Communiqué on the 12th meeting of ISO/TC 251 Asset Management

ISO/TC 251 had held its 12th meeting in November 2022 by webinar, due to the COVID 19 pandemic

ISO/TC 251 had held its 11th meeting in May 2022 by webinar, due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Regrettably, due to the continuation of the effects of the pandemic, the 12th meeting also had to be held by webinar. The meeting was well attended by 72 delegates from 21 national standards bodies and 4 committees in liaison.

During the plenary meeting:

a) The TC251 Chair, Rhys Davies, reported that:

The Chair’s Advisory Group (CAG) had met in October to review progress in the TC’s activities and to prepare for the plenary meeting. In particular, it had noted the positive response to the joint WG4 and WG6 coordination workshops.
The 2^nd committee drafts (CD) of ISO 55000, ISO 55001, ISO 55011, ISO 55012 and 3rd CD of ISO 55013 had completed their ballots and had been confirmed as being suitable as the basis for the development of their Draft International Standards (DISs).
Progress in the work of the ISO/TMB’s task groups for ESGs, Risk, and Strategic Business Plans, as well as the JTCG, had been noted.
It had noted that the ISO Survey (of certification) now includes ISO 55001, see: https://www.iso.org/the-iso-survey.html.
WG3 needs more content for the TC’s website, e.g. articles and case studies, and requested both TC and national mirror committee members to contribute.
The CAG agreed to recommend that the terms and definitions from Annex SL would be included in ISO 55001 (as now required by ISO), with all other terms and definitions being included in ISO 55000 (as well as those from Annex SL being repeated there).
It had considered plans for a physical plenary to be held in May 2023
The TC’s Secretariat had noted the excellent work of Jack Dempsey in convening WG4. It had been a difficult task to find a replacement convenor, but would now be proposing Annemarie Kin (Netherlands) to succeed him.
The TC would need to start thinking about when to commence a revision of ISO 55002, and that a decision on this should be deferred to the next plenary.

b) The TC251 Committee Manager, reported that:

The membership of the TC now stands at 35 P-members, 21 O-members and 34 Liaisons.
Due to the improving COVID situation, ISO had instructed that committees (and their WGs etc.) may now return to holding purely physical meetings.
The ISO/IEC Joint Task Force on “risk” has been re-activated, following the appointment of a new ISO Co-Convenor, and has held 2 meetings.
The ISO/TMB/SAG on ESG has completed its work and had its report approved by the TMB. A coordination committee is being established to replace the SAG.
The ISO/TMB/TF on Strategic Business Plans has held 2 meetings.

c) The Convenor of WG3 Communications, Boudewijn Neijens, reported that:

There has been slight acceleration in its activities, i.e.:

Two new WG5 articles have been published on the website
Three new case studies have been provided
Monthly messages working well
Social media traffic up significantly
In-person presence at events (e.g. IAM North American Conference, CIFRAMI in France

But…

Traffic to the website (www.committee.iso.org/home/tc251) is significantly down: -29% (YoY)
Search volumes for ISO 55000 on the internet and for KCO submissions is down
The TC251 Newsletter is stalled due to lack of content
The new website publishing interface has some teething issues which is making it difficult to update the site

In going forward, the WG intended:

Building an overall communications calendar for 2023
Working on the new guidance papers that are under way (on the UN SDGs, Life Cycle Management, and two papers from AHG4)
Revitalization of the Newsletter
More work with mirror committees on:

- Local expanded KCO lists (e.g. US Campus; China list; etc.)
- Ramping up a “liaison” with every mirror committee to relay info
- Developing local databases of useful AM bodies & sources per country
- Ensuring a TC251 presence at some in-person conferences again

Wider distribution of its monthly Communication messages on specific topics (via the TC’s Secretariat)
Launching the next batch of case studies
Experimenting with video interviews

d) WG4 Product Improvement and Revision of ISO 55000, and
WG6 Revision of ISO 55001

Martin Kerr, Convenor of WG6, and interim Convenor for WG4, reported that:

Second Committee Drafts of ISO 55000 and ISO 55001 had been circulated for ballot and had since been confirmed as being suitable bases for the preparation of their DISs
A series of joint workshops had been held between WG4 and WG 6 during the CD balloting stage to examine the alignment and to improve the coordination between their two standards.
The workshops had been very productive and agreement had been reached on a number of issues.
Progress had been recorded in a consensus register and shared with all the members of both WGs.

