and wide-ranging. The real question here,
in terms of ISO 55001 alignment, is what level of detail is required in order
to demonstrate that your organisation has adequately considered and
identified its information requirements?
Specifying Asset Management Data Requirements

– A Pragmatic Approach
In our view, taking a pragmatic approach, the answer lies, as is usual in all
things related to Asset Management, by considering, for each decision and/or
information or reporting requirement:
• The Benefits of better decision making/reporting
• The Risks associated with poor (non-data-driven) decision making or

reporting, and
• The Costs associated with specifying, collecting, managing and analysing

the data required for more effective decision-making and reporting.
To this end, we suggest that you start by:
• Identifying your most critical assets – this is a requirement in order to align

with other parts of ISO 55001 in any case, so should not be an additional
onerous task

• Identifying the requirements of all key stakeholders (including regulators and

other external stakeholders) regarding the mandatory provision of reports
or information
• Identifying the types of decisions that you will make which will have the
greatest potential impact on the achievement of your asset management
(and organisational) objectives. These decisions could include:
»» Capital Investment Decisions
»» Decisions regarding the allocation of Operating Expenditure
»» Technical Decisions relating to day-to-day Operations
»» Decisions regarding the timing of major events or activities such as

shutdowns or overhauls
»» Decisions regarding the allocation of Working Capital (such as for

spare parts holdings)
»» Decisions relating to whether to insource or outsource particular

activities
For critical assets and critical decisions, you should carefully consider what
information you need to have in order to make an effective decision, and
therefore what data you require in order to be able to provide that information.
The data that you may need could take many different forms including:
• Data about the assets themselves (what they are, what they cost to acquire,
where they are located etc.)
• Data about the current condition of the assets
• Data about the current level of performance of the assets (in terms
of technical performance and cost performance – operating and
maintenance)
• Data relating to the activities that have been performed on the assets –
operational activities, maintenance activities and modifications/upgrades/
replacements
• Data about the financial or other impacts if the assets underperform or fail
to perform at all
• Data relating to safety, environmental or other incidents associated with

the assets
• Data relating to forecasts of future asset performance, costs and risks
• Other data that allows adequate evaluation of alternative courses of action

Clearly, the data that is required for more critical decisions and/or reports must
be collected, evaluated and analysed with a high degree of quality and rigour. In
an organisation with effective asset management decision making in place, we
would expect to see that the organisation has:
• Consciously considered this issue,
• Identified the data required to support decision-making for critical

decisions on critical assets,
• Identified the data required by stakeholders for reporting on critical assets,

and
• Specified the quality standards for those data elements in terms of the
attributes mentioned earlier in this article (Completeness, Accuracy,
Timeliness, Accessibility and Consistency)
Managing and Processing Asset Management

Data
Once data requirements have been specified, then processes and systems must
be put in place for collecting, processing, utilising and managing that data. The
key steps in this process can be visualised as shown in Figure 15.
Figure 15. The Asset Management Data Cycle

Some notes on each of these steps include:
• Collecting Data – some data may be collected without the need for human
input – for example, asset performance or condition data may be able
to be collected directly from the machine. It will be important to ensure,
particularly for data that is obtained via human input, that the data
collected complies with the relevant quality standards for that data. For
example, when collecting data relating to new assets, it will be important
to ensure that “as built” data is collected, not just “as designed” or “as
approved for construction”.
• Validating Data – given the issues associated with assuring the quality of
data collected, frequently an additional step is required in order to ensure
that the data collected does comply with the relevant quality standards,
and that, if needed, adjustments are made to the collected data. For
example, when collecting downtime data for key assets, if control room
operators assign codes to this data to indicate the cause of the downtime,
then these may need to be reviewed on a daily basis in order to ensure
that the causes assigned by the control room operators accurately reflect
reality.
• Storing Data – data can be stored in a large number of ways in a large

number of locations. While it is easy to focus on electronic storage within
corporate information systems, data may also be stored in paper form
(for example operator check sheets) and in systems outside the formal
corporate systems, including Process Historian databases, as well as
individual user’s spreadsheets and databases. In order to maintain the
integrity of critical data, care should be taken to ensure that there is only
“one source of truth” for all stored data – that duplicate and potentially
contradictory values for the same data item do not exist.

• Processing Data into Information – this is the sexy bit that gets all the
attention and costs all the money. Suffice it to say that data, until such time
as it is processed into meaningful information, is of limited or no value.
Great care should be taken, therefore, to ensure that the functionality
required of information processing systems (whether they be ERP systems,
Reliability Modelling software or other optimisation algorithms) is properly
defined, and that rigorous testing is performed to ensure that data is
accurately translated into information that is meaningful for effective
decision making.
• Utilise Information – if data that has not been processed into information
has no value, then this is even more true for information that is not
effectively utilised. In order to effectively utilise information, business
processes associated with reporting and decision-making must require
the relevant information to be used. Those utilising the information must
understand its meaning and importance, and decisions made must be
actually implemented. These requirements have less to do with the quality
of the information (although obviously the information must be presented
in a manner that enables its effective use), and more to do with business
processes, accountabilities and competence.
• Review Effectiveness and Refine Data Specifications – as part of a continuous

improvement loop, organisations should periodically assess whether the
information they are receiving is adequate to meet their requirements for
effective decision making, and whether the results that are being achieved
as a result of their decisions using this information are delivering the
expected outcomes. This may lead to improvements in many elements
of the data management system, including the specification of what data
is to be collected, data quality specifications, information processing
requirements and/or business processes and competences.
• Archive and Delete Data – there should be formal processes in place for
periodically either archiving or deleting data that is no longer required. This
could include processes for summarising data (for example, consolidating
minute-by-minute data into daily averages) prior to archiving. The key item
to consider here is the likely need is for future access to this data. In some
cases, there may be legal or other statutory requirements for data retention
that may need to be complied with.

Record Keeping and Document Management

One other area to consider when discussing data management is the
requirement for appropriate record keeping and document management.
There are a number of documents that are required by ISO 55001 to be
developed and effectively controlled. These include:
• Asset Management Policy
• Asset Management Objectives
• Strategic Asset Management Plan
• Asset Management Plans
• Evidence of Asset Management Competence
• Evidence of the results of monitoring, measurement, analysis and

evaluation of Asset performance and Asset Management system
performance
• Evidence of implementation of recommendations from Asset

Management audits
• Evidence that Management Reviews of the Asset Management system

have taken place.
All of the usual document management controls should apply to these

documents, including effective change control, revision tracking, access
controls etc. However, in addition to the documents listed above, document
management controls may need to be applied to a number of other
documents that form part of your Asset Management system in order to
ensure compliance and reduce overall business risks associated with
non-compliance. This could include, for example, control over documented

operating procedures, maintenance procedures etc. It will be important for
you to identify those additional documents that should be controlled and
make sure that the appropriate controls are in place.

A Final Word of Caution

One final word of caution relating to Asset Management Data and Information
Processing. An awful lot of organisations (and software vendors selling to those
organisations) overestimate their organisation’s ability to capture and effectively
utilise data and information. When it comes down to specifying and configuring
information systems, it is very easy to get caught up in all of the possibilities that
these technologies can provide. But just because you could, doesn’t mean you
should.
There is a common view that electronic data storage is cheap and getting
cheaper, and that therefore we should collect as much data as we can
(particularly now we are talking about the possibilities of Big Data), even if
we are not sure how we will use it yet. But the reality is that unless you apply
appropriate quality standards to that data then all that you will end up with is
a lot of unusable junk cluttering your corporate hard drives. Data storage may
be cheap, but assuring data quality can be expensive in time and effort, so be
careful to make sure that you think carefully before you decide what data you
need to store. Some engineers are inveterate hoarders, never wanting to throw
anything out because “it may come in handy one day” only to find that they
can’t get into their workshop/shed/warehouse because it is piled high with
rusting rubbish. Make sure you aren’t the same with data.
Along similar lines, most commercial software packages these days have
capabilities that are far in advance of what organisations currently use. The
business case for using these more advanced capabilities is often seductively
attractive. But frequently we find that the organisational discipline and
competences required to provide the required data to the quality standard
required for effective use of these new capabilities is seriously lacking, and the
effort required to enhance competence and implement the required level of
discipline is far greater than expected. As a result, the capabilities are never fully
implemented, the information systems are often filled with low quality, non-
useable data, and considerable time and expense has been spent in inputting
this data – a totally non-value-adding activity.
As previously mentioned – just because you could, doesn’t mean you should.
Make sure that the decisions you make regarding data and information
management are firmly grounded in a pragmatic view of how things work in the
real world.

Chapter 11
Asset Management Tools

Once you have established your Foundation Documents (Chapters 4, 5, 6
& 7), your Asset Management Procedures (Chapter 8), created an effective
organisation structure that facilitates effective Asset Management (Chapter
9) and identified the Asset Management Data that you require to collect,
analyse and report on (Chapter 10) it is now time to consider the tools and
methodologies that you will require in order to collect, process and analyse
your asset management data, and support effective decision-making.
Specifying Tools
The specifications for the tools that are the most appropriate for you will
depend on your industry, your organisation and your asset management
objectives. Nevertheless, a few tips for ensuring that you get the most
appropriate tools (especially software tools) are as follows:
Make sure that you are clear about what you NEED, rather than what you WANT.
It is easy to get caught up in the adrenalin rush associated with feature envy and
end up with software that is overly complex for what you currently need, and
that has features that you may, maybe, perhaps, if the stars align, one day in the
distant future, use.
Most reputable software packages these days will be capable of meeting almost
all of your needs – the differentiators between alternatives are less likely to be
feature-related (unless you have very specialised needs) and more likely to be
related to usability, the availability of support, and the vendor’s investment in
ongoing development.
As we will see later in this chapter, most organisations will have a need to
use a lot of different software tools. How these will integrate and/or interface
with each other will be a very important consideration. It will be important to
ensure that, as far as is possible, there is a “single source of truth” for each data
element.
Counterbalancing the previous point, integrating all software packages

frequently causes issues when one of these packages needs to be updated,
upgraded or replaced. Closely integrated systems can be more difficult and
time-consuming to maintain, and can therefore act as a barrier to ongoing
enhancement and development.
Consider the future. The world of software is undergoing constant change

and development. The software that you select and its underlying system
architecture needs to be flexible enough to cope with these changes.
Asset Management Tools | 64

Support tools can be considered under two separate (but interlinked)

categories:
• Transactional Tools, and
• Decision Support Tools
We will discuss some examples of tools under each of these headings in the
next two sections.
Transactional Tools
By transactional tools, we mean those tools that are intended to capture
information about assets, including:
• What they are – their make, model, serial number etc.
• How they are configured
• Where they are located
• What they cost to purchase
• What condition they are in
• How they are performing
• What activities have been performed on them – e.g. maintenance,

overhaul, reprogramming etc.
There is a wide range of software tools that are available that provide the
functionality required to meet these objectives.

