Total Quality Management & Business Excellence

ISSN: 1478-3363 (Print) 1478-3371 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ctqm20

Impact of ISO 55000 on organisational

performance: evidence from certified UAE firms

Imad Alsyouf, Maitha Alsuwaidi, Sadeque Hamdan & Mohammad

Shamsuzzaman

To cite this article: Imad Alsyouf, Maitha Alsuwaidi, Sadeque Hamdan & Mohammad
Shamsuzzaman (2018): Impact of ISO 55000 on organisational performance: evidence
from certified UAE firms, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, DOI:
10.1080/14783363.2018.1537750

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.1537750

Published online: 30 Oct 2018.

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Total Quality Management, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.1537750

Impact of ISO 55000 on organisational performance: evidence from

certified UAE firms
Imad Alsyouf a,b*, Maitha Alsuwaidib, Sadeque Hamdan a
and
Mohammad Shamsuzzaman a,b
a
Sustainable Engineering Asset Management (SEAM) Research Group, University of Sharjah,
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; bIndustrial Engineering and Engineering Management
Department, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of implementing the International
Organisation for Standardisation asset management standard (ISO 55000) on
organisational performance. In particular, does following the ISO 55000 requirements
and recommendations affect organisational performance? This study investigates this
issue by identifying relevant asset management key performance indicators (KPIs)
through a comprehensive literature review and classifying these KPIs using the
balanced-scorecard-framework. Then, the KPIs were validated by expert opinions
through a questionnaire and non-parametric hypothesis testing. Finally, using the
relevant KPIs, this study assesses the impact of ISO 55000 with a set of ISO 55000-
certified companies in the United Arab Emirates. Hypothesis testing on the difference
between the status of each KPI before and after ISO 55000 implementation used
linguistic assessment and a sign test for two non-parametric dependent samples.
According to industry experts, increasing market share is not a relevant KPI in asset
management. However, ISO 55000 has a positive effect on all the identified
perspectives (financial, customer, business processes, and learning and growth),
indicating that organisations adopting ISO 55000 International Standard certification
will be able to achieve better performance from the effective and efficient
management of their assets. Consequently, investing in such systems is valuable.
Keywords: asset management; balanced score card; ISO 55000; organisational
performance; key performance indicator

1. Introduction
Organisations have become more concerned about implementing management standards to
meet customers’ expectations, reduce performance variability, encourage global trade (Su,
Dhanorkar, & Linderman, 2015), and, thereby improve organisational performance
(Ochieng, Muturi, & Njihia, 2015). Organisations with good asset management systems
have more capabilities to manage their engineering assets towards achieving organisational
strategy by using the available knowledge and tools for optimisation of costs, risk, and per-
formance (Institute of Asset Management, 2012). Implementation of asset management
systems is not restricted to a certain discipline or industry; rather, these systems are also
present in sectors such as financial services, manufacturing, oil and gas, civil engineering,
and asset maintenance (Woodhouse, 2014). With all its tools intended to improve business
processes to ensure integrity and higher performance, Publicly Available Specification
(PAS 55), which was established in 2004 and is considered the first formal documentation
of asset management practices, became widely accepted (British Standard Institution,

