In early January 2014, the International Standards organisation (ISO) published the ISO5500X suite of standards for asset management. These standards contain the requirements by which an Asset Management System must comply in order to be certified to ISO 55001.
ISO is an international organisation recognised by the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. It’s primary objectives are to create international standards that reduce the need for national standards as well as to standardise the way national standards bodies develop their national standards.
The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) is a global association of Accreditation Bodies (ABs) and Certification Body Associations and other organisations involved in conformity assessment in a variety of fields including management systems. The IAF operates a Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) to enhance the acceptance of goods and services across national borders.
There are many IAF MLA signatories to the major scopes such as for product, persons and management systems certification for sub-scopes such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, in various countries such as the UK – United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and the US – American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Australia and New Zealand – the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ).
However there is no IAF MLA covering Asset Management Systems.
The Asset Management Council (AMC), in Collaboration with the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM), approached JAS-ANZ concerned that the competencies being widely proposed for asset management systems auditors were not sufficient to reliably audit a significant asset management system. It was agreed that the GFMAM Competency Specification for an ISO 55001 Asset Management Systems Auditor/Assessor should be used to clarify the otherwise understated asset management systems competency requirements for asset management systems auditors. The GFMAM asset management systems competencies are now called up in the JAS-ANZ Asset Management Systems Scheme.
To summarize, JAS-ANZ accredited AMS certification bodies will be using teams or individuals that collectively satisfy the GFMAM competencies.
JAS-ANZ now has at least four certification bodies that are accredited or in the process of being accreditation to offer certification to ISO 55001.
The interaction between these various parties is illustrated as follows:
