How to perform an ISO 55000 readiness assessment

ISO 55000 defines the standards for good Asset Management. If you are interested in improving Asset Management at your organisation, you need to start your journey having a good idea of what lies ahead. We consider that all organisations interested in implementing best practice Asset Management practices should align those practices with the requirements of ISO 55000, whether they choose to seek formal certification against the standard or not. Our model of the journey towards alignment of an organisation’s Asset Management systems with ISO 55000 consists of the following steps:

1. Perform a readiness assessment
2. Build Internal Competence
3. Perform a Gap Assessment
4. Bridge the Gaps
5. Fine tune your Asset Management system
6. Certify against ISO 55000 (optional)

This article covers the first of these steps – performing an ISO 55000 Readiness Assessment.

No matter what the current level of Asset Management maturity is within your organisation, before attempting to align your Asset Management systems and processes with good practice (as outlined in ISO 55000) it is important that you understand just how big or small a task that will be. This is true regardless of whether you are already certified to PAS 55, or are just starting out on the journey towards better Asset Management within your organisation.

While you could jump straight in and conduct a full Gap Assessment against the requirements of ISO 55000 (step 4 in our process outlined above), we believe that if some of the fundamental building blocks are not in place in your organisation, then this may lead to false starts and unrealistic expectations regarding the potential costs and benefits.

In order to maximise the chances of success of an Asset Management improvement and certification initiative, we suggest that a high level Readiness Assessment be performed as the first step in this process. We have developed an approach and tool for conducting this readiness assessment that can be quickly applied to any organisation.

The readiness assessment covers the following areas:

Management System & Context

The assessment will check for an understanding of context and alignment with the business context; clear definition of roles and responsibilities; assess the use of decision making criteria and a clear scope for the management system.

Leadership

The assessment will cover the level of leadership commitment towards asset management and the publication and implementation of an Asset Management Policy. It will also asses if roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.

Planning

The planning element will be assessed on how the organisation plans to achieve goals and objectives for the asset portfolio and the management system and the process of how asset management plans are developed.

Support Elements

The readiness assessment will evaluate the process of determining, establishment and managing supporting elements including resources, competence, communication, information and documentation.

Operational Control

The processes for planning and controlling the implementation of asset management objectives will be evaluated. The implementation of management of change and processes for managing outsourcing will be evaluated.

Performance Evaluation

The systems for monitoring and evaluating performance and conformance with asset management system requirements will be assessed.

Improvement

The readiness assessment will review the organisation’s processes for dealing with non-conformity, preventive actions and continual improvement of its performance and its asset management system.

Benefits

Performing this readiness assessment provides the following benefits:

• A better understanding within your organisation of ISO 55000 management system requirements
• An understanding of the major opportunities for Asset Management improvement in your organisation.
• A set of actionable recommendations that can be used to develop a roadmap towards asset management excellence and/or certification against the requirements of ISO 55000.

Whether your aim is to certify or just to align your asset management systems and processes with ISO 55000, we recommend performing an ISO 55000 readiness assessment as the first step.