In going forward

Both WGs would need to start processing the comments received on their CDs
It would be helpful to plan to hold further joint workshops leading up to the issuance of the DISs (three further workshops were recommended)

Mr Kerr described some guidelines that the WGs should apply when developing their DISs, before thanking the members of both WGs for their participation and excellent inputs into the workshops.

Later in the meeting the TC adopted a resolution to appoint Annemarie Kin as the Convenor of WG4 and Jyrki Paavilainen as Deputy Convenor. Ms Kin advised that:

Plans were being made to hold around six WG4 meetings to review the comments on the CD and to prepare the DIS (a chart with outline dates was presented on these).
Coordination with WG6 on ISO 55001 as well as with the other WGs and their standards would be essential.
It was proposed that the WG would subdivide into a number of Task Groups, each with responsibility for a specific section of ISO 55000, before the whole WG would work on the final text.

e) The Convenor of WG5 Finance and asset management alignment, Johan Paulsson, reported that:

The revision of ISO/TS 55010 is making good progress

A review of, and commenting round on, ISO/TS 55010:2019 had been performed
Additional topics had been considered for addition in 55010, as well as new annexes
The bulk of the work had been on the annexes
The finalization of the annex on asset registers is in progress

Article creation

Some ideas for additional articles are under ´discussion
An article on “Guidance on alignment” had been released to WG3, along with an article on “Asset management Vs. accounting standards”

Proceedings

The WG had held fortnightly meetings since the last TC 251 plenary with active participation by 15 experts from 10 countries

In going forward:

The WG expected to release ISO/CD TS 55010 to the TC251 Secretariat towards the end of November
Additional articles were in the ideas stage for creation, for when the CD is released
The WG plans to continue with its programme of holding meetings fortnightly

Mr Paulsson closed his report with a request for additional experts to join the WG and to participate in its activities.

f) The Convenor of WG7 Development of ISO 55011, Tiffany Batac, supported by the WG7 Deputy Convenor,
Kerry Brown, reported that:

Regular WG7 meetings had been held to address the comments received on its CD, and had good participation
Task Group meetings had been scheduled on an as-needed basis to focus on specific themes or deliverables:

- Concept Diagram for Enabling Environment for Asset Management Through Public Policy
- Expanded Terms and Definitions
- Focus on benefits, alignment with UN SDGs
- Inclusion of case studies and good practice examples

A revised CD had been released for a 2-month ballot period in September 2022, and has been confirmed as being suitable as the basis for the development of its DIS.
The WG had initiated an update of the UN SDG article in collaboration with WG3 and the STTF; and had coordinated with ISO/TC 267 (Facilities Management) on possible consistent methodology, approach, and future collaboration.

In going forward, the WG would:

be progressing the update of the article on the UN’s SDGs
develop and update its communications on ISO 55011
review and agree on an approach to address the comments on the revised CD
be holding its next meeting on November 22^nd

In closing, Ms Batac and Prof. Brown thanked the members of the WG who had contributed to the development of the revised CD and to the development of the case studies.

g) The Convenor of WG 8 Development of ISO 55012, Gao Ang, reported that:

The WG had held further meetings to develop a revised CD
The CD had been released for ballot and been confirmed as being suitable as the basis for the development of its DIS
130 General comments; 72 Editorial comments; 188 Technical comments; and 39 Other comments had been received

In going forward

The comments received on the revised CD would be reviewed and the DIS prepared in accordance with the WG8 project plan.
ISO 55012 would need to be fully aligned with the terminology in ISO 55000 and with the requirements in ISO 55001.

h) The Convenor of WG 9 Development of ISO 55013, Yang Xiao-feng, reported that:

The WG had held additional meetings to produce ISO/CD 55013.2. The meetings had been well attended by 44 experts from 12 different countries.
The 2^nd CD had been circulated for ballot and had been confirmed, with circa 115 comments being received on it.
There had been several key steps in the development of the CD, each resulting in a refocussing of the purpose and title of the standard.