*Corresponding author. Email: ialsyouf@sharjah.ac.ae

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

2 I. Alsyouf et al.

2014b). In 2014, the ISO 55000 standard for asset management, based on PAS 55 specifi-
cations and after consultation with worldwide professional bodies, was published (Sanford,
2015).
The series of ISO 5500× has the requirements for applying asset management as per
each organisation’s needs (Minnaar, Basson, & Vlok, 2013). This series consists of ISO
55000, ISO 55001 and ISO 55002. According to the British Standards Institute (British
Standard Institution, 2014a), ISO 55000 provides overview, principles and terminologies
related to asset management to be implemented by all organisations. Moreover, ISO
55001 contains the requirements for asset management and was followed by ISO 55002
which has the guidelines to apply ISO 55001 (International Organisation for Standardis-
ation, 2014). ISO 55001 asset management requirements are consistent with the fundamen-
tals of asset management in the form of clauses. These clauses include organisational
context, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation and improvement
clauses (British Standard Institution, 2014a).
According to ISO 55000 standards, the advantages of implementing asset management
systems include improved financial performance, better knowledgeable decisions,
increased management of risk, improved services and outputs, confirmed social responsi-
bility, verified compliance, good reputation, improved organisational sustainability, and
improved efficiency. In addition, such implementation can affect innovation and the
whole organisation, including its stakeholders and external providers (British Standard
Institution, 2014a).
Many studies have investigated the impact of ISO 9001 (Aba, Badar, & Hayden, 2016;
Bernardo, Simon, Tarí, & Molina-Azorín, 2015; Cagnazzo, Taticchi, & Fuiano, 2009;
Heras-Saizarbitoria, Arana, & Boiral, 2015; Koc, 2007; Ochieng et al., 2015; Starke,
Eunni, Fouto, & de Angelo, 2012; Tarí, Molina-Azorín, & Heras, 2012) and ISO 14001
(Arimura, Darnall, Ganguli, & Katayama, 2016; Bernardo et al., 2015; He, Liu, Lu, &
Cao, 2015; Maletič, Podpečan, & Maletič, 2015; Psomas, Pantouvakis, & Kafetzopoulos,
2013; Tarí et al., 2012; Zhang, Wang, & Wang, 2014). However, fewer studies have
addressed the impact of ISO 55000 on organisational performance. For example, only
one study has examined the impact of different asset management systems among power
and gas grid operators (Gaarenstroom, 2014). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to
investigate the impact of implementing asset management standards (ISO 55000) on organ-
isational performance according to identified asset management-related key performance
indicators (KPIs). In particular, this study aims to address the research question: Does fol-
lowing the ISO 55000 requirements and recommendations affect organisational
performance?
The organisation of this paper is as follows: Section 2 summaries the results of a rel-
evant literature review. Section 3 clarifies the methodology used in this paper. Section 4
presents and discusses the main results obtained. Finally, the conclusions are presented
in Section 5.

2. Literature review
A comprehensive literature review covering the various management system standards (i.e.
ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and ISO 55000) was conducted. The review indicated that firm
efforts are being dedicated to align the ISO management system standards through the
development of a similar general structure that uses a common high-level structure with
the same chapters and comparable requirements. Therefore, the newly introduced
‘Annex SL’ structure helps reduce conflicts and duplication from different standards and
 Total Quality Management 3

is applicable for all new and revised ISO standards (Tseros, 2015). The first management
system standard to implement the new ISO Annex SL structure is the asset management
standard: ISO 55000 (Sanford, 2015). Su et al. (2015) illustrated that ISO management stan-
dards share common features that make them structurally compatible, as common elements
and the standards can be implemented in a shared manner. This makes it possible for knowl-
edge accumulated from one standard to be applied to another standard. ISO 9000 and 14000
are rooted in the same ideology, as they follow matching compliance measures and share
the same requirements.

2.1. Literature related to ISO 55000

Recently, some studies have addressed various aspects of the ISO 55000 standard. For
example, Hanski, Jännes, Ojanen, and Valkokar (2016) interviewed three large Finnish
companies, with revenues over 200 million euros, about their asset information manage-
ment and sustainability practices and compared them with ISO 55000 guidelines to pinpoint
the best practices and areas of improvement. Heitz, Goren, and Sigrist (2016) developed an
asset management decision-making model that considers both the cost and the value con-
tribution of an asset in an asset portfolio. The model optimises the allocation of resources to
maximise the value realisation based on the general concept of ISO 55000 and was applied
on an electrical supply network.
Molomo-Mphephu and Amadi-Echendu (2016) examined the influence of human
resources on implementing asset management policies by interviewing senior managers
and supplying questionnaires to the supervisory and lower-ranking employees. The ques-
tionnaires were repeated on four separate occasions to validate the evaluation. That study
found that human attitudes, cognition, and mental preference have significance roles in
the implementation of ISO 55000, while repeating the questionnaire in the validation
process revealed an organisational memory that suggests difficulties with changing a
person’s attitude or behaviour. Moreover, Roda, Parlikad, Macchi, and Garetti (2016)
developed a framework for a production company to assist in implementing value-based
asset management. The framework helps quantify asset value and ensures the implemen-
tation of an effective value-based asset management system. Ma, Zhou, and Sheng
(2014) compared PAS 55 and ISO 55000 standards in term of scope, definition, require-
ments, decision-making criteria, risk management, audit and documentation, and certifica-
tions. Polimac and Polimac (2016) employed a holistic approach to asset management with
ISO 55000 to improve power system performance and reduce operational and maintenance
costs.
Furthermore, Saunders (2016) developed a central management framework for asset
management aligned with ISO 55000 for renewable energy industry. The challenges of
asset management for renewable energy industries are combinations of competency and
limited sharing of information from the equipment manufacturers and also that there is
no guide to develop asset care plan for multi-technology renewable energy power plants.
Shah, McMann, and Borthwick (2017) conducted a survey to find the challenges of apply-
ing asset management principles. Their survey revealed that asset management principles
were implemented only for highway maintenance and it was not efficient. They rec-
ommended that highway agencies must have guidelines for asset management implemen-
tation so that they can achieve asset management maturity level 3 to be ISO 55000 certified.
Nowakowski, Tubis, and Werbińska-Wojciechowska (2017) studied the implementation
possibilities of ISO 55001 in transportation enterprises in Poland, where the main assets
are transport and human resources. Förster and Zdrallek (2017) provided decision-
4 I. Alsyouf et al.

