With 75 separate asset management standards across the board, it’s time we moved to a globally-aligned model, writes John Hardwick.Asset Management is essential to ensuring the reliability of physical assets and the consistency of revenue for companies. Ever increasingly, companies across the globe are implementing systemised approaches to improve the performance of existing assets in order to provide profitability for the business, energy management, personnel safety and environmental compliances. Recognising the growing importance of Asset Management and its role in the modern world, in late 2009 the British Standard Institute (BSI) proposed to the International Organization for Standardization the development of an ISO standard for Asset Management. At present, there are over 75 Asset Management standards applicable to military, electrical and electronic engineering, health and safety, quality and audit management, among other disciplines. The unification of these industrial standards will provide the global Asset Management community the best common framework for guidance on rules and characteristics of asset management.The proposal notes that only two documents are planned to form the foundation of the Standard; BSI’s PAS 55-1:2008 Asset Management Part 1: Specification for the optimized management of physical assets, and BSI’s PAS 55-2:2008 Asset Management Part 2: Guidelines for the application of PAS 55-1. Australia will play an important role in developing the ISO standard. Standards Australia has formed an ‘Australian Development Team’ made up of representatives from peak Australian bodies, with the Asset Management Council being one of them. Supporting the ISO standard for Asset Management will be an Asset Management Landscape, a joint activity by the Institute of Asset Management (UK) and the Asset Management Council, working on behalf of the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management. The Asset Management Landscape consists of common conceptual models, subjects and a framework describing best practices, maturity and the role of Standards, and will be freely available to all companies and practitioners. I invite all persons interested in participating in the development of the Australian consensus for the ISO standard for Asset Management to come along to the open forum discussion, to be held during the ICOMS Asset Management Conference in Adelaide from 21 to 25 June 2010.[John Hardwick is the National Chairman for the Asset Management Council.]