Some of these tools may not be relevant to your organisation, and the specific
functionality required will vary from industry to industry and from organisation
to organisation, depending on the organisational context and the asset
management objectives that are specific to your organisation. Some of these
tools include:
Accounting Systems
As costs are one of the three pillars of operational performance, it will be
essential to have an accounting system that captures the costs associated with
all aspects of the asset lifecycle, from specification, procurement, installation
and commissioning, through operation and maintenance, to disposal. The
degree of detail with which these costs will need to be captured will depend
on specific circumstances, but you should bear in mind, when deciding on the
level of detail required, that the information captured will need to be able to be
used later for effective decision-making. If costs are captured at too high a level
or are highly aggregated, this may not meet that objective. For example, cost
data aggregated at the whole vehicle level for a truck cannot be used to inform
decisions about which of two engine variants should be preferred.
In addition, the accounting systems should be capable of recording and

reporting against a budget or target costs (or both). Once again, the budgeting
capability specified should be closely matched with the budgeting and cost
reporting capability required for effective decision-making. It is worth noting
here that zero-based budgeting and/or activity-based budgeting and reporting
is often a useful approach for more accurate cost estimation and control. If
you wish to employ these techniques, then you will need to ensure that your
accounting systems support them.
Procurement and Inventory Management Systems

Systems are required that handle procurement of materials and services that
are related to assets, and allow these transactions to be linked to the assets
themselves. Most often this is an integral part of the accounting system, but it
need not be.
In addition, where spare parts or other materials are being held in stock, ready
for use in a maintenance activity, there will be a need to effectively manage
these materials, and a system will be required that can:
• Keep track of what items are in stock and where they are stored. For
larger organisations, the system may need to be able to manage multiple
warehouses, but as a minimum, it should be able to record where in the
warehouse the items are stored (e.g. rack location etc)
• Record receivals and issues of spare parts items
• Identify situations where stocks of any item have fallen below a

pre-specified “minimum stock level” and initiate a process for purchasing
replacement stock

• In addition, the system may also need to:
• Permit “reservation” of parts for future maintenance activities
• Manage routine maintenance activities required on items in stock (e.g.

rotation of electric motors)
• Keep track of whether stock items have passed their “use by” date (e.g.
spare batteries)
• Be capable of managing “rotable” or “repairable” items that are refurbished

and returned to stock
Maintenance Management Systems

For effective asset management, a system will be needed for managing and
recording maintenance activities. This will almost always be a computerised
system, but for smaller organisations with simple maintenance needs, a manual
system may suffice. Typical functionality required of these systems include:
• Storing and initiating routine Predictive and Preventive maintenance

activities
• Initiating Corrective Maintenance tasks
• Estimating and allocating labour, spare parts and other resources to

planned maintenance activities
• Scheduling all planned Maintenance tasks
• Recording the technical history of maintenance work performed
• Recording actual labour, spare parts and other resources used on all
maintenance activities
Human Resource Management Systems

Human Resource Management (HRM) systems incorporate functionality relating
(unsurprisingly) to the management of the organisation’s human resources. In
relation to Asset Management, the key functionality that is important permits an
understanding of the labour that is available to be scheduled for maintenance
activities, and the skill sets associated with each individual or work group.

ERP/EAM systems
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems or Enterprise Asset Management
(EAM) systems typically incorporate the functionality previously listed separately
against Accounting Systems, Procurement and Inventory Management Systems,
Maintenance Management Systems and Human Resource Management
Systems in one, single, integrated software package.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

For organisations with geographically dispersed assets, you may need to have a
system that keeps track of where each asset is located. This system frequently
has mapping capability so that assets can be located on a map, using special
coordinates. This is particularly required for organisations where work location
may be identified by address or location, rather than by asset number. For
example, an electrical distribution utility may be told that a power pole at a
particular road junction has been damaged and needs to be replaced, rather
than “pole number 14524” needs to be replaced. Clearly, there should be some
form of linkage between the GIS and the Maintenance Management system so
that asset identifiers can be linked to specific geographical locations.
For organisations with “linear” assets (such as rail lines, power lines, long
pipelines etc.) there may also be a need to identify specific segments of these
assets both in the GIS and in the Maintenance Management system.
Real Time Location Systems

For organisations that manage mobile assets (such as a truck fleet, or in a
hospital, beds or medical instruments), there may be a need to install a Real
Time Location System (RTLS) so that the asset can be located at any particular
point in time. This is particularly important when the asset needs to be located
so that it can have routine Preventive or Predictive maintenance performed on
it. It can also be useful, for highly mobile and attractive assets, to identify when
the asset has been removed from its normal operating area, lost or stolen.
RTLS can also be used to monitor the location of critical spare parts.
Project/Shutdown Planning and Management Systems

Project Planning and Shutdown Management systems are important for
managing and controlling capital projects, engineering projects and larger
maintenance shutdowns, turnarounds or overhauls. These typically permit
the detailed scheduling of all the activities involved in the project, identify and
overcome any resource constraints, and ensure that dependencies between
tasks are taken into account when scheduling each task. They also, generally,
permit the recording of the actual timing, costs and resources associated with
each task, thereby permitting regular updating of the schedule, as well as
facilitating post-project review of project performance.

Configuration Management Systems

Configuration Management systems are important for computer systems and
programmable instrumentation and can be used to ensure that the correct
firmware and software is installed on each relevant piece of hardware. Controls
can be built into these systems to ensure that only authorised personnel make
changes to asset configurations, and that only pre-authorised configurations
can be installed. The more critical the software or instrumentation is, then the
greater the degree of control required.
In addition, management processes need to be in place for non-software-

related configuration changes to ensure that any changes to the specification
or configuration of assets are properly considered, the risks assessed, and that
all supporting changes to other systems (such as spare parts holdings etc) are
made as part of a coordinated, authorised configuration change.
Document Management Systems

In the same way that Configuration Management Systems aim to ensure that
physical equipment is controlled, Document Management Systems aim to
ensure that the organisation’s documentation is controlled and only the latest,
authoritative version of documentation is used. This is a critical consideration
for asset management, where effective maintenance and an array of asset
decisions depend on access to consistent, reliable information.
Key elements of an effective Document Management System include the ability

to capture a wide variety of documents in various formats (drawings, reports,
procedures, images and so on), the ability to provide controlled access as and
when required, the ability to protect documents (e.g. against loss, improper use
or unauthorised changes) and the ability to provide status reporting or audit
trails.

Condition Monitoring Systems

These systems are used for monitoring equipment condition and providing the
data required to make decisions regarding repair, refurbishment or replacement
of assets. They may range from systems using sophisticated techniques to
record and analyse machine vibration signatures to simple spreadsheets used
to (for example) record and trend pipe or vessel wall thicknesses. Increasingly,
these are being supplemented by more sophisticated decision making tools
making use of big data and the internet of things to predict equipment failure.
We discuss this later when we discuss Predictive Analytics.
Production Planning and Control Systems

Production Planning and Control Systems tend to be industry-specific. For
example, in manufacturing organisations, Material Resource Planning (MRP)
or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems tend to be used to plan and
schedule operating activities, and ensure that all the resources required in
order to meet production plans are available. In the mining industry, mine
planning software is used to model ore bodies and determine the mine plan
and schedule. In other industries (such as Housing), there may be no need for
Production Planning and Control Systems at all, as nothing is being produced.
Other industries may be able to work effectively with a simple manpower
scheduling tool.
Operating Data Historians

In industries where there is a high degree of automation in the production
process (such as mining, chemicals, oil & gas, utilities, mass-production
manufacturing etc), often large quantities of operating data can be captured
and stored. This will include information, often captured at intervals measured
in milliseconds, not only relating to production rates, but also equipment
operating parameters, set points and measurements such as temperatures,
pressures etc. This can then, potentially, be used to assess equipment
condition and/or performance, and make decisions that optimise production
operations. Given the huge volume of data involved, data is frequently
aggregated into larger time periods and then stored in a data historian. Some of
the key decisions to be made when setting up these data historians include:
• What parameters should values be recorded for (you may not want to
record the history of every single parameter that is measured in your plant)
• What time periods should data be aggregated into (e.g. once per second,
once per minute etc)
• What values should be stored (e.g. mean, maximum or minimum values

recorded during that time period)
Increasingly this data is being used as inputs to Predictive Analytics systems,

which use sophisticated algorithms to predict equipment failure. We will
discuss these systems later.

Delay or Loss Accounting Systems

These systems typically record and categorise events that lead to a shortfall in
production output below a target rate. They are usually supported by a time
usage model (an example of one is shown in Figure 16 below).
In addition to this, rate and quality losses can also be applied to this model.
Figure 16. Time Usage Model

This permits the assessment of equipment performance, and the generation of
key metrics such as equipment (or process) Availability, Utilisation and Overall
Equipment Effectiveness.
Decision Support Tools

The following tools, methodologies and approaches, some of which are
software based, typically will use the data collected in the Transactional Tools
listed above, combine this with some form of expert knowledge and either use
software or another formal decision-making process to make decisions which
improve asset performance.
Reliability and Capacity Modelling Tools

These tools permit the modelling of equipment and process reliability and
capacity through the use of Reliability Block Diagrams and Capacity Block
Diagrams. This can assist with:
• configuring of new operating plants,
• debottlenecking existing plants,
• optimising plant operations, and
• estimating the impact on the overall production process of changes made

to specific individual equipment items
In order to be effective in driving improvements, they generally require specialist

software, driven by suitably qualified personnel with a sound understanding
of equipment reliability principles and statistics, and reliable equipment
performance data.

