ISO 55001 Has Been Updated
Asset Dynamics’ Andrew Gatland outlines key changes to the ISO 55001 standard in 2024 and what these changes mean for infrastructure asset managers.
What is ISO 55001?
ISO 55001 is an international standard that states the requirements for an asset management system - a management system for asset management. The overall goal of the standard is to help organisations to establish and maintain capabilities to manage assets through their full lifecycle to meet the needs of the organisation and its stakeholders.
ISO 55001 is applicable to a broad range of organisations and to all types of assets, including physical and intangible assets.
ISO 55000 Series Updates in 2024
The Second Edition of ISO 55001 was published in July 2024, ten years after the initial publication of the standard and introduces a number of changes. These changes are relevant to organisations that have decided to become certified or aligned to ISO 55001 as they may result in the need for changes to their management system. However, the changes are likely to be of interest more generally because of what they suggest should be areas of focus for asset managers in improving their organisation.
ISO 55001 is one of a number of updated standards and new standards within the ISO 55000 series published during July 2024. In addition to the updates to standards, The Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management’s publication The Asset Management Landscape was also updated to version 3.
The current status of the ISO 55000 series of standards and other authoritative documents is shown below.
ISO 55001 Updates in 2024
The following sections summarise the key changes to ISO 55001 from the 2014 First Edition to the 2024 Second Edition.
Clause 4.5 Asset Management Decision-making
ISO 55001:2024 introduces a new Clause 4.5 “Asset Management Decision-making”. This clause makes some of the guidance previously provided in ISO 55002:2018 in Annex A (consideration of “value” in asset management) and Annex D (asset management decision making) an explicit requirement in ISO 55001, including the requirement for a “framework for asset management decision-making”.
In addition to a framework for asset management decision-making (Clause 4.5.1), organisations must also define the criteria to be used for asset management decision-making (Clause 4.5.2), and determine appropriate methods, processes and tools to support decision-making (Clause 4.5.3).
Clause 6.1 Actions to address risks and opportunities
In ISO 55001:2014 “Actions to address risks and opportunities” were treated together in Clause 6.1. In ISO 55001:2024 actions to address risk (Clause 6.1.2) and actions to address opportunities (6.1.3) are treated separately. The implication is that organisations will increasingly be required to demonstrate that structured approaches to consider upside opportunity are in place alongside those processes to consider downside risk.
Clause 6.2.1 Strategic asset management plan (SAMP)
ISO 55001:2024 introduces a new Clause 6.2.1 “Strategic asset management plan (SAMP)” that replaces and consolidates references to the SAMP that appeared in several clauses of ISO 55001:2014. This new clause broadly aligns ISO 55001 with the guidance on the SAMP that was provided in ISO 55002:2018 Annex C.
The introduction of this clause into ISO 55001:2024 clarifies the role of the SAMP as a strategic plan within the context of asset management, as distinct from a manual for the asset management system or a specification of the asset management framework.
Clause 7.6 Data and information
ISO 55001:2024 Clause 7.6 “Data and information” replaces ISO 55001:2024 Clause 7.5 “Information requirements”. In addition to the change of name and number, the new drafting is more concise and introduces the requirement for two new artefacts:
Data and information specifications.
Plan for the collection, integration, quality improvement, and sharing of data and information.
The new standard ISO 55013:2024 Asset management - guidance on the management of data assets provides contains information relevant to understanding this clause.
Clause 7.7 Knowledge
ISO 55001:2024 introduces a new Clause 7.7 “Knowledge”. This clause recognises that all organisations and their people hold extensive knowledge relevant to asset management, some of which will be documented, and some of which will be tacit. This knowledge has value to the organisation and therefore is itself an asset and needs to be managed as such.
This clause requires the organisation to put in place processes to enable knowledge to be used, made accessible for decision-making, retained, acquired (in the case of new knowledge), and disposed (in the case of outdated knowledge).
Clause 8.3 Externally provided processes, products, technologies and services
In ISO 55001:2024, Clause 8.3 “Outsourcing” has been renamed “Externally provided processes, products, technologies and services”. This name change recognises that the organisation must exercise control of all outsourced elements of the asset management system, not just contracted labour as is often synonymous with outsourcing.
Clause 10.3 Predictive action
ISO 55001:2014 included Clause 10.1 “Nonconformity and corrective action” (requirement for processes to respond to incidents and nonconformity and take action to avoid reoccurrences) and Clause 10.2 “Preventive action” (requirement for processes to take action to prevent potential incidents and nonconformity).
ISO 55001:2024 groups corrective action and preventive action in Clause 10.2 “Nonconformity and corrective action” and introduces a new Clause 10.3 “Predictive action”. ISO 55000:2024 defines a “predictive action” as an “action that predicts future behaviour of a parameter required to support decision-making” and provides a number of examples of predictive actions including research, investigation, experimentation, modelling, testing, and surveillance.
The introduction of the requirement for predictive action recognises that in less certain business environments optimising value realisation can only be achieved through robust consideration of different scenarios, and this requires predictive capabilities. The significant global changes since the publication of the First Edition of ISO 55001 ten years ago makes this clause an apt inclusion.
Conclusion
This article has summarised the key changes introduced in ISO 55001:2024. The Second Edition of ISO 55001 provides a more mature specification of requirements for an asset management system and strengthens the standard in many of the areas where New Zealand’s infrastructure organisations are weakest. This includes:
Decision-making
Strategic planning within the asset management context
Asset management data and information management
The new requirement for preventive actions will test organisations on how well their predictive capabilities address the full range of relevant issues, and the extent to which these processes are effective in informing decision-making.
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