Who’s using the ISO 55000 standards in New Zealand?
Note
This article was published in August 2023 and reflects data available at that time. Asset Dynamics intends to update this analysis in a future article.
Asset Dynamics Director Andrew Gatland examines uptake of the ISO 55000 standards across New Zealand's infrastructure sector, drawing on certification data, electricity distribution AMP disclosures, and local government planning documents.
New Zealand's infrastructure sector is facing significant challenges now and over the coming decades. Key factors include a historical infrastructure deficit, changing demographics and growth, greater customer expectations of infrastructure quality and performance, and the need to improve resilience, including to climate change impacts.
Te Waihanga New Zealand Infrastructure Commission has found that a business-as-usual approach to addressing these challenges would require current spending on infrastructure to almost double, from 5.5% of GDP to 9.6% of GDP over a thirty year period. The Commission argues that while increased investment is required, improved models for infrastructure financing and greater efficiency in the use of funding are needed to reduce the affordability impact on the economy and consumers.
We contend that a high-leverage opportunity to enhance the value realised from investment is to improve the capability of our infrastructure organisations in asset management. To do this, we need to take advantage of the global good practices that have emerged in this discipline over the past two decades. The development and increasing utilisation of the ISO 55000 standards has been a key driver of asset management improvement internationally.
The ISO 55000 standards
First published in 2014, the ISO 55000 standards represent global consensus on how asset management can be implemented to ensure that organisations and their stakeholders realise full value from assets. The standards build on the asset management heritage of BSI PAS 55 and the quality systems heritage of the ISO management systems standards, to promote the establishment and continual improvement of an asset management system. The standards were updated in 2024 — read our article on what changed.
In contrast to how the term "asset management system" is used in many New Zealand infrastructure organisations, in the ISO 55000 standards this does not refer to the information systems used to support asset management, such as enterprise asset management systems and geospatial information systems. While these are critical enablers, information systems in isolation will not improve the asset management capability of an organisation.
The asset management system should instead be understood quite literally as the management system or operating model for asset management — in ISO parlance, "the set of interrelated or interacting elements of an organization to establish policies and objectives and processes to achieve those objectives."
A key implication of this definition is that the asset management contributions of all parts of the infrastructure organisation must be understood and aligned. Achieving asset management outcomes is inherently cross-functional and multidisciplinary.
ISO 55001 defines the requirements for an asset management system, covering organisational context, leadership, asset management planning, support functions, life cycle operations, performance evaluation, and continual improvement. These seven clauses contain the requirements an organisation must meet to become ISO 55001 certified.
The ISO 55000 standards provide a structured and consistent way to think about asset management and a benchmark that New Zealand infrastructure organisations should be using to inform the continual improvement of their asset management capability. Over 330 organisations in 47 countries and across 20 sectors were certified to ISO 55001 as at August 2023.
Figure 1: Global ISO 55001 Certifications by Sector, August 2023
Note: This data is sourced from TC251’s list of Known Certified Organisations which is self-reported and therefore likely to under reports certifications. For example, of New Zealand’s ten certifications, only four are included on this list.
Who’s using the ISO 55000 standards in New Zealand?
It is not straightforward to answer this question comprehensively because infrastructure organisations are not required to publicly disclose such information. We consider three perspectives:
ISO 55001 certifications — which organisations from which sectors are certified to the standard?
Electricity distribution sector — in publicly disclosed asset management plans, who is discussing the standards and how are they using them?
Local government sector — in publicly disclosed infrastructure strategies and other asset-related plans, who is discussing the standards and how are they using them?
New Zealand ISO 55001 Certifications
As at August 2023, New Zealand had at least ten organisations certified to ISO 55001 according to the JAS-ANZ and UKAS registers and TC251's list of Known Certified Organizations. Certified organisations come from the following sectors: electricity distribution, electricity generation, facilities management, defence, and transport.
Being certified to ISO 55001 means these organisations have established an asset management system that conforms to the requirements of the standard, and the system and its implementation has been externally audited by a certification body. New Zealand's first certification was achieved in 2018, and eight have been achieved since 2021, suggesting that uptake was accelerating, albeit from a low base.
Figure 2: New Zealand ISO 55001 Certifications by Sector, August 2023
Electricity Distribution
Since 2016 Asset Dynamics has been monitoring the uptake of the ISO 55000 standards in the electricity distribution sector through the review of disclosed asset management plans. Our analysis covers the AMPs disclosed in 2023. Across the 26 electricity distribution businesses reviewed:
70% intended to align their asset management system with ISO 55001
22% intended to become certified to ISO 55001
Four were certified to ISO 55001, up from one in 2020
Figure 3: Adoption of ISO 55001 by Electricity Distributors, August 2023
Local Government
The ISO 55000 standards were seldom mentioned in the infrastructure strategies and asset management plans of more than 70 New Zealand local government organisations reviewed. While these documents often included strategies to improve asset management systems, these typically referenced the maturity guidance provided in the International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM) rather than the ISO 55000 standards. Alignment to ISO 55001 was being pursued in a small number of large council-controlled organisations.
Conclusion
As at August 2023, ten organisations had achieved certification to ISO 55001 across five sectors. The largest number of certifications was in the electricity distribution sector, where interest in the ISO 55000 standards had increased steadily since 2016, with the majority of electricity distributors intending to align their asset management systems with the requirements of ISO 55001.
The electricity distribution sector is regulated by the Commerce Commission, which requires distributors to regularly self-assess against the Asset Management Maturity Assessment Tool (AMMAT). The AMMAT is a subset of the requirements of PAS 55, the predecessor of the ISO 55000 standards. It is likely that the use of AMMAT has influenced the uptake of ISO 55001 in the sector.
In local government, the ISO 55000 standards had received limited attention, although several large council-controlled organisations reported seeking to align their asset management systems with ISO 55001. Development of asset management in New Zealand's local government sector has been heavily influenced by the infrastructure-specific guidance in the IIMM. The 6th Edition of the IIMM creates alignment to the ISO 55000 standards and includes guidance on strategic asset management planning, alignment between financial and non-financial functions, and case studies of the application of ISO 55001 in an infrastructure context. This guidance has the potential to increase attention to the ISO 55000 standards in the local government sector.
The IIMM contains rich guidance on how asset management can be applied in the infrastructure sector but does not have the quality systems heritage of the ISO 55000 standards. This may be where the ISO 55000 standards can add value to enhance asset management maturity in local government.
Supporting New Zealand infrastructure organisations with asset management.Asset Dynamics works with organisations across sectors to develop and improve asset management systems aligned with the ISO 55000 standards.
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