ISO 55001 Clause 6.2.2. Asset Plans and Maintenance Priorities.

Maintenance management focuses on the operational tasks that keep assets running: work orders, preventive scheduling, spare parts management. Asset management under ISO 55001 goes further: it requires aligning asset decisions with organisational strategic objectives, justifying investments with lifecycle cost analysis, documenting criticality and demonstrating continual improvement. A good maintenance system is a necessary but not sufficient component of an ISO 55001 management system. IgeraIndustria indexes both the standard and your plant’s management system documents, linking maintenance procedures to ISO 55001 requirements.

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) is calculated by dividing total operating time by the number of failures in the period: MTBF = Total Operating Time / Number of Failures. MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) is the average repair time: MTTR = Total Repair Time / Number of Failures. ISO 55001 does not prescribe specific values, but clause 9.1 (monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation) requires the organisation to define its own performance KPIs and set its own targets. The complementary standard EN 13306 formally defines MTBF, MTTR, MTTF and availability. IgeraIndustria answers calculation queries citing ISO 55001 clause 9.1 and EN 13306 definitions.

Preventive maintenance is performed at fixed time or usage intervals, regardless of the actual condition of the asset. Predictive maintenance (or Condition-Based Maintenance, CBM) monitors asset parameters (vibration, temperature, oil analysis) to intervene only when signs of degradation appear. ISO 55001 does not mandate any specific maintenance strategy: clause 6.2.2 requires the organisation to select the maintenance strategy that optimises lifecycle cost and availability for each asset type. In general, critical A assets are associated with predictive maintenance, B assets with scheduled preventive maintenance and C assets with planned corrective maintenance. IgeraIndustria helps document and justify the chosen strategy for each asset group.

Asset criticality is determined using a matrix that combines the probability of failure with its consequence (impact on production, safety, environment and reputation). ISO 55001 clause 6.2.2 requires asset management plans to reflect the criticality of each asset. RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) is a structured methodology (formalised in SAE JA1011) for determining the optimal maintenance strategy based on asset functions, failure modes and their consequences. RCM is compatible and complementary with ISO 55001. IgeraIndustria can index plant criticality matrices, RCM studies and ISO 55001 to answer queries about maintenance strategies per asset.

ISO 55001 clause 8.1.2 requires decisions on assets to consider the total lifecycle cost (Whole Life Costing / Lifecycle Costing). The ROI of an industrial asset takes into account: acquisition cost (initial CAPEX), operating costs (energy, lubricants, labour), maintenance costs (preventive, corrective, predictive), failure costs (lost production, penalties), renewal or improvement cost (upgrade CAPEX) and end-of-life disposal cost (decontamination, recycling). The repair vs. replace decision must include all these factors discounted to net present value (NPV). IgeraIndustria indexes calculation methodologies and the ISO 55002 guidance standard (application guidelines) to answer queries on how to justify asset investments during audits.

The ISO 55001 certification audit has two stages: Stage 1 reviews the management system documentation (asset policy, SAMP, asset management plans, procedures and records) and Stage 2 verifies effective implementation on the ground and interviews with staff. The most common gaps identified in pre-audits are: lack of formalised asset criticality documentation, unmeasurable asset management objectives, maintenance plans not aligned with criticality and lack of evidence of continual improvement. IgeraIndustria acts as a centralised repository of all ISO 55001 system documents and resolves queries on specific standard requirements in real time during audit preparation.