This paper was published in IRSE NEWS January 2017.

The December 2016 edition of IRSE NEWS included a paper on the development of risk based asset management by Jan Swier of ProRail, the infrastructure asset manager in the Netherlands. This article compliments the paper by focusing on the asset management of the control and communications assets by Network Rail in Great Britain. It is based on an earlier article published in Rail Engineer magazine, but has been expanded by the author to provide more detail of the subject and to include ISO 55001.

Engineering asset management is a collection of techniques, procedures, processes and skills that combine the technical issues of asset reliability, safety and performance with financial and managerial skills. The emphasis is on achieving sustainable business outcomes and competitive advantage by applying holistic, systematic and risk-based processes to decisions concerning an organisation’s physical assets.

key and essential requirement for successful asset management is good asset information and systems. In most large infrastructure company’s asset information systems have sometimes evolved over time to fulfil various requirements. The approach can vary between asset disciplines and with no automatic linkage between the systems.