Reliability Centred Maintenance and PM Optimisation

Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) is a process intended to determine
the optimum preventive maintenance program for an equipment item in its
present operating context. PM Optimisation (PMO) is a closely related process
which tends to be applied with the same objectives, but for existing operations.
For a more in-depth exploration of these two approaches (as well as others)
and the differences between them, visit http://www.assetivity.com.au/article/
reliability-improvement/alternative-approaches-for-developing-optimising-
preventive-maintenance.html. Both RCM and PMO are semi-quantitative, and
rely heavily on informed expert judgement as a key part of the process. As such,
they typically do not require sophisticated software using reliability modelling
techniques.
Nevertheless, you may find, if you have a large number of analyses to complete,
that a database for arranging these analyses, tracking the reasons for the
decisions being made, and providing an audit trail is useful.
Root Cause Analysis and Defect Elimination

A defect elimination process is intended to identify and eliminate “defects”
which cause operational losses or increased operational risks. This can be
performed either proactively (before the defects occur) or reactively (after a
defect has caused a loss). At the heart of this process is some form of root cause
analysis and/or problem solving process. Most people and most organisations
tend to feel that effective root cause analysis and problem solving is “common
sense” and comes naturally to most people. However, research suggests
that this is not necessarily the case, and that there are significant benefits in
establishing sound, repeatable processes for conducting this analysis and
training all participants in their use.

When implementing these processes, great care should be taken to realise that
the objective of these processes is not to identify the causes of defects, but to
implement effective controls that prevent them. In other words, we are only
interested in causes in order to assist us to identify and implement effective
solutions. There are a range of tools and methodologies available to support
this, such as the simple “5 Whys” approach or more sophisticated Cause-Effect
Diagrams, as well as dedicated software packages that can be of assistance
in providing visibility and repeatability. The key to realising the benefits of
defect eliminate is more in the consistent application of the process to genuine
business problems, rather than the methodology or the tool selected.
Spare Parts Optimisation Tools

These tools, typically software based, are used to determine the optimum spare
parts holding levels after considering:
• The costs associated with owning and storing the spare parts, such as:
»» The cost of working capital
»» The cost of the part itself
»» Allowance for obsolescence
»» Allowance for deterioration and wastage
»» The cost of providing storage
»» The cost of maintaining the spare
• The costs associated with not having a spare part when it is required, such
as:
»» The cost of equipment downtime
»» The cost of express air freight
»» The cost of temporary amelioration activities
• The likely demand rate (and pattern) for the spare part
• The predictability of the requirement for the spare part (in turn largely
determined by the preventive maintenance program for the equipment
that the spare is fitted to)
• The availability of substitutes for the spare part, if needed
• The number of the item currently installed
• The need to purchase and install in “matched sets” (if applicable)
Bear in mind that the algorithms and data sources used by these software tools
may be different for spare parts that have high usage, compared with those
required to optimise slow (or non) moving but high potential consequence
“insurance” spares.

Lean
The Lean methodology is derived mostly from the Toyota Production System
and is a systematic process for eliminating “waste” from within an organisation.
The original seven wastes identified within the Toyota Production system are:
• Transport (moving products that are not actually required to perform the
processing)
• Inventory (all components, work in process, and finished product not being
processed)
• Motion (people or equipment moving or walking more than is required to

perform the processing)
• Waiting (waiting for the next production step, interruptions of production

during shift change)
• Overproduction (production ahead of demand)
• Over Processing (resulting from poor tool or product design creating

activity)
• Defects (the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects)
There are several different tools that can be applied within the overall Lean
methodology to address each of these wastes. Some of these (such as Root
Cause Analysis and Defect Elimination) have already been mentioned earlier.
Others have Japanese names such as Poke-Yoke (mistake-proofing) and
Kanban (just-in-time scheduling). Other useful tools in the Lean tool kit include
Value Stream Mapping (for analysing and designing processes), and 5S (for
organising a work space for effectiveness and efficiency).
Six Sigma
Six Sigma originated within Motorola in the 1980s as a means of identifying and
eliminating product quality defects by applying problem solving and statistical
techniques to reduce process and product variability. The key differentiator
between Six Sigma and other problem solving techniques is its focus on using
data, and the statistical analysis of that data, to drive decision-making. Some
organisations have incorporated some of the Six Sigma principles within their
Lean processes to form a hybrid approach called Lean Six Sigma.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics is analysis which is used to make predictions about
the likelihood, potential timing and consequences of future events. While,
in practice, engineers have been using predictive analytical techniques for
decades to predict equipment failure, these days the term tends to be used in
conjunction with Big Data and the Internet of Things. In this sense, Predictive
Analytics uses many techniques from data mining, statistics, modelling,
machine learning, and artificial intelligence to analyse current data to make
predictions about the future (Predictive Analytics Today, 2016).

A detailed examination of this topic is outside the scope of this e-book, but
you can read more about our assessment of Big Data, Predictive Analytics
and Maintenance at http://www.assetivity.com.au/article/maintenance-
management/big-data-predictive-analytics-and-maintenance.html.
Installing and Implementing Tools

Assuming that you have selected the tools that are most appropriate for your
organisation, these need to be installed and effectively implemented. Key areas
to focus on in ensuring that you get maximum value from these tools are as
follows:
• Business Process Alignment – make sure that the processes and procedures
which make use of the tool are clearly documented
• Clarify Responsibilities and Accountabilities – ensure that everybody

involved understands what their roles and responsibilities are in relation to
the Business processes and use of the tools
• Assure Competence – ensure that everyone is trained and competent

not only in the use of the tool, but in the processes that surround and
support it.
We will cover this in more detail in the next chapter.

Chapter 12
Asset Management
Competence
So far we have tackled the key requirements for successfully implementing
ISO 55000 relating to documentation and management processes. Now we
turn our attention to ISO 55001’s requirements in terms of Asset Management
competence.
ISO 55001 and Asset Management Competence

ISO 55001 contains a requirement for organisations to ensure that they:
• Understand the competences required of individuals involved in managing

their assets and periodically review and update these
• Ensure that those individuals have the required competences
• Understand any competence gaps that exist, and have plans and processes
in place for bridging those gaps, and
• Maintain adequate records to demonstrate that required competences are

held (ISO, 2014b, p. 5).
These are fairly general requirements, and do not provide much guidance
regarding how to go about ensuring that these are met. The intent of this
chapter is to help to fill that gap.
We consider that the following framework is useful in providing guidance

regarding the competences required.
Figure 17. Competence Management Framework
Asset Management Competence | 76

We discussed the key Asset Management processes in Chapter 8. The key

steps in each of these processes should be mapped using standard Business
Process mapping techniques, and for each of these steps, it should be
determined who is Responsible for performing the activity, who is Accountable
for ensuring that it is done, who needs to be Consulted as part of the activity,
and who should be Informed of the outcome. This is typically done in a
RACI chart. For more on RACI charts, see here. Doing this then allows you to
consolidate all of the Asset Management activities that are performed by each
role or position, which then makes it easier for you to identify the competences
required by each role in order to successfully perform that activity.
What Asset Management Competences Are

Required?
If you are looking for a starting point to assist you to identify the competences
required for each role, there are two possible sources. The first of these is the
Institute of Asset Management (Institute of Asset Management) Competence
Framework. Initially developed to align with the requirements of PAS 55, this
was updated following the release of ISO 55001:2014 to ensure that it aligned
with the terminology contained within that document. The framework is
available from https://theiam.org/CF, and is freely available to download if you
first register as an affiliate of the Institute of Asset Management (which is free of
charge).
The framework is based around seven key Asset Management “roles”,

specifically:
1. Policy development
2. Strategy development
3. Asset Management planning
4. Implement Asset Management plans
5. Asset Management capability development
6. Risk management and performance improvement
7. Asset knowledge management
It then assigns one or more “competence units” to each role.

There are 27 competence units in total, and these have titles such as:
• Develop the Asset Management strategy
• Create and acquire assets
• Etc.

Each of these competence units are then broken down further into 153
elements of competence which provide more detailed guidance, and have titles
such as:
• Develop key strategies for the overall system, asset portfolios and/or asset
groups that support strategic aims and objectives
• Develop (asset) design specifications to achieve optimum customer,

business and life-cycle requirements
The Institute of Asset Management framework outlines the generic knowledge

and understanding requirements associated with each role, and forms the
foundation on which the Institute of Asset Management’s Endorsed Trainer
scheme is based. It also has been used to shape the requirements for
achievement of Institute of Asset Management’s Certificate and Diploma in
Asset Management. In doing so, it provides a very useful contribution allowing
you to better understand the Asset Management competences that may be
required in your organisation.
A potential second source of Asset Management competences is the list of

competences developed by the Asset Management Council in Australia.
This lists 243 individual competences, but as this list of competences was
developed primarily to assist with their individual certification scheme (e.g.
Certified Practitioner in Asset Management – CPAM) rather than to assist
organisations to identify the Asset Management competences that they require,
it is not quite as well classified as the Institute of Asset Management framework
and therefore will need a bit more work to make effective use of it. You can
gain access to the list of competences at https://www.amcouncil.com.au/
certification/certification_competency_tree.aspx.
In practice, it is highly unlikely that the roles and position descriptions within
your organisation map neatly to the generic roles contained within the Institute
of Asset Management Competences Framework. For you to make effective use
of the Institute of Asset Management framework it will be necessary to map
each of the 27 competence units (and in some cases even the 153 individual
competence elements) to each specific position in your organisation’s
structure that is involved in managing your assets. If you are using the Asset
Management Council list of competences, you will also need to map these to
the roles and positions in your organisation. To perform this activity, we would
suggest that you use the process maps and RACI charts discussed earlier in this
chapter to identify the competences required, but in the absence of these, then
you may be able to work directly from the position descriptions for each role
involved in Asset Management. This assumes, of course, that your organisation
structure is clearly documented, and that the position descriptions for all Asset
Management related roles in your organisation have been developed and are
up to date.

