7 Requirements of an Effective Asset Management System

ISO 55001 is an asset management system standard whose primary objective is to assist organizations to manage asset lifecycles more effectively. Organizations that implement ISO 55001 will have greater control over daily activities, greater returns on assets, and a lower total cost of risk. The ISO 55001 standard applies to all organizational structures and asset types. The actual outcomes include increased effectiveness accompanied by a significant decrease in unit cost. The framework also promotes continuous performance improvement and provides enhancements for any industry, type, or size of the organization. So, here are the seven requirements that contribute to the creation of an effective asset management system.

1. Context of the Organization: Asset management is an organizational system; the organization must consider the various factors that affect them. The social, cultural, economic, and physical environments are all part of the external context. Other external contexts that must be considered are regulatory and financial. The organizational culture, environment, and objectives are all part of the internal context. Understanding the stakeholders of the organization is critical to understanding the balance of cost and performance risk and being able to implement rules to ensure consistent judgment balances those requirements. ISO 55001:2014 Clause 4 contains the requirements for the Organizational Context.
2. Leadership: An ISO 55001 asset management system should always be controlled from the top of an organization. Without leadership, asset management systems will not be sustained, nor will the benefits to the organization and stakeholders be realized. Leaders must align asset management objectives with organizational objectives and communicate them to everyone in the organization. Leaders at all levels must continue to not only communicate the asset management system but also live it every day. They accomplish this by resourcing the organization to achieve the objectives, defining RACIs, and removing any barriers or conflicts that may arise.
3. Planning: The organization’s direction and objectives are developed during strategic planning activities and documented in the organization’s plan. This strategy is used to create the Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP). At a high level, the SAMP is used to guide the development of asset and asset management objectives, as well as how to achieve the objectives. The SAMP is then used as a guide to creating the Asset Management Plan(s) for each asset type. Finally, all Asset Management Plan objectives should be fully aligned with the organization.
4. Support: Implementing the Asset Management Plan(s) necessitates the appropriate level of assistance. This assistance is usually in the form of resources (people, information, systems, etc.). The Asset Management Plan(s) will outline the expected needs for the various support functions. This is where cross-functional teams come into play with asset management. HR and IT are critical in supporting asset management. Whether it’s ensuring that the organization has the necessary capabilities and competencies, or creating databases to store all asset information.
5. Operations: The Asset Management system is now put into action. During this phase, the plans are implemented and the system’s value is realized. During the operation of the asset management system, changes in funding, risk profiles, and so on may occur and must be addressed. This is all part of how the asset management system works. If any activities were outsourced, regardless of the reason, the organization must ensure that they are carried out correctly and by the business objectives. Furthermore, everything is recorded in ISO 55001 documents for future reference.
6. Performance Evaluation: The performance of not only the assets but also the asset management system must be evaluated and use the objectives outlined in the SAMP, or asset management plan. If the objectives are not met, the reasons for this must be identified and action is taken to improve performance. The asset management system will most likely fail to meet the organization’s objectives if performance is not evaluated. The data gathered during the performance evaluation phase should be fed back to senior management for use in the management review.
7. Improvement: The information collected during the performance evaluation will be utilized to improve not only the assets but also the asset management system. However, to ensure that the asset management system is being followed, the organization should conduct regular assessments or audits. This will ensure that the system is followed by everyone in the organization. Any non-conformities must be documented, and corrective or preventive actions must be implemented to avoid recurrence. Finally, any incident (failures, emergencies, etc.) provides an opportunity to improve the asset management system. Utilize these incidents as a learning opportunity to improve risk profiles and response plans.

Key Points that Help to Maintain Effectiveness of ISO 55001 Implementation

ISO 55001:2014 standard is related to asset management. This standard specifies the requirements for asset management system. This standard will help your business to manage the life cycle of your assets within the organization. The ISO 55001:2014 specifies requirements for an asset management system within the context of the organization. It can be applied to all type of assets with any size of organization. Such a process is related to Asset management can be the single most powerful weapon in a company’s arsenal for saving time, money and manpower.

Requirements of ISO 55001:2014

• Context of the Organization
• Leadership and Commitment
• Planning
• Support
• Operation and Control
• Performance Evaluation
• Improvement

Principles of ISO 55001

• An organization is a system for doing work valued by its owners by using knowledge and supporting processes,
• Organizational processes and activities are series arrangements of sequential steps where successful outcomes are quality dependent,
• Mistakes and errors in processes must be eliminated to get maximum value,
• Probability and uncertainty exists everywhere to cause variation and create risk.
• A business aims to survive and profit, so short-term, long-term and life-cycle asset strategies must protect the business and also make it flourish.

Who can implement?