making tool for planning, prioritisation and investment of grid operators based on ISO
55000 asset management approach to identify stakeholder’s expectations and convert
them into a risk management system. Albalghouni et al. (2018) discussed the challenges
of implementing ISO 55000 in an educational institute. The challenges identified in that
study include the absence of asset management basic elements and KPIs, inadequate risk
management approach and lack of competence.
Implementing ISO 55000 requires changes in the organisation policies, procedures and
systems, which can be challenging (e.g. Albalghouni et al. (2018)) and requires more
resources, while positive outcomes on the organisational performance are not guaranteed,
which creates a need to investigate the impact of ISO 55000 on the organisation perform-
ance in order to justify the feasibility of adopting such a standard. To the best of our knowl-
edge, no research has examined the impact of ISO 55000 on organisational performance
before and after implementation, which opens the door for research in this direction.
Therefore, considering the scarcity of published articles on the impact of ISO 55000/
PAS 55 on organisational performance, a literature review was conducted on the impact
of management systems ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 on organisational performance. A
general search on ‘impact of management system’ resulted in many articles related to differ-
ent standards, but mostly on ISO 9001 and 14001. This outcome was not surprising,
especially given that it matches with the statistics published by International Organisation
for Standardisation (2015) in the survey of management system standard certifications in
2015, indicating that the three most popular and required certificates are 9001, 14001
and 50001, respectively. However, as indicated previously, the current study considers
only ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 management system because they have high-level structures,
as they share the same structure as ISO 55000, and contain many of the same terms and
definitions.

2.2. Literature on assessing the impact of similar ISO standards

A comprehensive literature review on relevant general management systems (ISO 9001 and
ISO 14001) was conducted. For example, Koc (2007) used hypothesis testing and con-
cluded that a company can improve its manufacturing parameters by implementing ISO
9000. Cagnazzo et al. (2009) reviewed articles on the impact of ISO 9000 and summarised
a positive impact in different perspectives; however, they called for additional surveys to
further validate their findings. Tarí et al. (2012) performed a literature review on the benefits
of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and found similarity in the benefits between them. Moreover,
Zhang et al. (2014) used the analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy-membership degree
analysis to evaluate ISO 14001 on 74 indicators and sub-indicators in a coating industry
in Shanghai. They found that ISO 14001 resulted in performance improvement. Maletič
et al. (2015) discussed the benefits of ISO 14001 from the perspective of the triple
bottom line using a multiple case study approach through a semi-structured questionnaire
and interviews focusing on four ISO-certified and two non-certified organisation in Slove-
nia. He et al. (2015) used panel regression to assess the effect of ISO 14001 on Chinese
firms’ performance. Their study revealed that ISO 14001 does not exert a significant, posi-
tive effect on return on assets, return on sales, or return on equity. However, ISO 14001
positively and significantly affected the export ratio and environmental compliance.
Furthermore, Ochieng et al. (2015) conducted a comparative study between ISO 9001–
certified and non-certified companies for a three-year period (2010–2013) in Kenya. Their
tests revealed no significance differences in new profit and turnover, as several external
factors affected the companies; however, return on assets showed a significant difference
 Total Quality Management 5

in the certified companies. Bernardo et al. (2015) compared the benefits of ISO 9001 and
ISO 14001 when implemented separately and integrated through an extensive literature
review. They concluded that integration of both standards provides more benefits as the
scope becomes wider. Arimura et al. (2016) used a probit regression model to measure
the impact of ISO 14000 and concluded that the impact differs between organisation
depending on geographic factors and inter-organisational factors.