As the Institute of Asset Management competence requirements are still

quite generic (and, to a certain extent so are the Asset Management Council
competences), it will also be important to identify other elements of
competence that may be specific to your industry or organisation and ensure
that these are also listed. Some of these competence elements may be
required in order to ensure compliance with externally imposed legislation or
regulations. For example, in many industries, certain positions hold statutory
roles and their incumbents are required to hold specific qualifications, have
had specific experience and/or have passed specific examinations in order to
comply with those statutory requirements. A few examples from Australian
industry include:
• A requirement for those in charge of an operating minesite to, as a

minimum, be conversant with the relevant mine safety legislation and
accompanying regulations, the risk management approach and hazards
relevant to the operation, and have management and leadership skills.
(Government of Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum ,nd)
• A requirement for engineers in Queensland to be Registered Professional

Engineers (RPEQ) in order to carry out professional engineering services.
(Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland,nd). Registering as
an RPEQ requires a discipline-specific competency assessment to be
completed (Professionals Australia, 2014).
• Plant operators need to hold a license in order to operate a boiler, which in

turn requires specific competences to be demonstrated (Training.gov.au,
n.d.).
These will need to be incorporated in the competence matrix that you develop
for your organisation.

In addition, you may choose to specify the level of competence that is required
for each competence element for each role in your organisation. It may be
useful to think of competence as having four levels as illustrated below:
Figure 18. Levels of Competence

For example, in relation to the development of Asset Management plans, some
job roles may only require a Basic understanding of what is needed in an Asset
Management Plan and what an Asset Management Plan is used for so that they
can contribute meaningful information for inclusion in that plan. Other roles
may need to be Competent so that they can develop the plans, while others
may need to be Advanced or Expert so that they can modify and improve the
template used for documenting Asset Management Plans.
So you can see that developing a comprehensive view of all the competences
that are required for effective Asset Management is not necessarily a simple
or straightforward task. At this point, you may even be considering that it will
be an overwhelmingly complex and time-consuming task. But it need not
necessarily be the case. As with all decisions relating to Asset Management,
in determining the scope and level of detail associated with mapping
competences to roles you should consider:
• Risks – what are the risks to the business if certain roles/positions/activities

are performed by people who are not competent? Focus on defining the
competences required for those roles and activities that represent the
greatest level of risk.
• Benefits – what are the potential benefits to the business if certain roles/
positions /activities are performed by people who are highly competent?
Focus on defining the competences required for those roles and activities
that may provide the greatest opportunity for business benefit.
• Costs – how long will it take and what will it cost to identify the competence
requirements and assess current levels of competence for this role/
position/activity. Perform this work only if the risks and/or benefits
outweigh the costs.

Regardless of the level of detail that you go to in mapping roles to competenc-

es, however, you should be able to justify why you have chosen to go to that
level of detail in terms of the above three considerations.
Identifying and mapping competences is a task that many Learning and
Development professionals will be familiar with, and it is likely that they will
take the lead in this area within your organisation. However, they will more
than likely need help from suitably skilled and qualified Asset Management
professionals to ensure that all of the Asset Management competences
required are duly noted and properly documented.
All of this, however, only ensures that you understand the competences that
you should have in place in your organisation. It does not address the question
of how you assess whether those competences are actually in place.
Assessing Asset Management Competence

At this point it is worth making sure that you understand what is meant by
the term “competence”. Competence can be defined as being “the ability
to do something successfully or efficiently”. In other words competence
can only be demonstrated by actually doing something. Attending a course
and understanding theories and concepts does not necessarily make you
competent – you are only competent when you know how to, and can
demonstrate that you can, apply these concepts and principles in practice. So
attending a course and passing a theoretical exam, while it may be a necessary
prerequisite on the pathway to competence, does not, of itself, mean that you
are competent. For example, just because you have passed the theoretical test
for your driver’s license does not necessarily mean that you know how to drive
a car.
Competence can be considered as having the following four dimensions

(Department of Training and Workforce Development, Western Australia, 2015.
p.28):
• Task Skills – the capacity to perform tasks to the required standard;
• Task Management Skills – the ability to plan and integrate a number of

different tasks and achieve a work outcome;
• Contingency Management Skills – the ability to respond to irregularities,

breakdowns and other unanticipated occurrences; and
• Job/Role Environment Skills – the capacity to deal with the responsibilities

and expectations of the work environment, including working with others.
It is important, therefore, when assessing competence that all four of these

dimensions are assessed.

In terms of the first of these bullet points above, demonstrating competence

requires the achievement of an agreed benchmark standard when performing
the task. It is important, therefore, that this standard is documented, as
least as far as this is possible. Some larger organisations have defined their
own standards for the performance of specific tasks. In other cases, you
may need to rely on the standards that have been established as part of a
recognised training course or qualification. The Institute of Asset Management
competence standards unfortunately do not explicitly specify the level of
performance that is expected.
In order to assess competence, it will be necessary for your organisation to

collect evidence and make judgements on whether competence has been
achieved. The evidence could take several forms (Department of Training and
Workforce Development, Western Australia, 2015. p.10):
• Direct, for example:
»» Observation of workplace performance,
»» Oral questioning
»» Demonstration of specific skills
• Indirect, for example:
»» Completion of written tests or examinations
»» Review/assessment of previous work undertaken
»» Achievement of externally awarded qualifications/certification
• Supplementary, for example:
»» References from previous employers
»» Reports from Supervisors
»» Work diary/log books
»» Examples of reports or workbooks
In order to comply with the requirements of ISO 55001, your organisation will
need to determine what and how much evidence is required to make the
assessment judgement. However in making this determination, you should
consider the following four “rules” of evidence (Department of Training and
Workforce Development, Western Australia, 2015. p.12).
The evidence should be:
• Valid
»» It relates to the unit of competence being assessed

»» It considers all four dimensions of competence (i.e. task skills, task

management skills, contingency management skills and job/role
environment skills discussed above)
• Sufficient
»» It provides enough evidence to be able to adequately judge

competence
• Current
»» Is recent enough to show that the skills and knowledge are still able to
be applied
• Authentic
»» It should be provable that the work proffered as evidence is the

individual’s own
Once the evidence requirements have been determined, then the next step is
to develop and execute a plan for collection of the relevant evidence, including,
where required, on-the-job assessment of work performance.
Identifying and Bridging Asset Management

Competence Gaps
Once the current level of Asset Management competence has been identified,
this can be compared with the competences and level of competence required
of the position. Appropriate actions can then be planned and taken to bridge
any identified gaps. This will normally be done through standard Human
Resources processes for Personal Development Planning, and may incorporate
a combination of attendance at training courses, delivery of one-on-one
training and coaching, or other personal development activities.
The suite of Asset Management training courses specified by the Institute of

Asset Management (and which align with their Competence Framework) may
be helpful in assisting to bridge the competence gaps that you have identified.
There are a number of training organisations endorsed by the Institute of
Asset Management to deliver these courses (including Assetivity). For more
information on our Institute of Asset Management endorsed courses see http://
www.assetivity.com.au/training.html. For more information on the Institute of
Asset Management Endorsed Training scheme visit https://theiam.org/products-
and-services/endorsed-training-scheme/about-endorsed-training-scheme.

Competence Management and Recording System

Finally, for effective competence management, a competence management
and recording system should be in place to ensure that workforce competences
are adequate to permit the organisation to achieve its Asset Management
objectives (and overall organisational objectives). This system should include
processes for:
• Ensuring that position descriptions are up-to-date, and that roles and
responsibilities for each position are accurately described
• Ensuring that the competences required for each position/role are

adequately described and periodically reviewed and updated.
• Assessing/judging the current level of competence (with respect to their

job role) of each individual involved with Asset Management
• Ensuring that the competences currently held by all individuals are

accurately recorded together with any training received
• Planning and delivery of programs to bridge identified gaps in competence,

including identifying or designing and planning education programmes,
training courses and other development activities.
• Recruitment of competent people
• Career planning for key individuals
• Succession planning for key positions/roles
• Periodically reviewing and continually improving all of the above elements
Assessor and Auditor Competencies

If you are seeking certification against the requirements of ISO 55001, it is
important to realise that the auditors providing certification also have to meet
specific competence requirements. More specifically, those organisations
offering ISO-accredited certification services are required to comply with the
requirements of ISO/IEC 17021:2011 – Conformity assessment – Requirements
for Bodies Providing Audit and Certification of Management Systems. Amongst
other things, this standard requires them to demonstrate that they have
established competence criteria for and performed evaluation of their auditors.
ISO 17021:2015 defines competence as: “the ability to apply knowledge and
skills to achieve intended results” (ISO, 2015). Part 5 of ISO 17021(ISO 17021-
5) details the specific requirements associated with Asset Management
Assessments (ISO, 2014d).
Subsequent to the publication of this standard, and aligning with it, the GFMAM
Competency Specification for an ISO 55001 Asset Management System Auditor/
Assessor contains more details of what the Asset Management community
believes are adequate levels of competence.

In brief, anyone who has acquired the Certified Asset Management Assessor
(CAMA) qualification or the Institute of Asset Management’s Diploma
qualification are likely to have the required competences.
The CAMA scheme awards CAMA accreditation on successful completion of

a two hour, closed book examination and submission of an appropriate CV/
professional profile. WPiAM is a consortium of national peak bodies for asset
management, including the Asset Management Council of Australia, Society
of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) in the United States,
Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (PEMAC), Institut
Français d’Asset Management Industriel et Infrastructures (IFRAMI) in France and
Associação Brasileira de Manutenção e Gestão de Ativos (ABRAMAN) in Brazil.
They constructed the scheme to meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 17021-
5:2015, as well as the more stringent requirements of the GFMAM Competency
Specification for an ISO 55001 Asset Management System Auditor/Assessor
(the GFMAM is a broader international consortium of peak bodies in asset
management).
While meeting these competence standards is not a mandatory requirement

for those providing advisory services or non-certifiying assessments (including
in-house assessments) it is highly recommended, nevertheless. Several of
Assetivity’s senior consulting personnel are CAMA-qualified, and are therefore
able to give informed advice regarding the requirements for alignment and/or
certification against the requirements of ISO 55001.

