Overview

Certifiable requirements for an asset management system; second edition published July 2024, replacing ISO 55001:2014

ISO 55001:2024 specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving a management system for asset management — an asset management system. The second edition was published in July 2024 by ISO/TC 251 and cancels and replaces ISO 55001:2014. It is the certifiable standard of the ISO 55000 family; ISO 55000 supplies the vocabulary and principles and ISO 55002 gives implementation guidance.

The scope is the management system, not the assets themselves. ISO 55001 does not tell an organization how to maintain a pump or renew a bridge; it requires that decisions about assets are made deliberately, are traceable to organizational objectives, are informed by risk and data, and are reviewed and improved. It applies to all asset types and all sectors, and the organization determines which assets fall within the scope.

The pivotal requirement is the Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP), which documents how organizational objectives are converted into asset management objectives and describes the role of the asset management system in delivering them. From the SAMP flow asset management objectives and asset management plans, which specify the activities, resources, responsibilities, timescales and evaluation criteria for the assets in scope.

The standard follows ISO's harmonized structure: context of the organization (including stakeholder requirements and scope); leadership (policy, roles, and alignment of asset management with organizational governance); planning (objectives, addressing risks and opportunities, and planning to achieve objectives); support (resources, competence, awareness, communication, information requirements and documented information); operation (operational planning and control, management of change, outsourcing); performance evaluation (monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation, internal audit, management review); and improvement (nonconformity and corrective action, and continual improvement).

The 2024 edition tightens several areas identified through a decade of use: decision-making and value realization, asset management planning, the treatment of risks and opportunities, the management of data, information and knowledge as an explicit input to asset decisions, and life cycle operations. It also adopts the current harmonized text, including the requirement to consider whether climate change is a relevant issue in the organization's context.

Accredited third-party certification to ISO 55001 is available and is used in regulated infrastructure sectors — water, energy, rail and highways in particular — where regulators or funders expect demonstrable asset stewardship. Many organizations reach ISO 55001 from the earlier British specification PAS 55, whose concepts it generalised and superseded in practice.

ISO 55001 integrates naturally with ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 22301 and ISO 31000, since asset decisions typically carry quality, environmental, safety, continuity and risk consequences simultaneously.

Purpose

To specify auditable requirements for a management system that ensures decisions about assets are aligned with organizational objectives, informed by risk and reliable data, planned across the asset life cycle, and continually improved.

Key Benefits

• Creates a documented line of sight from organizational objectives to activities performed on individual assets
• Provides an internationally recognised, certifiable basis for demonstrating asset stewardship to regulators and funders
• Requires asset decisions to consider whole-life cost, risk, performance and value rather than short-term cost
• Strengthens the quality and use of asset data, information and knowledge in decision-making
• Improves coordination between engineering, operations, maintenance, finance and procurement
• Makes management of change and outsourcing controls explicit for asset-related activities
• Supports investment planning and regulatory submissions with auditable evidence
• Integrates with quality, environmental, safety, continuity and risk management systems
• Applicable to any asset type and any sector, with scope determined by the organization
• Provides a structured upgrade path for organizations previously working to PAS 55

Key Requirements

• Determine internal and external issues, the requirements of stakeholders, and the scope of the asset management system
• Establish an asset management policy consistent with organizational objectives and plans
• Develop and maintain a Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) linking organizational objectives to asset management objectives
• Set asset management objectives that are measurable, monitored and updated
• Determine and address risks and opportunities relevant to the asset management system and to the assets
• Establish asset management plans specifying activities, resources, responsibilities, timescales and evaluation criteria
• Assign roles, responsibilities and authorities, and ensure top management leadership and commitment
• Determine and provide the resources needed, and ensure competence and awareness of persons doing asset-related work
• Determine internal and external communication needs relating to assets and asset management
• Determine information requirements, including data quality, alignment of terminology and management of documented information
• Plan and control operations, including processes for management of change
• Control outsourced asset management activities and define responsibilities and interfaces
• Monitor, measure, analyse and evaluate asset performance and asset management system performance
• Conduct internal audits and management reviews at planned intervals
• Address nonconformities and incidents with corrective action, and continually improve the system

Who Needs This Standard?

Asset-intensive organizations — water, energy and telecom utilities, rail, highways, ports and airports, oil, gas and mining operators, manufacturers with major plant, healthcare estates, local authorities and facilities management providers — particularly where a regulator, funder or customer expects demonstrable asset management capability.

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