Continual Improvement Processes for Asset Management

Everyone wants to improve. But, how do you achieve continual improvement? We partnered with Austroads, the industry organisation of road transport and traffic agencies in Australia and New Zealand, to provide guidance on implementing continual improvement of their members’ asset management. Those assets include over 900,000 kilometres of road, valued at more than $250 billion.

Surveys indicated road management organisations don’t always have a structured continual improvement process that satisfies the requirements of ISO55001:2014. Having a system can provide significant value to organisations and their stakeholders. We found the key to successfully implementing continual improvement is a supportive enabling environment. Once this is achieved, continual improvement becomes second nature.

We developed a guideline to help organisations implement continual improvement by—identifying improvement opportunities, evaluating and prioritising improvement proposals, implementing continual improvement initiatives, and monitoring the results of the initiative. Using this guideline, organisations can and sustain the improvement initiative and sustain a continual improvement environment.