Version: 15 October 2022  Table of ContentFollow for updates Jan Stoker 

Achieving Peak Performance – Optimizing Asset Management within the ISO55000 Framework

Asset Management is not a static endeavour but a dynamic journey, continually evolving to meet the changing demands of organisations, stakeholders and society. Central to this journey is optimization: the disciplined pursuit of maximising value, enhancing performance and managing risk over the whole life cycle of assets. In this chapter, we delve into the realm of optimization as framed by the ISO 55000 series, and show how it is operationalised through the European CEN/TC 319 maintenance standards and contemporary concepts such as Maintenance Management 5.0.

The ISO 55000:2024 family is recognised globally as a system-level framework for Asset Management. It does not merely describe “good practice”; it defines principles, requirements and guidance for establishing, implementing and continually improving an Asset Management System (AMS) that is explicitly oriented towards value optimisation. Within this system perspective, optimization is not a one-off exercise, but an ongoing, evidence-based balancing of performance, risk, cost and sustainability. It is realised through a clear line-of-sight from organisational purpose and policy, via the Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) and Asset Management Plans (AMPs), to the day-to-day decisions of Asset and Maintenance Management.

Throughout this chapter, our exploration of optimization will traverse, among others, the following themes:

  • Defining optimization in the ISO 55000 series
    Understanding how the ISO 55000 family frames optimization not only in terms of efficiency, but as the coordinated alignment of assets, systems, processes, information and people with organisational objectives, stakeholder expectations and long-term value creation.

  • The Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) as the optimisation blueprint
    Revisiting the SAMP as the pivotal translation of organisational objectives into asset-related objectives, decision-making criteria and risk appetite. We explore how the SAMP guides optimisation across portfolios and life cycles, and how it connects with AMPs and maintenance strategies in a coherent AMS.

  • Life cycle value realisation
    Examining the ISO 55000 approach of viewing assets across their entire life cycle, and considering how optimisation choices at each phase—concept, design, acquisition, operation, maintenance, renewal and disposal—affect total cost of ownership, resilience and sustainability. Here, we link the life cycle focus of ISO 5500x to CEN/TC 319 standards such as EN 17485, which position maintenance explicitly within physical asset management.

  • Balancing performance, risk, cost and sustainability
    Grappling with the guidance provided by ISO 55000 on establishing and applying decision criteria that reflect the organisation’s required balance between performance, risk and cost, extended with safety, environment and social impact. We connect this to risk-based approaches and maintenance decision-making as described in the CEN/TC 319 suite, including process and KPI frameworks.

  • Feedback loops, indicators and continuous improvement
    Harnessing the ISO 55001 emphasis on performance evaluation and continual improvement, and showing how CEN/TC 319 standards such as EN 17007 (maintenance processes and indicators) and EN 15341 (maintenance KPIs) provide concrete structures for monitoring, learning and optimisation. Data, digital twins and analytics are positioned as enablers rather than ends in themselves.

  • Engaging stakeholders and aligning functions in the optimisation process
    Exploring how optimisation requires collaboration across functions and levels, supported by ISO/TS 55010 (alignment of financial and non-financial functions), ISO 55011 (public policy), ISO 55012 (people and culture) and ISO 55013 (data for asset management). We examine how Maintenance Management and engineering, structured by EN 17666 and EN 15628, participate in and inform these optimisation dialogues.

  • Linking Asset Management optimisation with Maintenance Management 5.0
    Clarifying how the optimisation focus of the ISO 55000 family intersects with Maintenance 5.0: a paradigm in which human-centric, digitally enabled and standardised maintenance practice—guided by the CEN/TC 319 framework—becomes a primary lever for achieving asset-related value, resilience and sustainability.

Augmented with real-world examples, insights from practice and actionable guidance, this chapter aims to equip readers with the concepts, structures and decision lenses needed to elevate their Asset Management strategies to a mature optimisation regime. Optimization is presented not as a theoretical abstraction, but as the practical outcome of a well-designed Asset Management System and a well-structured Maintenance Management System working together along the ISO 5500x and CEN/TC 319 axes.

Join the author on this exploration, as we chart the nuances, challenges and rewards of optimizing Asset Management within the guidance of the ISO 55000 series and its linkage to the European maintenance standards. By the chapter’s close, you will be better positioned to take your Asset and Maintenance Management endeavours from basic effectiveness towards a deliberate, transparent and sustainable optimisation of value.

Welcome to the optimisation journey, where the quest for excellence is embedded in the system and never ceases.

Content Optimizing Asset Management