Organizations which look for the following requirements can apply for ISO 55001:2014.

• To establish, implement, maintain and improve an asset management system;
• To deliver asset management activities and service providers;
• To assess the organization’s ability to meet legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements and the organization’s requirements.

Maintaining Effectiveness of Asset Management System with ISO 55001 Certification

The ISO 55001 certification can be achieved by step-by-step implementation of the asset management system within the organizations. A system awareness training and preparing ISO 55001 documents with help of experienced consultant, can be a very good option for quick and effective certification. Global Manager Group is one of the company is offering such ready-made ISO 55001 documents on website that includes Asset Manual, procedures, SOPs, templates, forms, audit checklist and more. Anyone can search for such ready made tool available on web and use it that reduces repetitive work and hence costs and time as well as maintain accuracy.

Benefits of implementing ISO 55001

• Best practices to manage life cycle of assets
• Reduces risk related to ownership of assets
• Improved quality assurance as assets plays vital role in provision
• Legal requirements of assets are maintained
• Supports business growth globally
• Improved financial performance

ISO 55001 Manual and its advantages

The International standard for Asset Management has the potential to impact all organizations that have Asset management responsibilities. The ISO 55001 standard is aimed at enabling an organisation to obtain value from its assets. The ISO 55001 standard is aimed at enabling an organisation to achieve objectives of standard through the effective and efficient management of its assets.

The ISO 55001 standard provides a structured and well-researched approach to Asset Management which can be applied whether an organisation already has a mature Asset Management System, or it is beginning to obtain value from its assets for organization.

To achieve ISO 55001 certification, certifying organizations need to implement Asset management system and prepare its documentation conforming to the requirements of the ISO 55001:2014 which provide detailed information regarding the components that must be included in the development and maintenance of ISO 55001 system. Even it is easy task if you have well-written sample documents conforming to the standard for preparing the documentation for ISO 55001 certification.

The purpose of ISO 55001 Manual is to establish and clarify the terms and conditions of the Asset Management System. ISO 55001 Manual for Assets defines the implemented asset management system within the context of the organization. The manual also includes procedures or references for all activities, including Asset management system to describe companies’ compliance with the standard.

The ISO 55001 manual used internally to guide employees of the company through the requirements of ISO standards that must be met and maintained to ensure customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, and create an empowered workforce. The ISO 55001 manual is used externally to introduce this Asset management system to customers and other external organizations or individuals. The manual familiarizes them with the controls that have been implemented, and assures them that the integrity of the AMS.

So far, such sample documents were hardly available. But now you need not worry about documentation for ISO 55001. Global Manager Group, a world-class ISO consultancy, is now selling good quality documentation kit for ISO 55001:2014 certification documentation. All the sample documents and templates provided in this kit conform to ISO 55001 standard requirements. There is no doubt that this documentation kit will help organizations to achieve Asset management System certification.

What is ISO 55001 Documentation kit?

The ISO 55001 Documentation kit is a set of ready-to-use templates designed as per ISO 55001:2014 standard requirements. A readymade ISO 55001 documents kit consists of Asset Manual, ISO 55001 Procedures, Process approach, Work plan, Exhibits, sample forms, job description, ISO 55001:2014 Audit Checklist as well as ISO 55001 Compliance matrix and templates to retain documented information. The documents in the kit prepared  by Global Manager Group are written in simple English and provided in editable word formats, so as to save time and cost in process of documentation, and hence, certification.

What is ISO 55001 Manual?

The ISO 55001 Manual or we can say Asset manual is the most important part of ISO 55001 documentation. Any changes in policies and procedures should be reviewed to ensure that there are no any conflicts in manual. It is a document that describes how an organization implements ISO 55001:2014 standard.

Advantages of using readymade editable ISO 55001 documentation kit

Among the many benefits of using a readymade ISO 55001:2014 documentation kit, some significant benefits are listed below:

• Saves a lot of time and cost in preparing documentation for ISO 55001 certification.
• The user can modify the given templates as per their working system and they can create own documents for Asset management system certification.
• Helps in fine-tuning the processes and establishing better control over the implemented system.
• The ISO 55001 audit checklist, which is provided in the documentation kit, to help internal auditors in auditing to ensure requirements are fulfilled.
• ISO 55001 manual, procedures and formats provided in the documentation kit serve as model documents.
• ISO 55001 audit checklist given in the kit can be used to train any user for ISO 55001 certification.

Considering all the above information about ISO 55001:2014 documentation kit, we can conclude that this is a very useful tool for all ISO 55001:2014 consultants who want to implement ISO 55001 system and achieve certification. Purchasing such kind of ISO 55001 documentation kit will really give value for money paid by the buyer.