An ISO 55001 Asset Management System – Vital Requirements Explained

This article offers detailed information on the essential requirements of implementing an efficient ISO 55001 asset management system.

Assets are an integral part of an organisation which serve as the main source of its work operations. Judicious use of the company’s assets can bring a myriad of benefits to the organisation including improved work processes, increased revenues, enhanced customer relations, and so on, but ill management of them can adversely impact the company’s operations. To help organisations in ensuring efficient functioning of their valuable assets, experts always suggest they implement an ISO 55001 asset management system.

The ISO 55001 standard was introduced to help organisations in implementing, maintaining, monitoring, and improving an efficient Asset Management System to ensure optimal use of organisational assets including tangible, intangible, financial, and non-financial. In this way this international standard helps in balancing the various aspects including environmental, financial, and social costs, quality of services, as well as associated risks related to the assets of your company.

Though business owners often feel it to be quite overwhelming to fulfill the requirements of this standard, following a strategic approach can help you understand and implement the same in an effective way.

Context of Organisation

It is important for an organisation to consider the different factors which can affect the asset management system. When it comes to the external context, the physical, social, economic, and cultural environment alongside regulatory and financial aspects should be considered. On the other hand, the organisational objectives, culture, and environment can be considered the internal context. It is also important to understand stakeholders of the company to ensure the making better decisions and maintaining a balance in between costs, performance, and potential risks.

Leadership

The Asset Management System (AMS) should always be handled by the top-level management of the organisation. Without proper leadership, you can’t expect the AMS to be maintained efficiently and nor it will deliver the expected benefits to your business or stakeholders. With efficient leaders, you would be able to set the right objectives for both your AMS and organisation as a whole and delegate the same to all other business departments. Improving the activities to maintain a functional AMS is important to help you derive optimum results.

Planning

The objectives and direction of a company are mostly established during strategic planning activities and then documented in the company’s plan, which is further used for developing the Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP). The SAMP is used to direct the formulation of asset management objectives and ideal ways to achieve those objectives. It is also used to guide the development of asset management plans for different types of assets.

Support

The right level of support is always required to implement the Asset Management Plan(s). Generally, resources including information, people, systems, etc., are considered the ideal support in this context. The asset management plan(s) offers a clear overview of the anticipated requirements for different types of support functions. This is the area where cross-functional groups play a significant role in asset management. The HR and IT department are crucial for providing support in asset management be it the databases to show all sorts of asset information or to ensure that the organisation has right competencies and capabilities and is performing to the best of its capacity.

Operations

In this phase, the asset management system can be considered ready for operations. The plans are implemented, and outputs are derived from the AMS now. While the AMS is in operation, some changes can be observed in term of risk profiles, funding, and more, which must be addressed promptly. In case any of the activities were outsourced, the organisation must ensure that they are conducted appropriately, while adhering to the organisational objectives.

Performance evaluation

In this phase, the performance of both the asset management system and assets of the organisation are evaluated, with respect to the objectives being set previously in the asset management plan and SAMP. In case the AMS fails in meeting the objectives, the reasons must be identified, and necessary action should be taken to improve the performance. Without in-depth performance evaluation, the AMS won’t be able to fulfill the organisational objectives. Information collected in this phase must be given to the top-level managers as it might be useful for them during the management review.

Improvement

The information derived in the previous phase must be thoroughly studied to make improvements in the asset management system and assets of the organisation, but the task doesn’t end here. To ensure that the AMS is being followed throughout all the levels of organisation, regular audits and assessments must be conducted. This will allow you to make sure that it is being followed by all employees in your company and if any non-conformities are found, they will be documented such that preventive or corrective action can be taken accordingly. Moreover, in case of sudden incidents like emergencies, and failures, you can consider them as learning experiences as it will offer better opportunities for improvement.

Concluding thoughts

Fulfilling the above-mentioned 7 requirements can ensure that your ISO 55001 asset management system is being implemented in the most appropriate way. However, the process might be quite daunting for business owners. To help with implementation, professional consultants are a great asset. With expert guidance and support, you can ensure the implemention, maintaince, and improvement of the AMS in the best possible manner.