In going forward, the WG would:

Seek to solve the remaining problems in the standard
Look to achieve closer alignment with ISO 55000 and ISO 55001, including on the asset management requirements, value realization and corresponding terms.
Work on the consistency of other expressions and terms in the whole document and include clearer graphics, diagrams, and grammatical expressions.
Process the comments on the CD in preparing the DIS.

i) The Convenor of the Spanish Translation Task Force, Maria-Aurora Agullo, reported that:

There had been no activity in the STTF since the last plenary.

In going forward,

the STTF would continue to be active in providing translations, as and when the TC produced standards, new/revised webpages, new website materials, or Newsletters.

j) The Convenor of Task Group 1 Input into the ISO/IEC Joint Task Force (JTF) on Risk, Tom Carpenter, reported that:

The JTF had been brought out of being made dormant and had since held 2 meetings.
The meetings had received presentations from many of the TCs that are members of the JTF (including a particularly interesting presentation from ISO/TC 309 on the concept of Value versus Risk, which may be helpful to TC251)
A programme of future meetings for the JTF had been agreed and the JTF is now due to produce its report to a revised deadline of June 2023
A survey of the JTF’s members indicated that nearly 60% did not consider that a single solution to the definitions of risk was achievable, and that only 50% thought that such a solution would be achievable for a subset of just the management system standards
The next (4^th) meeting of the JTF was being planned for December. The focus of the meeting will be set on reviewing the survey results and initiating a brainstorm session on solutions to variations in risk definition and concepts.

On TG1:

The TG had held a meeting to consider its input into the 3^rd meeting of the JTF
Further meetings of TG1 would be necessary, ahead of each JTF meeting.
TC251 should be in a position to understand the direction being taken by the JTF in sufficient time to incorporate the outputs into our DIS documents.

k) The TC’s Committee Manager reported on the ISO/TMB/TAG13 Joint Technical Coordination Group on Management System Standards (JTCG), and advised that:

The JTCG had held a number of extraordinary meetings, as well as a planned meeting in September, since the last TC251 plenary.
The extraordinary meetings concerned the potential introduction of text relating to climate change into the Annex SL Harmonized Structure, following the adoption of the London Declaration by the ISO General Assembly, and the development of an Action Plan.
Originally, advisory Notes has been proposed for inclusion in Clauses 4.1 and 4.2, but a new proposal for the inclusion of “the organization shall consider …” type requirements was now being debated.
There is sustained opposition to such requirements by a limited number of the JTCG’s members, so a further extraordinary meeting has now been called for late November.
There is unanimous agreement on amending the guidance to drafters (see Annex SL, Appendix 3) to refer to climate change, which will now be taken forward into the May 2023 edition of the ISO Supplement to the ISO/IEC Directives Part 1.
The work of JTCG/TG15 “Future Direction for MSS” had not been given much attention at the JTCG’s September meeting, due to an extension to the deadline for NSBs to respond to its “Discovery Report” to the end of October.
TC251 has submitted comments indicating its dissatisfaction with the Discovery Report, and with the work of JTCG/TG15 overall.
JTCG/TG15 is now due to produce a “Recommendations Report” following a review of the comments on the Discovery Report, and to complete its work by March 2023.
TC251 will continue to monitor this work, to ensure its activities are not in any way disadvantaged by it.

The TC was pleased to accept an invitation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ASTM International, to hold a physical meeting during the week of 8 to 12 May, in Philadelphia, USA.

If the TC’s projects progress to their DIS stages by the due date in May 2023, then following their DIS ballots, the TC is likely to need to meet around January or February 2024, in order to progress the development of their Final Draft International Standards (FDISs). The TC would be pleased to receive offers from members to host a meeting at that time, or for other future meetings.

In closing the meeting, the Chair stated that he considered that the committee had made very good progress in all its activities, before thanking all the members for their contributions.