The Southern African Asset Management Association (SAAMA), its council and members, were heavily involved in the creation of the recently published ISO 55000 suite of international standards: Asset Management Systems.
Says Anton Booyzen, President of SAAMA: “We’ve formed partnerships with several companies who sponsor us on an annual basis. In South Africa it’s registered as a voluntary association under the Engineering Council of South
Africa. We’re also are part of the Civilution movement. Furthermore, SAAMA is an active member of the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM).”
The Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM) is an association of professional maintenance and asset management societies formed for the purpose of knowledge creation and sharing and for information
exchange amongst member societies.
Booyzen continues: “To affiliate with GFMAM, a professional society must be a non-profit organisation, controlled by the whole membership, legally formed within its region of operations, have significant membership representing a
broad base from within the industries it represents, and be willing to actively participate in the GFMAM Council and other GFMAM activities.
Its aim is to be a worldwide community of organisations providing leadership for maintenance and asset management communities.”
GFMAM members collaborate to develop knowledge, standards and education where gaps exist for the maintenance and asset management professions by leveraging members’ best practice knowledge, standards and education for
the maintenance and asset management professions.
Adds Booyzen: “As the discipline of Asset Management has developed significantly over the last two decades, a number of approaches, standards, models and principles have been developed across the world. It’s become clear that
there is benefit in aligning these various approaches and collaborating to develop a global view, in particular for companies that operate Asset Management systems in many countries.
“One of the projects SAAMA is involved in within the GFMAM is the Asset Management Landscape – a definition of the field of Asset Management by breaking it down into subject matter areas. The work on the second version of the
Asset Management Landscape has substantially been completed and the final review of the information is in progress.”
Comments Booyzen: “The Asset Management Landscape is made up of three key areas including the Core of the Asset Management Landscape, which will be common for all Asset Management practitioners; the Knowledge and
Practices area of the Asset Management Landscape, which will contain the knowledge and practices of each practitioner within their own Asset Management Frameworks; and lastly, the Supporting Area, which contains reference to
standards and other knowledge and practices that are considered to be outside the scope of Asset Management, but which may influence the Asset Management practices of organisations around the world.”
A key feature of the current Asset Management Landscape document is its 39 subjects that describe asset management under six subject groups:
* Asset management strategy and planning, covering aspects such as policy, strategy and plans
* Asset management decision making, covering decisions regarding asset replacement, maintenance tactics to be used, use of shutdowns and how to resource the organisation
* Life cycle delivery activities, covering operational activities such as asset operation, maintenance delivery, asset acquisition and disposal, reliability engineering and configuration management
* Asset knowledge enablers, covering information systems, document control, data and knowledge management
* Organisation and people enablers, covering organisational structure, contractor management, leadership and training
* Risk and review, covering risk management, performance monitoring, management reviews, audits, contingency planning, asset valuation and costing
The focus area for SAAMA was in assisting to develop the 39 subjects that form the core on the Landscape. Says Booyzen: “At the November 2013 meeting of the GFMAM, the revised set of subjects was discussed and accepted.
The changes were required to eliminate duplication and gaps. Currently the detail definitions of the subjects are in process. The changes and new set of subjects are published on the SAAMA conference website,
www.saamaconference.org.za.”
SAAMA is also involved with the following projects within the GFMAM:
* The Accord – a standardised, reliable and transparent process for making comparisons between different types and levels of asset management qualifications, which employers and others can understand and trust. The
Accord will be progressed once the Asset Management Landscape project has been completed.
* A recommendation for Assessor and Auditor Domain Knowledge – the GFMAM defined the domain knowledge requirements for Assessors and Auditors of Asset Management practice and systems and is creating a
publically available reference document to be used by auditing and standards organisations.
* Relationship between Maintenance and Asset Management – developing a maintenance framework, similar to the Asset Management Landscape, which will assist in clarifying the relationship between Maintenance and
Asset Management.