Chapter 13
Asset Management
Leadership and Culture
While it is tempting to focus on processes and systems as being at the core
of good Asset Management, success is only achieved by ensuring that the
right behaviours and attitudes are in place in an organisation. This chapter
discusses the behaviours that are essential for good Asset Management, and
the elements that drive them.
What is Culture?
What is culture? A simple definition is “the way we do things around here”. If you
want a more complex definition that, in essence, means the same thing, you
can define it as (BusinessDictionary.com, n.d.)
The values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological
environment of an organization
In other words, an organisation’s culture related primarily to behaviours

(what people do) as underpinned by a set of values (unwritten, and often
subconscious, beliefs or rules regarding what is considered “acceptable” and/or
valued).
There are many, many books and articles written about organisational culture,
and it is not our intent to discuss the general aspects of organisational culture
in this chapter, but instead to discuss some key points relating to organisational
culture as it applies to Asset Management and ISO 55000.
What is an “Asset Management Culture”?

ISO 55001 makes no direct reference to organisational culture. In fact, the word
“culture” is not mentioned once in ISO 55001: 2014. Yet most who are involved
in establishing sound Asset Management processes and systems within
organisations recognise the vital role of an organisation’s culture in facilitating
success. So what are the key aspects of an organisation’s culture that separate
those organisations that do Asset Management well, from those that do it less
well? To answer this question, we begin with some common models of culture
and examine these for applicability to asset management.
Deal and Kennedy in their classic book, “Corporate Cultures: The Rites and
Rituals of Corporate Life” (Deal, Kennedy, Kennedy & Deal, 2000) consider the six
elements of an organisation’s culture to be:
Asset Management Leadership and Culture | 86

• History – A shared narrative of the organisation’s past, which keeps people

anchored to the key values which the organisation was founded on.
• Values – the beliefs and assumptions that provide a set of guiding

principles for decision-making
• Heroes - those employees and managers whose status is elevated because

they embody organisational values and therefore serve as role models for
others
• Rites and Rituals – the ceremonies and routine events which bring people
together
• The Cultural Network – the informal network within an organisation which

works behind the scenes to communicate information, spread gossip and
rumours and influence behaviours
Our Asset Management culture, then, will be the way that these elements
interact to shape the management of – and indeed the way we think about
– our assets. These elements therefore provide a valuable basis for informing
us as to how we might influence Asset Management culture but do not in
themselves answer our question with regards to what “good” looks like. To do
this, we turn to Ledet’s model of Operational Improvement, illustrated below.
Figure 19. The Journey to Asset Management Excellence
Note that we have modified Ledet’s original terminology to describe the

“Strategic” domain as “Asset Management”, because we believe that several
key cultural elements that exist in this domain are dominant in a best-practice
“Asset Management” organisation. In fact, it is easy to see how Ledet’s
Alignment and Integration elements correspond to the Value and Alignment
Fundamentals of Asset Management from ISO 55000:2014.

Taking into account the Leadership and Assurance Fundamentals as well,

we can define five characteristics that we believe differentiate a “good” Asset
Management culture from less effective cultures. These are:
• Vertical Alignment (line of sight)
• Horizontal Alignment (cross-functional collaboration)
• Organisational Discipline
• Continuous Improvement mentality
Let’s discuss each of these in turn.

Vertical Organisational Alignment
Vertical organisational alignment is often otherwise known as “line of sight”. In a
vertically aligned organisation, all members of the organisation:
• Know and understand the organisation’s mission, strategy, objectives and

goals,
• Understand their role in helping to achieve those goals, and
• Ensure that their actions are aligned with the achievement of those goals.
In excellent organisations, members of the organisation are enthused by the

organisation’s mission and objectives and are highly engaged and motivated to
ensure that the organisation succeeds.
We can see that Vertical Alignment based on the organisation’s strategy,

objectives and goals creates shared values that form a set of guiding
principles for decision-making, and therefore fit within the Values element of
Deal and Kennedy’s model. We can also see that achieving this is critical to
the Alignment (shared vision) element of Ledet’s model and the ISO 55000
Fundamental of Value. As such, Vertical Alignment is an essential characteristic
of a “good” Asset Management culture.
Horizontal Organisational Alignment

When we refer to Horizontal Alignment, we are referring to cross-functional
alignment across departments. In a horizontally aligned organisation, all
organisational departments:
• Are working towards the achievement of shared goals. These goals are
optimised for the organisation as a whole, rather than being optimum
for one department without consideration of the impact on other
departments, and
• Look for opportunities to collaborate on joint improvement initiatives that

are focused on the common good
Achieving a horizontally aligned organisation requires a high degree of

understanding, on the part of members of one function, of their impact on other
functions and the organisation as a whole.

This characteristic is also part of the Value element of Deal and Kennedy’s
model, as well as Ledet’s Alignment (shared vision) element and the ISO 55000
Value Fundamental. In addition, it contributes to Ledet’s Integration element
and the ISO 55000 Alignment Fundamental and is therefore a key characteristic
of an effective Asset Management culture.
Organisational Discipline
Organisations that perform Asset Management well adhere to clearly defined
processes and procedures – particularly where the risks associated with
non-compliance are significant. Individuals hold a high degree of personal
accountability for compliance and need to operate within a culture that values
and promotes understanding of the importance of compliance in ensuring
that the organisation achieves its goals. This is not a culture of “grudging
compliance” – it is one where compliance is genuinely valued and appreciated.
The ISO 55000 Fundamentals of Leadership and Assurance exist, in part, to drive
informed compliance and the Leadership Fundamental explicitly recognises the
importance of culture in achieving this. Within Ledet’s model,
Organisational Discipline is an essential aspect of the Planned domain and only

takes on additional importance as the organisation moves toward the Strategic/
Asset Management domain.

Continuous Improvement Mentality

Organisations that perform Asset Management well have an innovative element
to their culture to enable them to identify and adapt to new opportunities
and situations. One of the challenges in establishing this is that innovation is
often seen as being mutually exclusive to Organisational Discipline. How can
you encourage compliance while at the same time encouraging innovation
and improvement? The secret to achieving both is in establishing clear
boundaries within which innovation can occur, and processes for ensuring that
innovations don’t jeopardise the achievement of organisational objectives. In
particular, it is important to ensure that the potential risks associated with each
proposed innovation are fully explored and dealt with prior to embarking on
an innovation project. Larger organisations may establish innovation “skunk
works” as a means of achieving these goals. But in all cases, it requires those
working on the innovation to have a clear and realistic understanding of the
risks associated with varying from approved processes and procedures, and the
potential impacts of changes on other individuals and departments within their
organisation.
The complete set of Asset Management Fundamentals describe a continuous

improvement process and capturing this mindset is therefore at the heart
of “good” Asset Management. Equivalently, Ledet identifies continuous
improvement as a key aspect of the Proactive domain, with this again carrying
forward into the Strategy/Asset Management domain.
A Proactive Mindset
One of the key features of Asset Management excellence within an organisation
is a relentless focus on being ahead of the game. Organisations that are good
at asset management don’t just let things happen – they make them happen.
And when events do occur that are outside their control, they are already
prepared for them, and have contingency plans, systems and processes in
place to deal with them. This constant, proactive mindset is an essential
element of the culture of high performing Asset Management organisations. It
has much in common with the High Reliability Organisations studied by Weick,
Sutcliffe and Obstfeld. High reliability organisations are characterised by
“processes of collective mindfulness which are indicated by a preoccupation
with failure, reluctance to simplify interpretations, sensitivity to operations,
commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise”. This aligns with the
“System Performance” focus in Ledet’s model and the Assurance Fundamental
of ISO 55000.

How to Establish an Asset Management Culture

So how do you go about establishing a particular culture? Changing
organisational culture is notoriously difficult and takes considerable time,
but two methods of promoting it are strong leadership and appropriate
performance measurement.
Leadership as a Driver of Culture

Leadership is essential, but this does not mean that meaningful culture change
requires the CEO to drive it. Leadership is independent of organisational
position, and a Maintenance Manager, an Operations Supervisor, or even a
Reliability Engineer can still shape the culture within their circle of influence.
However, there will be limits to what you can achieve at lower levels in the
organisation – particularly where your people interact with those from other
workgroups who may not share the same cultural beliefs. Nevertheless, as
mentioned previously in this book, you CAN make a difference.
One useful (and visual) model that describes the various tools that can be used
by leaders for changing organisational culture is outlined in an article by Steve
Denning (Denning,2011) in Forbes magazine. This diagram is reproduced below.
Organisational tools for changing minds

Conversations
Vision Storytelling
Persuasion Leadership Tools Role Modeling

Inspiration
Negotiation Strategic Planning
Ritual
Learning Decision-Making
Tradition Management Tools Measurement

Systems Information
Incentives
Control Systems
Promotion
Role Definition Hirirng/Firing
Operating Procedues Training
Disincentives
Coercion Power Tools Intimidation

Punishments
Threats Fiat
Figure 20. Organisational Tools for Changing Minds
This diagram draws the distinction between Leadership Tools (the “softer” stuff),
Management Tools (which we engineers typically focus on most) and Power
Tools (which we sometimes resort to, but should be avoided if possible). Using
the Power Tools for culture change can lead to short-term grudging compliance,
but any behavioural changes will not be sustained (“the floggings will continue
until morale improves”).

Denning points out in his article that effective culture change requires the right
balance between the use of Leadership Tools (creating an inspiring vision and
continually communicating it, finding and telling stories that inspire alignment
with the new vision, walking the talk etc) and Management Tools (ensuring that
roles and responsibilities are clear, establishing the right performance measures,
recruiting the right people, ensuring that the organisation has the right
competencies etc). Many people are more comfortable using the Management
Tools than the Leadership Tools. However those that swing the balance to
increase their use of Leadership Tools frequently achieve great results – these
are the ones that you see collecting the awards for outstanding performance.
Performance Measures as Drivers of Culture

One of the most powerful management tools that can be applied to change
behaviour is the appropriate use of performance measures, when combined
with an effective performance management process and reward system.
We have already discussed this idea in some detail, but the key points bear
repeating with an eye to changing behaviour:
• The measures that you select are absolutely critical, and need to be chosen
to drive the behaviours that you are seeking. If you are seeking compliance
with procedures, then you will need to establish some form of measure
that determines whether this is occurring. If you are seeking to eliminate
the causes of failures, then once again, you will need to establish some
form of measure that determines whether this is occurring. Measuring an
output, without some form of measure that indicates whether the desired
behaviours were applied in achieving that output is generally too indirect.
However, do not lose sight of the fact that the desired behaviours are
intended to produce a desired outcome (so somewhere you will need to
measure the outputs). If you and your people are doing the right things,
but not achieving the right results, then you will need to reconsider the
direction you are heading.
• Too few measures is better than too many. Give someone twelve measures
against which their performance is being evaluated, and all that happens
is that you confuse them. They will probably focus on the 3 or 4 that
means most to them (and which are the easiest for them to achieve target
performance on). Far better for you (as a leader) to pick the 3 or 4 that
are most important to the organisation, and ensure that they buy into
those measures and align their behaviours with the achievement of those
measures.
• Measurement without subsequent action is simply a waste of time and

money. As a leader, you MUST ensure that effective actions are generated
any time that performance does not meet target. Similarly, you MUST
ensure that rewards (not necessarily financial) are given when performance
expectations are met or exceeded.

