During the Mainstream Conference 2015 in Denver Co (June 7-9), there will be a panel session “Asset Management & ISO 55000 – What are they and What is in it for Me?” on Monday afternoon.  There are seven starter questions that the panelists will address during the discussion.

To get an early start on this conversation, stay tuned to our blog which will be posting insight into each question weekly, before the Mainstream Conference begins on June 7th.

Question #1

Why does every organization define asset management differently? 

Terry Wireman – “For years there have been standard definitions for asset management.  It has been defined by the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM).  It has been defined by the Institute for Asset Management (IAM) in their Anatomy and Competency documents.  Most recently asset management has been defined in ISO 55000.  For the most part all of these definitions are aligned.  In addition, there are derivatives of these definitions that have been adopted by various industry vertical associations.  Again, for the most part, these derivatives are aligned with the GFMAM, IAM, and ISO 55000 definitions.  So why do many organization have their “own” definition for asset management?  There are two reasons.

The first is, many individuals have not properly researched the field of asset management and have not read the aforementioned documents, so they feel the need to develop their own definition.  If they had properly researched the history of asset management, it would likely saved their organizations considerable time and resources trying to recreate existing materials.

The second is many individuals (and their organizations) feel that their business and (by extension) their assets are different.  They fail to learn from the leading organizations in asset management because they are not in the same vertical marketplace.   They will make statements like “that is asset management for petrochemicals, or for manufacturing, or for utilities”.  They fail to see the commonality in asset management between the various organizations.  This leads to their organizations to again, duplicate existing resource in attempt to produce their vision of asset management.

The bottom line is this should not happen.  If it does, then the progress that we will make will take longer than it should and take more resources that it should to develop a mature asset management process.”

Stay tuned for Terry Wireman’s next response to “Asset Management & ISO 55000 – What are they and What is in it for Me?”