ISO 55001 is a standard which can be used by any organisation of any size to help to effectively manage assets through their full lifecycle.  It specifies requirements for the establishment and implementation of an asset management system which is maintained and continually improved. Its value is to help organisations which are particularly asset-intensive – or those who support such organisations – to manage pro-actively through approaches which are structured and systematic. ISO 55001 provides a practical framework aimed at implementing an asset management strategy and plans which meet the needs of stakeholders, customers, and legislation, and which support the creation of value such as through increased safety levels, increasing customer satisfaction or reduced operating costs.

Building on understanding the needs and expectations of stakeholders and establishing an asset management policy, ISO 55001 incorporates consideration of internal and external issues into development of a strategic asset management plan (SAMP). This is to be supported by leadership and commitment, actions to address the risks and opportunities, and a variety of requirements aimed at planning and achieving your asset management objectives.  

Whether you are setting out for the first time with the standard, or you have already made some progress towards developing an asset management system, we can help you to navigate the detailed requirements of ISO 55001 and ensure that they work effectively for your organisation.

This standard can be utilised by any organisation, of any type, operating in any sector and of any size. All organisations and businesses have assets and resources of some sort and extent, whether physical – such as plant and equipment, technology, or vehicles – or for example human, financial, or intellectual property, so do talk to us if you are wondering whether ISO 55001 could be useful for you. Applying ISO 55001 will certainly provide the most value to organisations which operate in capital-intensive fields such as utility industries (e.g. oil and gas, electricity, water), property management and landlords, facilities management, transportation, fleet management, manufacturing services, distribution and logistics, and others.

Implementing ISO 55001 can provide structure to your asset management efforts and will help you to identify, manage and mitigate the risks, and to improve your efficiency and effectiveness. Adopting this standard can help you to improve many of the key outcomes through more structured decision-making, improving services and measurable results, demonstration of regulatory compliance and social responsibility, and improving resilience and reliability.

Operating in an asset-intensive sector, you may be looking for a means to improve your financial performance, your customer satisfaction, improve your relationships with your stakeholders or to win more business – particularly with customers who require certification to this standard as a condition for supply.  Whatever your objectives, contact us to explore how we can help you to maximise the benefits which can be achieved with this standard.

The decision to apply ISO 55001 to your business may be driven by your customers or by recognition of your own needs, but the key benefits will be driven by your own business goals and desire to grow in effectiveness and to add value. This standard is designed to help you in managing the policies, processes, risks, and opportunities that support your business objectives for asset management. For example, you may need to demonstrate to potential customers that you have the strategy and systems in place to ensure that assets meet the necessary performance and safety requirements. You may be targeting business growth that depends on you demonstrating compliance with best practice. Perhaps you need to demonstrate to customers and regulators that you have the right controls in place to assure the quality of your asset management activities. Or perhaps you need to reduce the risks associated with the ownership of assets, such as the costs of maintenance, and prevention of accidents.

If you have a business that depends on high effectiveness and continual improvement in your asset management activities, then applying ISO 55001 could be beneficial for you. QFactorial can support you to implement this standard to maximise the benefit to you and to help you towards certification.

We are, first and foremost, a quality management consultancy. And we are really keen on the consulting part. By engaging with us you can be assured we will listen carefully to your story and understand the details of what you want, and what you need (which are not always the same thing!). Our consultants can then offer you a uniquely tailored solution. We're Quality People, and we understand how to bend and shape the ISO framework to add value to your business.

The ISO 55001 standard was released in 2014 and was further reviewed unchanged in 2016. Alongside it sits ISO 55002, last updated in 2018, which provides expansion and explanation of the requirements in ISO 55001 and includes examples to help with implementation of the requirements. While not structured in line with the latest ISO standards which follow the “Annex SL” format, the standard is current and provides the requirements for effective asset management – whether good asset management is key to delivering your own products and services or if your business manages assets on behalf of other organisations.  

Whatever your asset management need, QFactorial can help your business to adopt ISO 55001.  We can support you to maximise the benefits, not with a “one size fits all” approach but helping you to build your system to suit you and your own objectives.

