Details of a three-part survival pack - the IAM Toolkit - designed to help the owners of major public and private-sector assets cope with the double onslaught of unprecedented economic and environmental risks were announced in London on Tuesday, 25th November.

Initiated by the Institute of Asset Management (IAM), the pack is being launched at a time when many of the UK’s critical physical assets – including vital national infrastructure, public utilities, manufacturing systems, transport networks and all kinds of valuable assets – face significant renewal and investment requirements at a time of turmoil in global financial markets and growing concerns about the threat from extreme weather events

The pack contains three elements:

• BSI PAS 55:2008 - the only available world-wide standard for the integrated, life cycle management of physical assets.
• A competences framework for asset management, revised and aligned to the PAS 55 standard, enabling training and competence to be assessed and developed in a structured way
• A maturity assessment tool to help asset owners to determine their current strengths and weaknesses, and plan appropriate improvement programmes.

“This is the first time a complete toolkit has been available for organisations to use in developing and taking forward a systematic and joined-up approach to their asset management,” said David McKeown, Chief Executive of the IAM.

“Organisations which implement PAS 55:2008 will be able to optimise the increasingly complex balance between capital and operating / maintenance costs as well as between performance, availability, risks and costs across the whole life-cycle of physical assets."

The IAM first launched PAS 55 in 2004, as the first worldwide standard for asset management.  It has since been adopted by many public and private sector organisations – all the major operating units in the UK electricity and gas networks have now been certified as compliant, for example.

The toolkit is supported by IAM seminars and workshops, and comes at a time when many organisations are implementing their responses to recommendations in the recent Pitt Report that argued that owners of critical infrastructure assets – particularly in the power, water and transport sectors – should adopt a more systematic approach to business continuity risks from extreme weather events.

Asset management is crucial for those addressing the recommendations made by Sir Michael Lyons in his report ‘Towards Better Management of Public Sector Assets’ government’s objective of achieving £30billion of public asset sales by 2010.Systematic asset management is also rising up the agenda in many sectors of industry, such as oil and gas, chemicals, engineering and pharmaceuticals where owners recognise the benefits in terms of safer, more consistent operation, optimised life-cycle costs and reduced risk to business continuity and reputation.