• There is no point in holding someone accountable for performance which

they cannot influence. You will almost certainly need to establish different
measures for different work groups, and possibly for different individuals
within those workgroups.
Six Tips for Changing Your Organisation’s Culture

The following represents six practical tips that address the elements of culture
in Deal and Kennedy’s model and, based on our experience, work to deliver
sustainable change in the 5 key characteristics of an effective Asset Management
culture.
Make the Vision Inspiring and Communicate it Often

We have seen that a shared set of values based on the organisation’s goals and
objectives is essential to a sound Asset Management culture. Unfortunately,
most organisational and departmental visions, goals and objectives are
thoroughly boring and serve neither to inspire nor to motivate those that
work within them. If you can, try to make the vision for your organisation or
department simpler, more personal and more emotional. Try to find a common
theme that aligns with people’s personal wishes and desires and you will find
that they will rally behind you. People generally want to make a difference, and
if you can tap into that desire and align it with the goals and ambitions of your
organisation, then it can be a very powerful force.
In addition, you also need to keep reminding people of the vision – why do they
work here? In what way can they contribute towards the achievement of this
higher cause? If you can inspire them, then they will require less management.
They will, within the limits of their capabilities, direct their energies towards the
achievement of your shared goals. This will help to achieve the goal of Vertical
Alignment discussed earlier in this article.
Establish Rites and Rituals that Promote Desired Behaviours

You cannot change people’s values directly, but you can establish routines in
behaviour that gradually shape those values, which is the point of the Rites
and Rituals portion of Deal and Kennedy’s model. For example, if you want
to establish a higher level of Horizontal Alignment within your organisation,
create regular meetings that encourage cross-functional communication and
collaboration and therefore facilitate a “whole of business” viewpoint and focus.
For example, ensure that your Production/Operations people attend regular
Maintenance Planning meetings – or that key Supply representatives attend
Shutdown Planning meetings. Establishing cross-functional improvement
teams also helps in this area – workshopping improved Preventive Maintenance
programs with maintainers, engineers and operators is often a great way to
create a higher degree of collaboration and alignment. The more regular and
habitual these meetings become, then the more they become ingrained as “the
way we do things around here”.

Look for Successes and Reward Desirable Behaviours

Formal performance measurement systems should encourage and reward
the desired behaviours, but informal reward systems should as well. If
Horizontal Alignment is the aim, why not ensure that Maintenance Manager
performance and Production Manager performance are measured using
the same KPIs? Rewarding the Maintenance Manager (and Production
Manager) for ensuring that the organisation meets its Production targets, and
simultaneously rewarding the Production Manager (and Maintenance Manager)
for ensuring that the plant achieves its reliability targets will create a much more
collaborative relationship than the traditional way of assessing performance.
But in addition to that, look for situations where an individual has gone above
and beyond expectations, and demonstrated behaviours that you would
like to see repeated in your organisation, and ensure that that performance
is recognised – a pat on the back, or a mention in a meeting can be a very
powerful tool for creating “Heroes” that illustrate to others the behaviours that
they should aspire to display.
Create a Mythology
Following on from the previous point, don’t be afraid to use story-telling as a
powerful tool to create an organisational mythology which demonstrates the
way in which individuals have, in the past, demonstrated the behaviours that
you would like others to emulate. This can tap into both the Heroes and History
elements of Deal and Kennedy’s model and powerfully influence culture.
Some time ago, Fedex’s slogan was “Absolutely, Positively On Time, or your
Money Back”. Their formal performance measurement systems reinforced
this value – On-Time Delivery Performance was one of the first measures
discussed at just about every meeting, whether it was a daily pre-start meeting
with delivery drivers, or a meeting of senior executive. But in addition, there
was a series of anecdotes that were frequently told through the organisation
about the extraordinary lengths that Fedex staff would go to in order to ensure
that every possible package was delivered on time – including, in one case,
chartering a helicopter as the recipient (in a rural area) was snowed in. These
anecdotes were sources of great pride, and served to reinforce the types of
behaviours that were accepted and encouraged in pursuit of the organisation’s
mission.
Lead by Example – Act as a Role Model

Clearly, as a leader, you cannot ask others to behave in one manner, and then
act in a different way yourself. You need to walk the walk, as well as talking the
talk. Be aware that those that you are leading are watching your every move,
and if you do something that is inconsistent with what you have asked others
to do, it will be noticed. You have to set even higher standards for yourself than
those that you expect of others.

Manage the Informal Communications Networks

Finally, you need to be conscious of, and actively manage, the Cultural Network
– the rumour and gossip mill that exists within your organisation. Make sure
that it is fed with positive stories that reinforce the culture you are trying to
implement, rather than negative stories. If you follow the suggestions followed
in the sections above titled Create a Mythology and Lead by Example, you
will be well served in this area also. Be aware that everything you say may be
repeated through the gossip mill, so make sure that what you say (even if you
think it is being said “in confidence”) reinforces the positive aspects of what you
are trying to achieve.
Final Thoughts on Leadership in Asset

Management
The actions that we have discussed above can realistically only be driven from
the top down. Ideally, if an organisation-wide culture change is required (and
it often is, when establishing an Asset Management culture), then this should
come from the CEO and his/her colleagues in the C-Suite. However leaders
at lower levels in the organisation can often help to establish the right culture
within their own sphere of influence. Leadership is therefore a vital aspect of
establishing a sound Asset Management Culture.
As mentioned earlier, effective culture change requires the right balance

between the use of Leadership Tools (creating an inspiring vision and
continually communicating it, finding and telling stories that inspire alignment
with the new vision, walking the talk etc) and Management Tools (ensuring
that roles and responsibilities are clear, establishing the right performance
measures, recruiting the right people, ensuring that the organisation has the
right competencies etc). Make sure you have the balance right.

ISO 55001 makes several references to the role of top management and
leadership in establishing sound asset management practices. Many of the
activities expected of top management in ISO 55001 are managerial in nature
(for example, ensuring that an asset management policy, Strategic Asset
Management Plan etc are established). However many are true leadership
activities and involve words such as:
• Communicating
• Supporting, and
• Promoting
Without these activities, a true Asset Management culture cannot be

established.
While top level involvement is essential, individuals at all organisational levels

can display leadership, shape the culture within their circle of influence and
create meaningful change. You CAN make a difference.

Chapter 14
ISO 55001 Certification

This chapter discusses how to get your asset management system certified,
including various certification schemes and certifying bodies. This is critical
information if an organisation is seeking certification, but will likely be of
interest to those seeking to align or comply with ISO 55000 as well.
The chapter will cover the following topics:
• Why are you Certifying? We will revisit the reasons for certification, which
we discussed in Chapter 3, as your reasons are likely to affect certification
choices.
• Selecting an ISO 55000 Certification Scheme. The options available

for certification will be examined, together with their strengths and
weaknesses.
• The ISO 55000 Certification Process. What to expect during the certification
process will be discussed, including:
»» The number and type of audits (including gap assessments and

maturity assessments) you can expect; and
»» Tips for selecting an auditor (otherwise known as a Certification

Assessment Body, or CAB).
Why are you Certifying against ISO 55000?

In Chapter 3 we suggested the following reasons for implementing ISO 55000:
• Regulatory Compliance – implementation as directed by an economic or

safety regulator.
• Contribution to Due Diligence – implementation as directed by the Board to

demonstrate due diligence.
• Marketing strategy – implementation to obtain a certification to place on

marketing material.
• Competitive advantage – holistic implementation to achieve a wide range

of benefits to the organisation.
It is very important that organisations enter into the certification process with
a clear understanding of the business case, including both a realistic estimate
of the resources (time, money and otherwise) required to achieve certification
and the benefits to the organisation of achieving that certification. Without
this, there will be a natural tendency to adopt a “tick the box” approach to
certification that focusses on cost rather than the quality of the outcome.
ISO 55001 Certification | 97

Recent research by Professor Melinda Hodkiewicz at the University of Western

Australia draws parallels between the current state of asset management and
the state of quality management in the 1980’s and 1990’s and clearly shows
that the “tick the box” approach is unlikely to lead to long-term organisational
success (Hodkiewicz, 2015). This finding is entirely consistent with our
experience, and we would re-iterate our earlier warning about organisations
seeking certification purely as a marketing strategy or in response to regulator
direction. Keep the long-term benefits of good asset management in mind and
the pain of certification will be easier to bear.
Selecting an ISO 55001 Certification Scheme

Assuming you have decided to pursue certification against ISO 55001, the next
task is to select a certification scheme. This may seem like a nonsense question
– after all, surely ISO will perform the certifications against ISO standards, right?
Unfortunately, this is not the case. ISO itself does not perform any certifications,
although it is linked to an international certification scheme. Further, there is no
impediment to any organisation declaring itself a certification body and there
are alternate schemes in operation. Consequently, there is a genuine decision
to be made. As most organisations will probably wish to pursue certification via
the ISO pathway, this will be discussed first before discussing alternatives.
The ISO Certification Structure

In Australia, certification against an ISO management system standard is most
commonly recognised by the “five tick” logo, with equivalent alternatives
elsewhere. The only way to get one of these logos on your stationery is to follow
the ISO rules for certification, which we discuss in detail in our article Your Guide
to ISO 55000 Certification. We won’t repeat all of the detail here, so you may
wish to revisit that article if you don’t quite follow all of the jargon below.
In ISO-speak, Conformity Assessment is the process used to show that a

product, service or system meets specified requirements.21 In other words, a
successful Conformity Assessment against ISO 55000 is required for certification.
The only people authorised by ISO to undertake Conformity Assessments are
Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs). These can be located by contacting
your local Conformity Assessment Accreditation Body (CAAB), which is
responsible for appointing CABs and which is linked to ISO through a series of
committees and forums. Most CAABs (though not all) are national bodies, with
examples including:
• the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ), in

