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The Problem with Maintenance 5.0 - And How the New ISO Standards Can Help Maintenance Practices Make Economic Sense

This summer, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released new updates to the ISO 55000 series, a comprehensive set of standards for asset management. These standards offer guidance and requirements on the critical areas of value, organizational alignment, leadership, outcomes and benefits of asset management, and measurable improvement and maturity. 

There’s a common misconception that ISO standards are designed only for large companies, specific industries, or compliance purposes. In reality, they provide a powerful framework that allows organizations to integrate asset management more effectively with their business needs—an area where "maintenance maturity" or "maintenance 5.0"models frequently fall short. 

Where “Maintenance Maturity” Misses the Mark…

Maintenance maturity models, first introduced by Winston Ledet in 1999, have become popular for their structured approach to improving maintenance practices. They usually present maturity as a series of steps or capabilities that organizations can develop to become “better” at maintenance. 

 

 

A common presentation of maintenance maturity1

These models are particularly attractive to companies seeking a clear strategy to move beyond the constant firefighting associated with reactive, “run-to-failure” maintenance. By shifting to data-driven approaches, they often experience rapid and substantial benefits: reduced unplanned shutdowns, lower maintenance costs, improved safety, and productivity gains that allow for the redeployment of dozens of workers to more strategic tasks. 

However, as organizations attempt to advance further along these models, they often face significant challenges. 

One of these challenges could be called “maturity myopia” - a narrow focus on technology and capabilities when other areas of improvement could have a more substantial impact. Asset management is best viewed as a “system of systems,” and dimensions such as leadership involvement, process efficiency or skills all play a crucial role in better decisions and outcomes. 

The concept of “maturity” itself can become a dead-end, causing maintenance teams to pursue maturity milestones that bring limited business value. For instance, maintenance teams may focus on KPIs that demonstrate maturity—like the percentage of preventative interventions—without aligning with the strategic concerns of a CFO or CEO. 

 

…And Where ISO 55000 Can Help 

The new updates to the ISO 55000 series provide a way out of this dead-end, offering a way to move beyond the limitations of maturity models.  

I would outline four main ways asset-intensive organizations can benefit: 

  • Reducing complexity with practical steps: One of the key advantages of the revised ISO standards is their focus on practical, actionable steps rather than just theoretical maturity leaps. For instance, ISO 55001 includes new clauses on asset management decision-making and actions to address risks and opportunities. This approach provides organizations with a clear roadmap to optimize their asset management practices, focusing on continuous improvement rather than attempting an overnight overhaul of existing systems. 
     

  • Adopting a systematic approach that centers on business objectives: breaking with maturity-centric strategies, the updated standards aim to ensure that organizations can achieve their strategic goals through the effective and efficient management of their assets. The new series helps develop a Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) to that end and present clearer and more specific requirements on decision-making, realizing value from assets, asset management planning, addressing risks and opportunities, managing data and knowledge, and lifecycle operations. 
     

  • Encompassing the people and data dimensions of effective asset management: The two most commonly overlooked issues when adopting new technologies are people involvement and data management - two areas that the updated standards address. ISO 55012 provides guidance on enhancing people involvement and competence in asset management, which is crucial for ensuring that the right skills, training, and knowledge are available within an organization. Meanwhile, ISO 55013 offers a robust framework for managing data assets, supporting decision-making processes, and ensuring compliance.  

  • Aligning with financial functions: The new ISO 55010 provides guidance to align financial and non-financial asset management functions - a stepping stone to ensure that maintenance speaks the language and aligns with the tools and indicators used by senior leadership.  

The result is a much clearer view of impact, priorities and investments, as well as a direct understanding of how investment plans contribute to strategic corporate objectives, including ESG goals.  

Building a More Meaningful Blueprint: ISO and Asset Performance Management 

 Importantly, transitioning from calendar-based and reactive maintenance practices to a comprehensive asset management approach aligned with ISO 55000 doesn’t mean starting from scratch or losing previous investments. 

 Asset-intensive organizations typically have a wealth of operational data stored in their Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems, including work history, cost, failure records or condition and process data. ISO 55000 standards, with their emphasis on informed decision-making based on comprehensive data analysis, help organizations identify the missing links that prevent them from aligning this information with organizational objectives and policies. Such missing pieces can include insights into asset risk, criticality and improvement opportunities. 

Once these gaps are identified, Asset Performance Management (APM) advancements can help bridge them. For example, HxGN APM is purpose-built to take the information you have – EAM work, cost, and failure history – to generate information you don’t have – asset risk, opportunity, cost, and performanceIt comes with an Asset Twin Library containing over 200 asset twins of common industrial asset classes. These asset twins come with predefined details like failure modes, preventive maintenance activities, and analytics. This allows organizations to quickly set up asset protection strategies—what Hexagon calls the "Ten Minute Twin"—significantly reducing the time and IT resources needed for implementation.  

 With this robust foundation, HxGN APM is designed to help organizations keep their asset management strategies aligned with their goals, while continuously balancing performance, cost, and risk. It achieves this by establishing visibility to asset strategies that have been operationalized enabling the recursive monitoring of asset condition and performance, assessing risk exposure, and improving the quality of asset management decisions. 

This approach aligns with ISO 55000's principles of continuous improvement. Instead of pursuing maturity as an end in itself, organizations can focus on what matters: enhancing financial performance, sustainability and managing risk. 

Reach out to us to discuss how our tools and expertise can help you recognize how close you are to obtaining the visibility you need to do more of what you’re good at as an asset management professional. 

This blog was originally published on HAZARDEX LIVE

 

About the Author

Asset management domain expert committed to taking the fun and excitement out of asset management. Three decades of international standards, enterprise advisory, digital solutions, and implementation experience. Helped deliver asset management solutions to water services sector, electric utilities, power generation, process manufacturing, mining, chemicals, and fleet organizations on six continents. Marc is a contributing member to ISO Technical Committee 251 since 2010, representing the interests of the USA. He served leadership roles including of Chair of ANSI Technical Advisory Group, and first Convener of the International Standard ISO 55011, Guidance for development and application of public policy to enable asset management.

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