ISO 55000: Stelar a common information base

The ISO 55000 standard, whose birth was supported by the Institute of Asset Management (IAM), makes asset management a strategic mission. This mission is not only that of shareholders and investors, but certainly that of all employees, regardless of their hierarchical position.

“We believe that asset management will become the best way to operate and integrate all activities within an organization to achieve its objective in the most efficient and economical manner possible.” — IAM ISO 55000

ISO 55000 - Global standard for excellence in asset management   

Although for many organizations ISO certifications are not a priority and for others this standard would be difficult to achieve, ISO 55000 provides organizations with a guide to develop a roadmap, relevant professional practices, and appropriate resources to implement their strategic asset management planning. It defines the reasons, processes, practical protocols, and global standards to help organizations prepare for a more complex and more challenging, socially, and environmentally demanding future. The basic principle of ISO 55000 is to offer best practices and advice based on the experience of professionals. In fact, there are more than 30 countries involved in the development and evolution of the ISO 55000 standard. It should be considered an integral part of good organizational practices.

The asset sustainability professionals on the Stelar team refer to the ISO 55000 framework as a design guide because it is comprehensive and provides a relevant framework for establishing best practices and improving performance.

ISO 55000 consists of three standards:

- ISO 55000: Asset Management - Overview, Principles and Terminology

- Introduces the critical concepts and terminology needed to develop a long-term plan that integrates the mission, values, goals, business policies, and requirements of an organization's stakeholders.

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- ISO 55001: Infrastructure asset management - Requirements

- Specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an infrastructure asset management system.

- ISO 55002: Infrastructure asset management - Guidelines for the application of ISO 55001

- Provides guidelines for the application of an infrastructure asset management system, in accordance with the requirements of ISO 55001.

These standards can help organizations of all sizes and in all sectors to:

- Set up a management system to manage assets optimally

- Implement, maintain and improve an asset management system

- Comply with asset management policy and strategy

- Demonstrate that they apply best practices

- Obtain an external certification of their asset management system or make a self-declaration of compliance

- Increase the sustainability of assets over time

Several fundamental principles structure the approach adopted by IAM and guide organizations in establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving their asset management system. To name a few, we find: strategic alignment, the value principle, the value principle, corporate culture, corporate culture, risk management, process optimization, life cycle management, information structure, and continuous improvement.

Obviously, the internal processes supporting the organization's strategic planning are fundamental elements. No computer system can replace or structure all the elements that make up asset management. However, some decision support software can support some key processes. Better information that is available all the time makes it possible to improve organizational performance in several ways. An APM+ like that of Stelar plays a role on four pillars in particular: information base, risk management, decision-making and communication tool.

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Asset Information Base

During asset management audits, the information base is often singled out as an organization's weak point. Decentralization of information, lack of uniformity, and the collection of irrelevant data are generally the culprits.

Quality information that is centralized, structured and accessible at all times is a foundation. An organization needs to make decisions that are quick, relevant, and well-documented. Moreover, the term “quality” is of the utmost importance, as it is opposed to the term “quantity”. As a result of optimizing resources, it is better to focus efforts where teams can generate value.

Indeed, the collected data must be part of a strategic reflection at a higher level on the objectives of strategic planning. It must essentially answer the question: what decisions need crucial information? Second, it is very important to adopt an asset information standard as simply as by using the same name or the same component structure for a type of asset. For this purpose, the frequency of data collection according to an intervention plan and a single data format is also important in the adopted standard.

These steps precede any advanced analyses. High-value analytics, machine learning, and the development of artificial intelligence models are based solely on quality and cleaned data, otherwise the results will not offer reliable or promising indicators.

When selected, an important question is the depth of detail or granularity of information that the organization uses to improve its overall performance. In-depth knowledge of asset health, taking into account its overall performance, its residual life, its probability of failure, its consequences on production, the health of workers as well as on the environment and on its cost, is of paramount importance for the sound management of assets. It is this data that will allow the predictivity of the state of assets over time and the evolution of aging. This methodology based on engineering expertise specializing in reliability and integrity appears to be a trusted source of information. There is very little software available like Stelar to support an information base like this. ‍

Risk Management

Typically in asset management, according to the principles of ISO 55000 and 31,000, risk management deals with important organizational issues. There is a need to continuously review the processes in place and the systems that support them, to ensure that the organization meets its business goals. Understanding the impact of performance on a strategic level is very important.

Thus, asset managers should assess the potential risks associated with each asset and implement appropriate control measures. The consolidation of health data by asset into a centralized system is all the more necessary in this context. Asset managers cannot afford to cross-reference data from multiple systems and physically tour assets to get the right picture. It takes a lot of time for a low value task.  

It is all the more important to have information on the risk that each of the assets makes up. Integrating a risk rating per asset associated with the organization's risk matrix is an essential element. An APM+ like Stelar offers this kind of functionality.

Asset Management Decision-Making

Making good asset management decisions is not easy because you must constantly maintain a balance between the costs, performance and risks of an asset. To be more precise, while performance includes elements such as the use, safety, security, compliance, and reliability of an asset, risk is instead associated with the condition, the consequence, and the probabilities of asset breakage. The cost of an asset is linked to designs such as the cost of its life cycle, the cost of use and the costs of maintenance. To this, we could add environmental costs as much for GHG emissions and toxic discharges as for wastewater management.

Obviously, every bad financial decision can put an organization's strategic planning at risk. Although there are excellent tools to assist in investment planning, few such tools have an information base that includes all the elements mentioned in a centralized manner. In addition, as mentioned above, the centralization of information on an ongoing basis will significantly reduce the time to complete an asset management investment plan, thus providing more time to generate value. It is this information, compiled on all assets, that will really assist decision makers in their decision. This challenge is critical in a context in which their vulnerability to climate change must also be taken into account.

Communication tool

A very important aspect of the best practices of the ISO 55000 standard is to break organizational silos through inter-level communication. Each employee has a role to play in asset management, regardless of their hierarchical level. Coordination of activities is crucial in order to benefit from the greatest value of assets for all stakeholders. The guidelines taken by an organization must be supported by information that is reliable, structured, standardized and, above all, digestible for all.

Dashboards composed of key indicators cannot be satisfied with fragmented information. The decisions are too important. The results displayed must come from a source that reflects the reality on the ground. Only visual and dynamic dashboards based on the real health of assets are relevant. An APM+ like Stelar offers a trusted environment that allows this communication by ensuring effective, fast and well-documented decisions.