Australia and New Zealand
• the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), in the United Kingdom

• the American National Standards Institute - American Society for Quality

National Accreditation Board LLC (ANAB), covering Management Systems
accreditation in the USA
• the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), in India
These CAABs ensure that any organisation accredited as a CAB has appropriate
processes and subject matter in specific areas to conduct conformity
assessments. In particular, CABs for ISO 55000 are bound by the requirements
of ISO/IEC 17021:2011 – Conformity assessment – Requirements for Bodies
Providing Audit and Certification of Management Systems and ISO/IEC 17021-
5:2015 – Competence Requirements for Auditing and Certification of Asset
Management Systems. Together, these standards provide prohibitions against
conflict of interest (i.e. the same company both consulting to and certifying an
organisation) and ensure the use of appropriately skilled auditors.
This system is broadly accepted and is the first choice for most organisations.
One word of caution, however – the wheels turn slowly in organisations such
as ISO and, as at July 2016, there is not yet international agreement on how to
audit against ISO 55000. Some CAABs, such as JAS-ANZ, have issued guidance
to CABs seeking accreditation (click here for details), while others are still
allowing any CAB accredited to conduct management system audits to certify
against ISO 55000.
If you wish to pursue this route, seek out your relevant CAAB, who will provide
a list of CABs accredited to assess against ISO 55000 (or rather ISO 55001:2014,
which is of course the requirements document).

Non-ISO Certification
While ISO has gone to considerable lengths to develop a framework to ensure
that assessments against its standards meet strict quality requirements, there
is no practical impediment to any organisation holding itself out as capable
of certifying other organisations as compliant with an ISO standard, including
ISO 55001:2014. As mentioned previously, obtaining certification outside of the
ISO scheme simply removes the right to place the relevant logo on the certified
organisation’s stationery – and you can expect that ISO will protect this right!
Given the above, an organisation seeking certification could look outside the
ISO framework for an appropriate scheme (and – if they really like audits – could
even choose to apply both!). The risks associated with this approach include:
• Recognition – while the ISO logos are well known, other certification
schemes may not be widely recognised and therefore may not deliver the
credibility desired by the organisation seeking certification.
• Quality – related to the previous, organisations that are not accredited

via the ISO framework are not obliged to comply with the full ISO
requirements and therefore may not provide appropriate audit processes
or appropriately skilled and experienced auditors.
• Independence – again, related to the above, organisations that are not

accredited via the ISO framework are not subject to the same strict controls
to prevent conflicts of interest.
Nevertheless, organisations may find that this approach is adequate for their
needs. They may even find that organisations offering these services are
genuine asset management consultancies that have deep experience to draw
on, rather than generic management system auditors that may be accredited
as CABs through the ISO scheme and that have appended ISO 55000 to existing
ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 accreditations. In this way, alternative certification
schemes have the potential to support genuine improvement in asset
management practices, rather than mere compliance.
The only such scheme that we are aware of is the IAM’s Endorsed Assessor
Scheme. This scheme originated to provide certification against PAS 55, but
has been extended to cover ISO 55001:2014. This scheme offers less stringent
(though still effective and perhaps more realistic) conflict of interest protection
than the ISO process while still requiring evidence of both organisational and
individual auditor competency and has been running successfully for many
years. If you wish to pursue this route, visit the IAM by clicking here.

The ISO 55001 Certification Process

The details of your certification process will clearly vary with the scheme and
certification body you choose, but you should expect it to look broadly as
discussed in Chapter 2.
Within this process, you will see a Readiness Assessment, Gap Assessment
Figure 21. Typical ISO 55000 Certification Journey
and the Certification step itself. All of these activities are, in essence, audits
and we will discuss them shortly. You may be able to conduct some of these
yourself, but your certification audit will certainly need to be conducted by an
independent assessor and it is common practice to have a Gap Assessment
or Pre-Certification Audit conducted by the same party earlier in the process.
Consequently, your first requirement is to identify a suitable organisation to
conduct these audits.
Finding a Suitable Assessor

The process for finding a list of qualified assessors was discussed above and
is usually as simple as visiting the CAAB’s website, or that of the alternative
certification scheme organiser (e.g. the IAM). There are, however, a few cautions
that organisations need to observe in choosing an assessor from these lists:
• Independence – The rules against conflicts of interest under ISO 17021:2011

are extremely strict and require that no part of the CAB has worked with
or consulted to the organisation seeking certification for at least two
years. While the CAB should be safeguarding against this, a wise client
organisation would also make their own enquiries to prevent their
certification being struck down in the future.
• Industry experience – A deep understanding of asset management is, of

course, a pre-requisite for any CAB auditing against ISO 55001:2014.

This will not, however, be enough and it will largely be up to the

organisation seeking certification to ensure that the CAB they select has
sufficient industry experience to rapidly assess practices and determine
adequacy.
• Coordination – If your organisation is already certified against other ISO

management system standards, it may be preferable to engage a single
CAB to complete all of your certification auditing in one pass. This will,
of course, require that CAB to be accredited against all of the relevant
schemes.
• Value for money – Given the preceding requirements, organisations would

be well advised to avoid merely seeking out the cheapest CAB. Rather,
a little research will be likely to yield a less painful and more productive
certification audit.
Your attention in selecting an assessor should be focussed on both the

organisation and the individuals, since the former will provide the audit
processes and on-going accreditation (ensuring the credibility of your
certification) and the latter will provide the subject matter expertise and advice
that will guide you on your asset management journey. Consequently, it is
worth taking a few more moments to look at individual auditor competence in
more detail.
ISO 55000 Auditor Competences

We mentioned earlier that CABs accredited for ISO 55000 auditing via the
ISO framework are bound to ISO/IEC 17021-5:2015 with respect to auditor
competence. This is a reasonable standard, but it only goes so far in providing
assurance that the individuals assigned to your audit will provide reasonable
assessments and sound advice. It is preferable that assessors hold a recognised
qualification in Asset Management . This was discussed earlier in Chapter 12.
Formal qualifications prove a satisfactory level of theoretical knowledge in the

principles of asset management, but you should also be looking for evidence
that individuals within your audit team have experience in the application
of these principles to your industry. They do not need to be experts in your
particular industry, but a degree of familiarity will substantially improve the
quality of the audit findings as well as reduce the pain of the audit process.
Our advice is therefore to examine both the credentials and experience of

the audit team offered to you to ensure that it has adequate knowledge and
experience. Lastly, wherever possible, we would suggest meeting the auditors
ahead of time to understand their approach to auditing and to ensure they are
a good fit with your organisation in terms of personality. You don’t need to see
your auditors socially, but you are unlikely to get good outcomes from people
who set your teeth on edge every time you see them…

ISO 55000 Audits and Maturity Assessments

The ISO 55000 Certification Audit
The only essential component of your journey to ISO 55000 certification is
the final certification audit. This is ultimately a pass/fail exercise, where you
either do or do not achieve the requirements for certification. Your results
will, however, influence the frequency and nature of the subsequent audits to
maintain your certification. Details depend on the CAB and the scheme, but
usually include the following options:
• Follow-up audit – follow-up audit in 3-12 months to ensure minor non-

conformities identified during the certification audit have been rectified
(i.e. you effectively got a qualified pass on the certification audit).
• Surveillance audit – on-going routine audit to ensure continued

compliance, usually on a 1-2 year cycle. May have limited scope that
varies from year to year.
• Re-certification audit – a full repeat of the certification audit, usually

infrequently (3-4 years).
You should note that these are in addition to your on-going internal auditing,
as required by Clause 9.2 of ISO 55001:2014. It is also important to be aware
that ISO 55000 (and, most likely, future ISO management system standards)
is more exacting that previous standards. On your surveillance and re-
certification audits, you will be required to demonstrate that:
• You are actively seeking out and evaluating improvement opportunities,

as required by Clause 10.3 of ISO 55001:2014
• That the asset management system is delivering the required

organisational outcomes, as required by Clauses 4.3, 4.4 and 9.3
The audit process focusses on collecting evidence of compliance against

each clause in the standard. We like to divide this up into the following three
categories:
• Procedural compliance – evidence that the organisation’s processes meet

the requirements of the standard (usually achieved through documented
processes, but occasionally via interview responses)
• Behavioural compliance – evidence that the workforce is complying

with the processes (usually achieved through interviews and workplace
observations – e.g. sampling maintenance records from the organisation’s
maintenance management systems)
• Outcome compliance – evidence that the organisation is achieving its

stated goals (usually achieved through interviews with high level staff and
corporate documents – e.g. monthly and annual reports)

Collecting this evidence usually consists of three steps:
• Preparation – the auditors will obtain and review your documentation and
use this to plan out the remainder of the audit process, including:
» Identifying focus areas (e.g. any elements of the documentation that

are unclear or inadequate)
» Identifying interviewees and allocating questions
» Identifying workplace observations (meetings, databases to

interrogate, processes to observe)
• Site visit – the auditors will visit your site and undertake the required
interviews and workplace observations. This may lead to further requests
for documents, interviews and workplace observations to explore specific
issues that arise during the audit.
• Analysis and reporting – the auditors will review their results, finalise their
assessments and prepare a report. This must include a list of any non-
conformances, but should also include strengths and observations. Based
on this report, they will make their findings and issue a certificate (or not!).
Note that further evidence may be required during this step in order to
An assessment must be made for each “shall” statement in ISO 55001:2014.