3. Research methodology
The research methodology used in this study is quantitative research which is defined
according to (Creswell, 2012) as ‘a type of educational research in which the researcher
decides what to study; asks specific, narrow questions; collects quantitative data from par-
ticipants, analyses these numbers using statistics; and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased,
objective manner’. In order to evaluate the impact of ISO 55000 on organisational perform-
ance, relevant KPIs to the asset management system are identified through literature review,
and quantitative or qualitative data about the KPIs is required to conduct the analysis. The
type of data depends on the regulation of each organisation in providing data, data criticality
and availability. As many organisations prefer not to share their critical data, a survey
research is chosen to encourage different ISO 55000 certified organisations to participate
and collaborate. Then, the collected data is statistically analysed to test research questions
or hypothesis. In the following sub sections, we discuss the survey research design and the
methodological procedures used in this study.

3.1. Survey research design

According to Prickett and Rapley (2001), three major issues need to be considered when
selecting a survey method, namely the design of the questionnaire, the survey procedure,
and the design of the sample.

3.1.1. Design of the questionnaire

The study used two questionnaires. The first questionnaire served to validate the relevancy
of KPIs to the asset management system in the organisation, and the second questionnaire
assessed the impact of ISO 55000 implementation on organisational performance based on
the validated KPIs. As the second questionnaire depends on the result of the first question-
naire, and to ensure the consistency in the judgements, such as indicating a KPI is not rel-
evant and then stating its impact, both questionnaires were designed in one template such
that one selection was allowed per KPI. The questionnaire was made in a similar way to
other questionnaires in the literature such as Koc (2007), who used Likert-type scale to
assess the impact of ISO 9000 on organisational performance. Figure 1 illustrates the
format of the questionnaire.
Respondents could select one choice for each KPI, such that if they mentioned that the
KPI has had a positive impact, this would implicitly mean that this KPI is relevant. By con-
trast, selection of the ‘Not relevant KPI’ option would indicate that the respondent could not
provide an assessment.

3.1.2. The survey procedure

In this study, the questionnaire and hypothesis testing were used to validate the identified
asset management KPIs depending on experts’ opinion. First, the KPIs are validated
6 I. Alsyouf et al.

Figure 1. Sample of the distributed questionnaire.

through expert judgement of the respondents of ISO 55000-certified companies in the

United Arab Emirates (UAE). Second, the questionnaire and non-parametric hypothesis
testing are used to assess the impact of ISO 55000 on the identified asset manage-
ment-related KPIs. In addition to that, a pilot study was conducted to test the reliability,
clarity, and validity of the questionnaire by distributing it to asset management experts in
the university to get feedback on the design and the content prior distributing it to the
concerned companies. The questionnaire was prepared using an online template
through Google Forms and distributed to the studied respondents. This questionnaire
also collected some other general information about the organisation, such as the types
of ISO certifications available other than ISO 55000, organisation sector, and number
of employees.

3.1.3. Design of the sample

The sample that received the survey consisted of experts in asset management in eight
organisations located in the UAE. These organisations represent the sampling frame of
organisations that were certified by PAS 55/ISO 55000 until the end of 2016. The organ-
isations represent different sectors, including utilities (e.g. electricity, water), transportation,
and services, as shown in Figure 2.
 Total Quality Management 7

Figure 2. Distribution of respondents based on sector.

