Cover Your A$$ets. John L. Ross

      In each case, in order to extract the most income, these assets must be honored and cared for as if the balance of the organization were hanging from their success. Because it is.

      Our focus is on capital assets. In a way, each of the members of our company has to see the connection between their work and the proper maintenance and reliability of the company assets (capital equipment). It is with this connection that we all become engaged in asset management.

      Through this connection to the asset and its purpose of creating income for the enterprise, we have to articulate exactly how this happens. The following is an example of how a single plant asset is manipulated to make income for the company.

      Further, to demonstrate the importance of the company’s assets to the business aim of this organization, here at this location, our care manifests itself as shown in this example:

      It is strongly believed and virtually dictated in ISO 55000 that the employees be given a voice in equipment design and construction. As a result, we suggest that all design teams have a standard makeup to include the following representation:

      ■ Engineer

      ■ Maintenance leadership

      ■ Production leadership

      ■ Maintenance hourly

      ■ Production hourly

      ■ Safety

      ■ Purchasing

      ■ Storeroom

      Turn to the last section of the book and record this same information in the comprehensive strategy section.

TWO

       The Asset Management Standards

       “ ...Standardized work was never intended by Toyota to be a management tool to be imposed coercively on the workforce. On the contrary, rather than enforcing rigid standards that can make jobs routine and degrading, standardized work is the basis for empowering workers and innovation in the work place.” —Jeffrey Liker, The Toyota Way (p. 145)

      We’ve arrived at the heart of the matter. As laid out in Chapter 1, our focus on asset management will be on capital assets going forward. Therefore, we are going to take a comprehensive look at what the standard refers to as physical assets. Physical assets, in the ISO 55000 series of standards, refer to many different categories, but it is the equipment that we will be focused on in this chapter, and in this book. To be absolutely clear, the ISO 55000 series of standards refers to many types of assets (e.g., financial, human, etc.), but we are going to concentrate on the physical, or capital, assets. This is essentially what I call “the stuff that makes the stuff.”

      If you are not familiar with the ISO 55000 series, there are actually three standards to consider:

      1. ISO 55000 Asset management—Overview, principles, and terminology

      2. ISO 550001 Asset management—Management systems and requirements

      3. ISO 55002 Asset management—Management systems and guidelines for the application of ISO 55001

      This chapter will undoubtedly be the most heavily sourced and technical chapter of this book. We will lay out the foundation of ISO 55000 and all supporting standard documentation to provide a feel for what is expected. Will you be an expert after reading this chapter? Probably not, but with the information added in the following chapters you will be able to form a very successful asset management plan around physical assets. Again, this particular chapter is just a short synopsis of the ISO 55000 series of standards. More detail will be unpacked in the following chapters.

      If you are in a company that is heavily invested in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), do not lose heart. Asset management and these series of standards do not supersede the TPM methodology. If anything, ISO 55000 enhances TPM and provides the catalyst you might need to drive forward with your strategy.

      Let’s get started.

ISO 55000

      As mentioned, there are three standards that make up the ISO 55000 series of standards. The foundational standard is ISO 55000. Although this particular standard is understandably vague, it provides the necessary underlying context to start building your asset management program.

      The purpose of putting such a standard together in the first place is explained in the opening text. Reading into the ‘official’ language of this international product, it is clear that the global community of standards entities felt it necessary to institutionalize the knowledge that the world possesses on such things. In its introductory segment, ISO 55000 speaks to the international cooperation between countries and the ‘standards’ organizations within those countries as the authority for compiling this list of mandated practices. ISO 55000 and the subsequent and compatible standards are very broad in scope. This is on purpose to provide some flexibility for the organizations that are adopting and seeking certification for asset management.

      My faith in this approach was greatly enhanced when I noted that some of the sources for these books were standard reading for any reliability and maintenance professional. Source documents for ISO 55000, 55001, and 55002 include works from Ron Moore, Terry Wireman, and Ramesh Gulati. I specified this so that you, the reader, will appreciate that nothing mentioned and required in these standards should be unknown to us. It is literally the conversation we’ve been having for decades about how to best care for our equipment. Now the word is out to the masses.

      Target Audience

      If we fail in the implementation of asset management, I believe it will be because of this particular section right at the beginning of the standard. ISO 55000 lists the primary targets for the creation and deployment of such a far-reaching directive. Specifically:

      ■ All those engaged in determining how to improve the returned value for their companies from their asset