Further, most assessments will be made on the basis of several pieces of
evidence, including multiple interview responses. This may sound like a
laborious process and it is – the minimum team size you should expect is two
and the minimum duration (for VERY small organisations with one critical
asset) is about three days. Lloyds of London took three months to complete
the certification process for London Underground. This is probably at the upper
limit of audit duration, but you should remember the long-term benefits on
get what you expect…
Maturity Assessments
Figure 22. Sample Maturity Assessment Scale

Certification assessments, as mentioned earlier, simply indicate, via pass-fail

criteria, whether your organisation meets the minimum requirements for
certification. For those organisations interested in improvement, rather than
just certification, a maturity assessment will give more information to guide
future improvement activities.
As an example, the IAM has prepared a “Self-Assessment Methodology” or SAM

Tool for use by both auditors and internal staff. This and other similar tools have
scripted questions that must be answered and a maturity scale against which
to score the responses. This turns the pass/fail requirement for certification into
a more useful tool for identifying and prioritising improvement opportunities.
The following table illustrates the concept.
Other Audits and Maturity Assessments

While the certification audit is the only audit activity required for certification,
we have typically found that there is value in putting additional formal reviews/
audits into an organisation’s asset management journey to ensure that the work
being done is effective and moving the organisation in the right direction. These
might include the gap assessment and readiness assessment in our road map
and are also often referred to as pre-certification audits. All such activities are
risk mitigation activities. They represent the investment of a moderate amount
of resources to ensure that the effort being expended in pursuing certification
is not being wasted. As such, most audits and assessments will follow the same
basic process as described above, but with some specific requirements to
match their role in the asset management journey:
• The level of detail should increase as certification approaches, so that

resources are not wasted looking for detailed evidence that is unlikely to
exist in the early stages of the journey (for example, readiness assessments
are usually short and seek to identify missing or inadequate processes
rather than non-compliance with good processes)
• While the certification is pass/fail, the interim assessments should use a

maturity scale so that future development work can be prioritised
• Ideally, the assessments will produce a proposed/amended road map for

progress to certification
It is entirely possible to conduct most of the initial assessments using internal

resources and to only call on the CAB for the certification audit itself, however
most organisations have the CAB conduct a pre-certification audit as well. In
addition, where internal expertise is limited, there can be significant benefit
from engaging a separate consulting organisation to advise and assist you on
your asset management journey. Note, however, that the conflict of interest
requirements in the ISO framework strictly prohibit the CAB from filling this role,
even if using entirely different staff.

Conclusion
Certification is an arduous process, which is why we only recommend it to
those clients that have a clear business case. If you are in that situation, then we
would suggest the keys to success are:
• Keep the business case in mind (both benefits and likely resources)
• Select a certification scheme that is appropriate to that business case,

particularly ensuring that it is recognised by your key stakeholders
(regulators, customers, etc)
• Find a CAB that is accredited and can offer an audit team with the right
credentials, experience and personality to work effectively with your
organisation
• Include resources for risk-mitigating assessments in your journey and

consider engaging external expertise to guide you on this journey
Good luck and happy auditing! If you believe you need assistance to prepare
for or undertake a certification audit, we would be delighted to hear from
you. Click here to request an obligation-free consultation with one of our
experienced consultants.
Conclusion | 106
Conclusion
In this e-book we have attempted to provide you with some insights and
practical tips, based on our experience in assisting a range of organisations to
implement improved Asset Management practices and processes. However
the discipline of Asset Management continues to evolve as more and more
organisations use Asset Management and ISO 55000 as a lever to improve
organisational performance. Assetivity plans to be in the vanguard in this field,
providing practical advice and assistance to our clients to help them improve
the productivity and performance of their assets and their people.
We will, from time to time, publish articles and other advice on our website
at www.assetivity.com.au and in our e-mail newsletter. If you are not already
subscribed to our newsletter, but would like to do so, then please register here.
We would also welcome the opportunity to provide personalised guidance and

assistance to you and your organisation. If you would like assistance to:
• Perform an Asset Management Readiness Assessment
• Perform an ISO 55001 Gap Assessment
• Gain cross-functional buy-in and acceptance to an Asset Management

improvement program
• Develop core Asset Management Documents, such as an Asset

Management Policy, Strategic Asset Management Plans or Asset
Management Plans
• Develop, refine, document or implement key Asset Management Processes
• Develop an organisational Asset Management competence framework
• Train and coach your personnel in key areas of Asset Management

competence
• Select and implement key Asset Management tools
Assetivity may be able to help you. Please contact us so that we can better
understand your needs, and develop a customised proposal to provide the
assistance you require.
Conclusion | 107
About Assetivity
Assetivity is a Maintenance, Reliability and Asset Management consultancy, with
a small dedicated team of specialists located in Perth and in Brisbane.
We work closely with clients in asset-intensive industries to help them reduce

costs, improve productivity, and more effectively manage risks.
We offer a unique, holistic approach to productivity improvement and risk

management that embraces:
• Effective business analysis to ensure that improvement efforts generate real

business value
• Technical and engineering expertise to extract maximum productivity from

physical assets based on sound engineering principles, and
• People and change management methodologies to maximise the

productivity of people and ensure that improvements are owned and
sustained
Endorsed by the Institute of Asset Management, Assetivity also provides

consulting and training that helps organisations to ensure that their Asset
Management practices are aligned with the requirements of ISO 55001.
About Assetivity | 108

References
Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (n.d.). Engaging an Engineer.
Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://www.bpeq.qld.gov.au/BPEQ/Search_for_an_
RPEQ/BPEQ/Navigation/Find_an_RPEQ/Engaging_an_Engineer.aspx
Bowman, D. (2015). Data Quality Standards. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://
www.information-management-architect.com/data-quality-standards.html
BusinessDictionary.com. (n.d.) What is Organizational Culture? definition and

meaning. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/
definition/organizational-culture.html
Deal, T., Kennedy, A., Kennedy, A.A. & Deal, T.E. (2000). Corporate Cultures: The Rites
and Rituals of Corporate Life. New York: Basic Books
Denning, S. (2011). How do You Change an Organisational Culture? Retrieved 7

October 2016 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/07/23/how-do-
you-change-an-organizational-culture/
Department of Training and Workforce Development, Western Australia (2015).

Assessment in the VET sector. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://www.dtwd.
wa.gov.au/trainingproviders/vet/resources-tools/Documents/res-assessment-VET-
sector-2015.pdf
DIKW Pyramid. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from https://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIKW_Pyramid
Hodkiewicz, M.J. (2015), ‘Asset management - quo vadis (where are you going)?’,
International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management, 2, 4, pp. 313-327.
Government of Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum (nd).

Notifying Appointment of Registered Manager. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://
www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Safety/Notifying-appointment-of-8792.aspx
International Accreditation Forum - IAF (n.d.). Find IAF Members, addresses & contact
details. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://www.iaf.nu/articles/IAF_Members_&_
Signatories/4%20
International Organisation for Standardisation (n.d.). Conformity Assessment.

Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://www.iso.org/iso/home/about/conformity-
assessment.htm
International Organisation for Standardisation. (2014a). ISO 55000:2014 – Asset

management – Overview, principles and terminology
International Organisation for Standardisation. (2014b). ISO 55001:2014 – Asset

management – Management systems – Requirements
International Organisation for Standardisation. (2014c). ISO 55002:2014 – Asset

management – Management systems – Guidelines for the application of ISO 55001
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International Organisation for Standardisation. (2014d). ISO/IEC 17021-5:2014 -
Conformity assessment -- Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification
of management systems -- Part 5: Competence requirements for auditing and
certification of asset management systems
International Organisation for Standardisation. (2015). ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 -

Conformity assessment -- Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of
management systems -- Part 1: Requirements
Predictive Analytics Today (2016). What is Predictive Analytics? Retrieved 7 October

2016 from http://www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/what-is-predictive-analytics/
Professionals Australia (2014). Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland –

RPEQ. Retrieved 7 October 2016 from http://rpeng.org.au/rpeq/
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PURPOSE OF THIS E-BOOK 3

CHAPTER 1 – STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT 4

CHAPTER 2- WHAT IS ISO 55000? 11

CHAPTER 3 – ROAD MAP TO ISO 55000 COMPLIANCE 15

CHAPTER 4 – ASSET MANAGEMENT POLICY 20

CHAPTER 5 – WHAT DOES A GOOD STRATEGIC ASSET

CHAPTER 6 – WHAT DOES A GOOD ASSET MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 7 – INTEGRATING AND ALIGNING ASSET

CHAPTER 8 – KEY ASSET MANAGEMENT PROCESSES 45

CHAPTER 9 – ORGANISING FOR EFFECTIVE ASSET

CHAPTER 10 - ASSET MANAGEMENT DATA AND DECISION

CHAPTER 11– ASSET MANAGEMENT TOOLS 64

CHAPTER 12– ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPETENCE 76

CHAPTER 13 – ASSET MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP AND

CHAPTER 14 – ISO 55001 CERTIFICATION 97

ABOUT ASSETIVITY 108

The Purpose of this eBook

• Our organisation is required to comply with ISO 55001 – where do we start?

• What is ISO 55000?

Starting on the Right Foot

1. Gain an understanding of the fundamental principles of Asset

2. Understand the fundamentals and value of implementing Asset

4. If yes – how do I start the journey on the right foot?

Starting on the right foot | 4

Gaining an Understanding of Asset Management

• The World Wide Web. Various sources exist including:

»» assetivity.com.au – in particular see the video which provides an

»» The Institute of Asset Management (theiam.org) and

»» Asset Management Council (amcouncil.com.au).

• Training. Consider attending a conference, training session or similar. In

Fundamentals and Value of Asset Management

“Coordinated activity of an organisation to realise value from assets”

In simple terms “Coordinated” refers to an organisation striving towards a

Starting on the right foot | 5

To understand Asset Management better, you should consider the

• Value - Assets exist to provide value to the organization and its

• Alignment - Asset Management translates the organisational objectives

• Leadership - Leadership and workplace culture are determinants of value

The Value of Asset Management

• Improved financial performance

• Informed asset investment decisions

• Improved services and outputs

• Demonstrated social responsibility

• Improved organisational sustainability

• Improved efficiency and effectiveness

Starting on the right foot | 6

What is the Real Value to My Organisation?

• Which of the major risks in your organisation will be addressed through

• What benefit could I gain from implementing a more holistic and

Figure 1. Value drivers of Asset Management

Starting on the right foot | 7

When considering the question of value, it is also worth considering that it

• Regulatory Compliance – With its status as an ISO standard, ISO 55000

• Contribution to Due Diligence – For those not working in regulated

• Marketing strategy – Some organisations may simply see some form

• Competitive advantage – Some boardrooms may see the potential for

Starting on the right foot | 8

• Alignment – an organisation might choose simply to benchmark its

• Compliance – an organisation may choose to develop an Asset

• Certification – an organisation might choose to embrace the full

One way to get an understanding of the potential