Some organisations limited their responses to one representative response only, while
others distributed the survey to managers of different related departments within the organ-
isation. In total, 21 responses were received from the certified organisations through distri-
bution of the survey to experts of relevant departments.
The minimum representative sample size is estimated using Yamane (1967) modified
sample size equation (see Equation (1)), which is based on the sample size formula of
Cochran (1963), where n is the sample size, N is the population size, e is the margin of error.
N
n= (1)
1 + N(e2 )

In this study, the total number of experts in the ISO 55000-certified companies in the
UAE was estimated to be N = 23 and the margin of error was chosen to be 10% thus
the minimum needed sample size is 19.

3.2. Methodological procedures used in the project

Figure 3 illustrates the methodological procedures used herein.

3.2.1. Identifying asset management KPIs within the BSC framework

In this phase, an extensive literature review was conducted on the articles that examined
the impact of ISO standards with a similar structure (i.e. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001).
According to the search results, no published articles have assessed the impact of ISO
55000 on organisational performance. The results of the literature analysis appear in
Table 1.
This review made it possible to identify the KPIs related to asset management and to
categorise them using the BSC approach. Table 2 shows the list of KPIs related to asset
management obtained from the literature and categorised into BSC perspectives. The
8 I. Alsyouf et al.

Figure 3. Methodological procedures.

KPIs were summarised such that all BSC perspectives are covered without any repetition or
redundancy in the measurements.

3.2.2. Validating the identified KPIs

As the scope of work and the industry of the companies differ, some of the identified KPIs
in Table 2 might not be relevant. Thus, there is a need to assess the relevance of these KPIs
for use in measuring the impact of asset management systems (e.g. ISO 55000) on organ-
isational performance. From this assessment, we can conclude whether to keep a KPI or
discard it.
The identified KPIs were validated by distributing the questionnaire to the key people
and top management in the field of asset management in each company. The questionnaire
asked the decision makers to indicate whether each KPI is relevant to the company or not.
After collecting all the questionnaire results, we apply hypothesis testing on the results of
this questionnaire to determine whether the difference is statistically significant or not. We
formulated the hypothesis as shown in Equation (2):


H0i :m̃i = 0, ∀i = 1, . . . , 21,
S1 = (2)
H1i : m̃i . 0, ∀i = 1, . . . , 21,
Table 1. Literature summary.

ISO Type Methodology Impact on parameters/BSC perspectives

Nonmarket
Innovation perspective
Literature Empirical/ Business learning and sustainability and
# Article 9001 14001 55001 survey Statistical Financial Customer process growth Environment Remarks

1 Koc (2007) ✔ ✔ ☐ ☑ ☐ ☑ 1. Panel regression (using ANOVA and

MANOVA statistical analysis) is
employed.
2. Positive: improved manufacturing
parameters (BSC innovation),
competitive priorities, and value to
customer
3. No impact: defective part production,
manufacturing cost
2 Cagnazzo et al. ✔ ✔ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑ 1. Surveying the literature on ISO 9000 to
(2009) determine the impact
3 Starke et al. (2012) ✔ ✔ ☑☒ 1. Positive impact: increase in sales
revenues, increase in asset turnover
ratios
2. Negative impact: decrease in cost of
goods sold/sales revenue
3. Hypothesis formed from the literature

Total Quality Management

4 Psomas et al. (2013) ✔ ✔ ☐ ☑ ☑
5 Zhang et al. (2014) ✔ ✔ ☑ ☑☐
6 Heras-Saizarbitoria ✔ ✔ ☒ ☐ ☐ 1. Hypothesis formed from the literature
et al. (2015)
7 Ochieng et al. ✔ ✔ ✔ ☑☐ 1. A web survey for collecting data was
(2015) conducted, and then statistical data
analysis was used
2. Positive: return on net assets, net asset
performance
3. No effect: on profit and revenue

(Continued)

9
 10
I. Alsyouf et al.
Table 1. Continued.
ISO Type Methodology Impact on parameters/BSC perspectives

Nonmarket
Innovation perspective
Literature Empirical/ Business learning and sustainability and
# Article 9001 14001 55001 survey Statistical Financial Customer process growth Environment Remarks

8 He et al. (2015) ✔ ✔ ✔ ☐ ☑ ☑ ☑
9 Bernardo et al. ✔ ✔ ✔ ☐ ☑ ☑ ☑ ☑
(2015)
10 Maletič et al. (2015) ✔ ✔ ☑ ☑ ☑☐ ☑ ☑☐ 4. For environment perspective, a
combination of positive or no impact
were found for the studied parameters
11 Arimura et al. ✔ ✔ ✔ ☐☑ 1. Data were collected from a survey
(2016) developed by the Organisation for
Economic Co-Operation and
Development and obtained from a
booking website
2. Probit model is used
3. Impact on natural resource usage: in
US: no effect; in Japan: positive effect
4. Impact on air pollutant emissions: No
effect
12 Aba et al. (2016) ✔ ✔ ☑ ☑

Note: In BSC perspective column: ☑ indicates positive impact, ☒ indicates negative impact, and ☐ indicates no impact ‘if measured’ for the respective parameter.

