Like all the ISO standards, ISO 55000 is a framework that we can adopt to standardize how we do business, leading to efficient and repeatable processes. Through the certification process, an organization can formalize how they go about their business with auditable adherence to the elements of the standards.

ISO 55000 provides a framework to establish, implement, maintain, and improve an asset management system. The standard does not say that you must have an EAM/CMMS software solution in place to follow it. But having such a tool in place does provide much of the functionality you would want as you adopt a standard like ISO 55000.

There are several pieces to ISO 55000:

• 55000 – An overview, principles, and terminology
• 55001 – Requirements for an Asset Management system
• 55002 – Guidelines on how to apply 55001

Who can benefit from ISO 55000?

Any organization which needs to either develop a formal asset management set of processes or needs to refine existing policies and processes can benefit from ISO 55000. Also, those who are performing asset management or are providing such a service to their clients will also benefit. Finally, if there are regulatory or contractual requirements that need to be met, adoption of ISO 55000 is almost a certainty. If your organization is already registered as an ISO 9001 or other ISO certification, then you are well ahead of the game. The framework to support your ISO 55000 adoption efforts are already in place.

Remember, ISO standards do not dictate what you do or how you do it. Rather, they provide requirements and guidelines that you can use as a foundation in the context of your operation. Yes, if you decide to become ISO registered via the auditing and certification process, the auditor will be looking for evidence that you are covering all the requirements. But how you are meeting them is up to you.

Keep this in mind: While you can certainly adopt ISO standards as a best practice for your operations, until you go through the auditing process by an independent ISO auditor… and pass… you cannot say you are “ISO Certified.” Just saying that you follow ISO standards is not enough. A third party must validate that you are in fact adhering to the standards. There is no such thing as, “self-certification.”

What does 55001 look like?

It has 7 parts:

• Context of the organization
• Leadership
• Planning
• Support
• Operation
• Performance evaluation
• Improvement

The context of the organization, the scope and the business objectives are a critical starting point. You need to garner agreement across those involved in asset management and how their activities support the goals of the organization. The scope and strategy being taken for asset management need to be clear as well. What is in. What is out. What are the boundaries. If an activity is not in support of a corporate goal it needs to be questioned.

Leadership is perhaps the most critical element. What role does upper management play in the asset management plans? If upper management is not sponsoring the activity, then it is doomed to fail. Who specifically in the organization is responsible for the plan and reporting on its success or failures? A plan on paper is just that… paper, unless there are people in roles of responsibility.

Planning is where you define the objectives for the asset management approach. Objectives, as with any corporate goal, need to be measurable, achievable, monitored, and reported upon to be of any benefit. This is also the section where you practice risk management. Define the potential roadblocks to your asset management strategy and objectives. The assets themselves may present risks so making an assessment down to that level is appropriate.

Support from the organization for asset management is very important. If the effort is not given the people, skills, and time in their day to work the asset management plan, then it will sputter and die very quickly. Awareness across the organization must be fostered, any tools and technology must be procured, and training provided, and of course all of this must be documented.

The actual execution of the asset management plan is the Operation of it. A subtle yet critical element of operations is the documentation that the asset management plan is in fact being executed by all of those involved. If there is no evidence that a process or plan is being followed, then there really is not a process in place.

It is here where the adoption of an EAM/CMMS will go a long way to foster adherence to processes and provide evidence of those processes directly in the solution. Structures correctly, the solution will capture this evidence with little to no need for the humans to remember to capture it. Evidence such as record status changes, who did it and when are simply captured behind the scenes and remain for necessary auditing activities.

While you are operating your plan, there will be issues. There needs to be a mechanism in place to report issues, and manifested risks. Then, recording the corrective actions and monitoring their impact… or not.

Evaluation. Remember the demands for evidence that processes are being followed? You need to have methods in place to capture process data so that you, and the eventual auditor, can prove the processes are being exercised. You need to measure your processes and evaluate them on a regular basis. Internal audits certainly are an effective tool to find out for yourself. Again, if your organization is already ISO registered in some way, you will have an internal quality or auditing team who can be of great help to you.

Evaluation is also where management review of the health of the asset management plan comes into play. If management is not reviewing all the above, what is the point? This goes all the way back to the Leadership element and their degree of involvement and support.

Finally, Improvement. The adage is, “Say what you do. Do what you say. Prove it. Improve it.” If you cannot provide evidence that you are finding issues, evaluating them, making corrections, and then monitoring for their impact, then you are not truly improving. It is not a problem if some of your corrective actions did not work. If the facts are known and you can show awareness and progress, you are all set.

Now what?

Look at your current asset management plan document(s). Oh, you don’t have any? Well, might be a good idea to get some structure in place to guide how you manage your assets. Certainly, there are software tools that can help your organization get more organized and follow processes, but they are just tools. It is knowing what your goals are, how you plan on getting there, and evaluating how good or bad you are doing are the key elements that a standard like ISO 55000 bring to us in the arena of asset management.

Let us help

The newest, significant change in the IBM Maximo Asset Management Solution MAS 8, its licensing structure, lends itself to moving you toward ISO 55000 certification in several ways with added benefits.

App Points allow the users to use all the various modules (Manage, Monitor, Predict, Health) and users are not limited to what they can access, you only pay for what you use.

Manage, the module that includes Maximo’s traditional asset management platform encompasses the functionality of Maximo EAM and allows for full capability of asset management activities. This fits into the operation and evaluation parts of your ISO 55000 process making it easy to document the plan and prove it is being followed and by whom.

The added benefits give you the opportunity to tap into the reliability and predictive features of Maximo using the Monitor and Predict modules of MAS 8 to detect anomalies based on sensor data and predict failures. Your MAS 8 EAM just solved your ISO 55000 challenges as well as launched your company into greater ROI by leveraging well managed assets and the data that keeps your assets running smoothly and efficiently.

TRM can get you into this structure quickly and at a low cost.

Article by John Q. Todd, Sr. Business Consultant at TRM. Reach out to us at AskTRM@trmnet.com if you have any questions or would like to discuss deploying MAS 8 or Maximo AAM for condition based maintenance / monitoring.