ISO 55001 sets out requirements for an asset management system that can be established and implemented effectively and ongoingly maintained and improved. It establishes requirements relating to the fundamental understanding of the organisation and its context, and consideration of the different factors that affect the organisation – both internal and external such as financial or regulatory drivers, your organisational culture, and wider objectives.  A strategic asset management plan (SAMP) is required – consistent with the organisations overall objectives - to guide the creation of asset management objectives and associated management plans for the asset portfolio covered by the system.

Top management should lead and control the asset management system and ensure that the asset management policy and objectives in the SAMP are established and implemented. This includes consideration of such aspects as integration into the overall business processes, alignment of the risk management approach, communication of objectives throughout the organisation, ensuring responsibilities are defined and resources are available, and the promotion of continual improvement.

Planning activities are required to focus on addressing the risks and opportunities and establishing consistent objectives – with appropriate documented plans for their achievement – and considerations such as appropriate monitoring and measurement. These activities are required to have appropriate levels of support and resources, and the standard incorporates criteria for competence, awareness and communication including information requirements and controls over documented information.

Operational requirements incorporate the processes needed within the system to support such aspects as the asset management plans and corrective and preventive actions. Considerations include the risks associated with change management and controls over outsourced processes and activities. Systems are required for performance evaluation, including evaluating and reporting on the performance of assets and asset management activities - including financial and non-financial aspects to evaluate the effectiveness. There are requirements for internal audits to establish the effective implementation and operation of the system against an appropriate audit programme.  The key is for management review to be driven by top management to verify that the asset management objectives are being met, review key data (such as external and internal issues, audit results, and nonconformities), look at any changes and opportunities for improvement. Improvement activities include consideration of nonconformities (such as from audits, complaints or incidents), preventive actions (for example which are proactive in addressing potential asset performance failures) and for continual improvement of the activities and system for asset management.

With our extensive knowledge of the standard and an eye to the needs and benefits for your business we can support you to build a robust, effective and compliant asset management system.

Any organisation can use ISO 55001 as a tool for establishing, developing and improving their asset management by implementing a documented management system.

You may already be familiar with the ISO 9001 standard in which case you may understand the basic principles that you need to make a start. But even if not, you can use ISO 55001 to “say what you do” and then think about how you know that you “do what you say” when considering the assets you have and how you manage them. Your risk assessment will drive you to think critically about potential weak areas so that you can really develop your system to deal with them effectively. You will then need to consider the organisation, processes, controls and training you require to make your system workable, documented, measurable and to keep improving it.  

We can help you to develop and document your asset management system to meet the requirements of the standard, ensuring that it works for you and how you actually operate. We can support you by identifying the gaps between where you are and where the standard needs you to be, and we can recommend changes and improvements to address them in the most workable manner for you and your team. QFactorial can work with you to implement and develop your system - and can support you however much or little you need. We are here to help you to succeed - not only to meet the requirements of the standard but to continue to develop and maintain your compliance as your business grows.

Certification by an independent, accredited body is the best demonstration of your compliance to ISO 55001. Certification means that your system is scrutinised and verified on a scheduled basis through an external audit programme. It is an excellent way of confirming your application of your own system – to yourselves, your customers, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders.

In the UK, certification to ISO 55001 is most beneficial through one of the certification bodies accredited by UKAS, the UK’s National Accreditation Body for certification, calibration, inspection and testing services. Only UKAS-accredited certification bodies are recognised by the UK Government and major purchasers. We can help you to choose a UKAS-accredited certification body and can support you through the certification process. We can help you however you need, whether by preparing documentation, training and mentoring, reviewing and auditing, or by working with you to develop and integrate your system beyond your certification so that it always meets your needs as well as the requirements of the standard.

Whether you are just starting out with formalising your asset management system or have already made progress, the process towards certification does require planning, commitment, and resources. How much work is involved will depend on factors such as your current stage of development, the size of your organisation and the number of people involved. We will work closely with you to identify your gaps and synergies against the requirements of the standard, and to develop a workable action plan to achieve your certification in the most efficient way. Our effective project management and extensive know-how will support your schedule and budget with the resources tailored to help you throughout.