Table 2. KPIs obtained from the literature and classified using BSC perspectives.
BSC
Perspective # KPIs
Financial 1 Production and operative cost
reduction
2 ROI improvement or (net profit)
3 Sales growth
4 Increased revenue
5 Increased market share
6 Reduction of insurance premiums
Customer 7 Increased customer satisfaction
8 Improved corporate image
Business 9 Systematic processes for handling
process complaints
10 Improvement in organisation efficiency
11 Process and organisation effectiveness
12 Reduction of lead time (delivery time
to market)
13 Improvement in the quality, reliability
of products/services
14 Improved documentation, work
procedures, policies, and registers
15 Continuous improvement through
reduction of mistakes, non-
conformity, re-work, and non-value-
added activities
16 Improved maintenance performance
17 Improved working conditions, health
and safety performance
Learning and 18 Increased employee motivation and
growth commitment
19 Increased employee development,
education, and training
20 Clear knowledge of tasks
responsibilities by employees
21 Encouragement of innovation
Total Quality Management 11
Reference
Cagnazzo et al. (2009); Koc (2007);
Maletič et al. (2015); Tarí et al.
(2012)
Cagnazzo et al. (2009); Ochieng et al.
(2015); Psomas et al. (2013); Tarí
et al. (2012)
Cagnazzo et al. (2009); Maletič et al.
(2015); Psomas et al. (2013); Tarí
et al. (2012)
Cagnazzo et al. (2009); Ochieng et al.
(2015); Starke et al. (2012)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Cagnazzo
et al. (2009); Maletič et al. (2015);
Tarí et al. (2012)
Tarí et al. (2012)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Cagnazzo
et al. (2009); Maletič et al. (2015);
Tarí et al. (2012)
Maletič et al. (2015); Tarí et al.
(2012)
Cagnazzo et al. (2009)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Cagnazzo
et al. (2009); Heras-Saizarbitoria
et al. (2015); Maletič et al. (2015);
Psomas et al. (2013); Tarí et al.
(2012); Zhang et al. (2014)
Psomas et al. (2013); Tarí et al.
(2012)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Cagnazzo
et al. (2009); Koc (2007); Tarí
et al. (2012)
Cagnazzo et al. (2009); Koc (2007);
Maletič et al. (2015); Psomas et al.
(2013)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Psomas et al.
(2013); Tarí et al. (2012)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Cagnazzo
et al. (2009); Tarí et al. (2012)
Koc (2007)
Maletič et al. (2015); Tarí et al.
(2012)
Maletič et al. (2015); Tarí et al.
(2012)
Bernardo et al. (2015); Cagnazzo
et al. (2009); Maletič et al. (2015);
Tarí et al. (2012)
Tarí et al. (2012)
Tarí et al. (2012)
12 I. Alsyouf et al.

Table 3. Sample of the collected data for the ith KPI.

Decision maker Response Statistical representation
#1 Relevant 1
#2 Not relevant –1
#3 Not relevant –1
#4
.. Relevant
.. 1.
. . ..
#N Relevant 1

where m̃i represents the median of the responses received for the ith KPI, i = 1, . . . , 21,
where ‘relevant’ is transformed into (+1) and ‘not relevant’ into (−1), as shown in
Table 3. The terms H0i and H1i are the null and alternative hypotheses for the ith KPI,
respectively. The alternative hypothesis means that the median of responses is positive;
in other words, ‘relevant’ has a significantly greater number of responses than ‘not rel-
evant’. Conversely, the null hypothesis means that the median of the number of responses
in favour of ‘not relevant’ is significant. Rejection of H0i means that the ith KPI is relevant,
while acceptance of H0i leads to the exclusion of the KPI.
The two decisions on each KPI (i.e. relevant or not relevant) are dependent, and the
sample size (which is discussed in more details in the next section) is small. With the nor-
mality assumption violated, we use the non-parametric test – the sign test – for the two
dependent samples. The main goal of this test is to investigate whether the two samples
have identical population medians according to Montgomery and Runger (2007). This
test was applied at the 5% significance level.

