Six Australian representatives attended the recent June meeting known as the TC251 (Technical Committee) held in Malmo Sweden to review ISO55000 asset management standards. AM Council was represented by Peter Kohler as part of the Australian delegation also including Kerry Brown, Robert Lewis, Tom Carpenter representing AWA, Dave Daines representing the mining sector and Peter Way representing IPWEA.
Each of the Australian delegates are involved in one of the various working groups and reported on their work on communication, product improvement, finance, and revision of ISO55002 document at the closing plenary meeting:
a) WG3 Communications reported the following:
- It had completed an analysis of potential stakeholders and their needs
- It had examined potential types of materials appropriate to the stakeholder groups, and those that might be needed for asset management “ambassadors”
- It had examined potential channels of communication, particularly the use of web sites
- It had considered the processes needed to “approve” materials before they are released publicly
The TC agreed that documents which are agreed by consensus within a WG would be able to be circulated quickly, but that those from an individual should be subject to review by WG3 before being circulated. As a final step, the TC’s Chairman and Secretary would also conduct a review of all materials before their release.
b) WG4 Feedback reported that:
- A more appropriate title for its activities would be “Product improvement”
- It had examined several methods of obtaining feedback (not just surveys)
- It planned to create a knowledge database for use by all members of the TC
- It had worked with WG3 to coordinate the activities of the two WGs
- It would provide guidance to the other WGs in selecting appropriate tools for obtaining feedback and for managing the feedback process.
The WG also gave a brief overview of the results of a survey that had been conducted amongst the delegates to the Malmo meeting on the ISO 55000 standards.
c) WG5 Finance reported:
- It had provided input to WG6 for the revision of ISO 55002 on the issue of finance and asset management
- It had decided against proposing the development of a Technical Specification and insead would now develop a series of articles for communication by WG3
- It had made progress in developing several articles, and had identified additional topics for future articles
d) WG6 Revision of ISO 55002 reported
- It had made good progress in reviewing and redrafting many sections of the standard
- It had identified and drafted a number of guidance annexes showing how key issues, such as risk, applied across many clauses of ISO 55001
- Further work was needed to be completed in the weeks immediately following the meeting, before a working draft would be issued
- It was planned that a Committee Draft would be issued after the next meeting of the TC.
Of particular interest was a paper from Australia suggesting a need to give “protection” to the ISO 55000 and ISO 55001 standards, as well as a paper in response from ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7. The TC adopted a resolution requesting the ISO/TMB to give protection to its standards, by requiring similar standards from other committees to be based on ISO 55000 and ISO 55001, and for those other TCs to coordinate their activities with TC251. This would be in accordance with the protection given to other management system standards, such as ISO 9001 or ISO 14001. This will be subject to review by the ISO/TMB.
At the closing plenary meeting the results of the formal (systemic) review of the ISO 55000 and ISO 55001 standards undertaken by ISO Central Secretariat and commenced started in January 2016 were made known to delegates of the TC and indicated a large majority for confirming the standards unchanged. The results would be considered formally at the next meeting of the TC before it decides on what action to take on them.
Further information available from Dave Daines dave.daines@amcouncil.com.au