Implementing new systems can be a daunting prospect so we are here to help you at every stage. For implementation of this standard your documentation requirements will include the policies, processes and records required by the standard for your asset management system – not only for your risks and opportunities and your strategic asset management plan (SAMP) but your specific asset management plans, along with the more “standard” ISO management system requirements– for example for document control, internal audit and management review.

Remember, this system can be stand-alone or can be integrated with the requirements of one of the other ISO standards such as ISO 9001: 2015 for Quality Management Systems. We can help you to manage the implementation effectively by helping you to build your system and document the requirements in the most effective ways. We don’t believe in producing excessive paper that is of no real use and only gets put in front of an external auditor. The key is the effectiveness of your system, how you actually do things, what processes you use, who is involved and how you record your results. QFactorial can help you to design, describe and manage your system - one that works for your business and meets the requirements of the standard -  so that you can be sure that it is effective, implemented, and provides evidence of continual improvement.

How long is a piece of string?

You’re not a cookie-cutter company, so we don’t deal with cookie-cutter prices. But let’s talk about what makes up the cost of ISO certification:

• Finding out where you’re starting from, where you need to be and how to get there. (GSAAP).
• In house resources to manage and deliver the work plan.
• External consultants to help with parts of the plan that are outside your skills and experience (or time).
• Certification Body.
• Maintenance of your certification. Not just polishing the frame.

Depending on the size, scale and complexity of your organisation, you may need more or less consultancy time. We can work with you based on a specific number of days at an agreed rate, carefully scoped, fixed price work packages, or a combination of both to suit your budget.

There is a difference between certification and accreditation. In the UK there is only one government approved accreditation body (UKAS). When your customers are asking to see your ISO certification, they expect to see the UKAS logo alongside the certification body’s logo. Without this, your customer may reject the certificate and you may find you've a costly exercise to undo the commercial damage, upgrade your system and put yourself through the certification process all over again. We can help you choose a UKAS accredited certification body to make sure you aren’t going to get any awkward questions later.

We’ve been in this game a long time now and have developed a proven system of tackling the requirements of ISO certification with you. We begin with our Gap & Synergy Assessment with Action Plan (GSAAP for those acronym lovers) which shows us how close you already are to the standard requirements. We find, usually, that there are many more synergies than you’d expect - you’re running a successful business after all, aren’t you?

This gives us a head-start when creating the ISMS and gives you the opportunity to get to know your consultant and confirm you enjoy working with us before embarking on the good ship certification. At this point you’re able to take the GSAAP and run, but of course we’d like to think you’d want to keep working with us to help you with the documentation (Stage 1) and implementation (Stage 2).

We help share the load by reviewing what you create, or creating things for your review - business manuals, process maps, policies and procedures, etc. Once this is all done, there’s a desktop audit by the certification body to check all your documentation complies with the rigours of your chosen standard - and yes, we can be involved in this as your advocate, interpreter, translator or referee. Stage 1 is all about ‘saying what you do’ as a business. But you can’t just say what you do, you also need to ‘do what you say’. Stage 2 is all about those documents coming off the page and becoming a ‘real’ entity in your business. The burden of proof is on you to show that your system, as you’ve set out in Stage 1, is working as you say it should be. It takes time to gather this body of evidence, anywhere from 2-3 months, and this evidence can take various forms. Our role during Stage 2 is to provide training, mentoring, internal audits and management reviews to ensure your business is ready for the Stage 2 external audit. It’s entirely normal for a few ‘nonconformities’ to arise, especially at this stage, but we’ll be there to help you deal with them and make sure you get that recommendation for certification.

At this point you’re able to take your new ISO Certificate, pat yourselves on the back for a job well done and send us on our merry way, happiness all round. However, we recommend you stick with us for this first year. Why? So we can help establish quarterly health checks to keep things ticking over. No one wants to be thrown into a full-blown panic 11 months down the line as the surveillance visit looms and you realise things have gotten a little wobbly. With us on board that little while longer, you can be sure that the gears are turning and the processes are followed so when the auditor returns, you’re armed and, if not dangerous, at least prepared.