3.2.3. Assessing the impact of ISO 55000 implementation on organisational performance

After filtering out the non-relevant KPIs, we assessed the impact of implementing ISO
55000 on organisational performance. Because numerical values for KPIs in most of the
organisations under study are confidential, we use linguistic assessment. To achieve the
assessment, we asked key people and decision makers in the certified organisations to indi-
cate whether each KPI has had a positive or a negative impact compared with its status
before certification and to assess the level of this impact (if any). Given that the two
samples are dependent, and to facilitate data collection by avoiding lengthy questionnaires,
rather than asking about the status before and after implementation separately, we requested
that the respondents evaluate the difference in the KPI status according to the linguistic
scale shown in Table 4. The linguistic term was then transformed to its corresponding
numerical value.

Table 4. Impact assessment evaluation scale.

Linguistic term Scale
Strong negative impact –2
Negative impact –1
No effect 0
Positive impact 1
Strong positive impact 2
 Total Quality Management 13

Afterward, we performed hypothesis testing on the difference between the status of each
KPI before and after implementation according to the formulated hypothesis shown in
Equation (3):


H0i : m̃id = 0, ∀i = 1, . . . , 21,
S2 = (3)
H1i : m̃id . 0, ∀i = 1, . . . , 21,

where m̃id represents the median of the difference between the two samples ‘after implemen-
tation impact’ and ‘before implementation impact’ for each KPI, H0i indicates no significant
difference in the KPI status before and after implementation or the impact is negative, and
H1i indicates that the KPI status after implementation had positive impact.
Taking into account the small sample size, the violation of normality assumption, and
the dependence of the two samples ‘before implementation’ and ‘after implementation’, we
used the sign test for the two dependent non-parametric samples. The sign test is a distri-
bution-free test that is equivalent to a paired t-test and is specifically used for small
sample sizes when it is difficult to ascertain whether the data are normally distributed
(Shier, 2004). This test was applied at the 5% significance level.

4. Results
As noted, the questionnaires were distributed to key people and decision makers in the
asset management department and other related departments in the eight ISO 55000 –
certified organisations in the UAE and followed up with them by e-mail and telephone
calls. The respondents were asked to answer the questionnaire in accordance with their
knowledge and the available data in their company databases and records and to use
the scale mentioned previously. As a result, only one of the organisations did not
provide any response.
The first hypothesis set, S1 , shown in Equation (2) is conducted by MATLAB software,
and the relevancy of the identified KPIs is summarised in Table 5.
As the table shows, the resulting p-values suggest rejection of the null hypothesis in
Equation (2), for all the KPIs except the fifth KPI, which is increased market share (p =
0.95). This indicates that this KPI is not relevant, and as such, it is not considered during
the KPI impact assessment analysis step.
The 20 relevant KPIs are then used to assess the impact of ISO 55000 on organisational
performance. The second hypothesis set, S2 (Equation (3)), serves to evaluate whether the
impact of ISO 55000 implementation on each KPI is positive or not. The analysis was done
using MATLAB software, and the results are summarised in Table 6.
The p-value results, shown in Table 6, provide support for rejecting the null hypothesis
for all KPIs, which indicates that all the tested KPIs have a positive impact on organis-
ational performance after ISO 55000 implementation. This means that implementing ISO
55000 standard in UAE organisations resulted in a positive impact of all relevant KPIs.
This result confirms the results of other studies (Aba et al., 2016; Cagnazzo et al., 2009;
Maletič et al., 2015) and indicates that implementing ISO 55000 is an efficient and effective
tool for increasing companies’ competiveness. This can be achieved through its expected
impact on the four critical areas of interest that are measured by the BSC perspective
(i.e. financial, customer, business processes, and learning and growth).
For example, with regard to the financial perspective, all the achieved benefits in the
other perspectives from the implementation of the ISO 55000 standards, as discussed
14 I. Alsyouf et al.

Table 5. Hypothesis testing results for validating KPIs.

BSC
Perspective # KPIs p-value
Financial 1 Production and operative cost reduction 0.00074
2 ROI improvement or (net profit) 0.00011
3 Sales growth 0.01330
4 Increased revenue 0.01330
5 Increased market share 0.09462
6 Reduction of insurance premiums 0.01330
Customer 7 Increased customer satisfaction 1.04904 × 10−5
8 Improved corporate image 1.04904 × 10−5
Business 9 Systematic processes for handling complaints 1.04904 × 10−5
process 10 Improvement in organisation efficiency 1.04904 × 10−5
11 Process and organisation effectiveness 1.04904 × 10−5
12 Reduction of lead time (delivery time to market) 0.03918
13 Improvement in the quality, reliability of products/services 0.00011
14 Improved documentation, work procedures, policies, and 1.04904 × 10−5
registers
15 Continuous improvement through reduction of mistakes, 1.04904 × 10−5
non-conformity, re-work, and non-value-added
activities
16 Improved maintenance performance 0.00011
17 Improved working conditions, health and safety 0.00074
performance
Learning and 18 Increased employee motivation and commitment 0.00011
growth 19 Increased employee development, education, and training 0.00011
20 Clear knowledge of tasks responsibilities by employees 1.04904 × 10−5
21 Encouragement of innovation 0.00011

subsequently, will improve organisational financial performance. For example, achieving

sustainable and optimised results will, among other things, improve financial performance
by reducing operations costs. In addition, improving health and safety will result in reduced
liabilities, such as insurance premiums and penalties. All these results will contribute to
increasing sales and enhancing revenues, which in the end will improve the return on
investment (ROI).
Furthermore, having the right asset management programme will support the organis-
ation in meeting stakeholders’ expectations. This, in turn, will lead to increased customer
satisfaction and improved corporate image and ultimately aid in the achievement of organ-
isational objectives.
When considering the business processes perspective, implementing ISO 55000 will
improve documentation, work procedures, policies, and registers, which will enable the
organisation to deal with all its operations in a systematic way. At the same time, this per-
spective will provide all the data necessary to continuously improve the assets operations by
analysing all the root causes of mistakes, failures, non-conformity, re-work, and non-value-
added activities. Consequently, the performance of the maintenance department will
improve and affect the organisation’s ability to provide more reliable and higher-quality
products and services with shorter delivery times to market, which in turn will positively
influence working conditions, health, and safety performance. Achieving these benefits
will then improve the organisational processes’ efficiency and effectiveness, which will
enable the organisation to achieve sustainable and optimised performance.
 Total Quality Management 15

Table 6. ISO 55000 implementation assessment.

BSC
Perspective # KPIs p-value
Financial 1 Production and operative cost reduction 3.8147 × 10−6
2 ROI improvement or (net profit) 1.52588 × 10−5
3 Sales growth 0.00049
4 Increased revenue 0.00024
5 Increased market share N/A
6 Reduction of insurance premiums 0.00195
Customer 7 Increased customer satisfaction 1.90735 × 10−6
8 Improved corporate image 9.53674 × 10−7
Business 9 Systematic processes for handling complaints 7.62939 × 10−6
process 10 Improvement in organisation efficiency 1.90735 × 10−6
11 Process and organisation effectiveness 9.53674 × 10−7
12 Reduction of lead time (delivery time to market) 0.00049
13 Improvement in the quality, reliability of products/services 3.8147 × 10−6
14 Improved documentation, work procedures, policies, and 1.90735 × 10−6
registers
15 Continuous improvement through reduction of mistakes, 9.53674 × 10−7
non-conformity, re-work, and non-value-added
activities
16 Improved maintenance performance 1.90735 × 10−6
17 Improved working conditions, health and safety 6.10352 × 10−5
performance
Learning and 18 Increased employee motivation and commitment 3.05176 × 10−5
growth 19 Increased employee development, education, and training 7.62939 × 10−6
20 Clear knowledge of tasks responsibilities by employees 1.90735 × 10−6
21 Encouragement of innovation 7.62939 × 10−6

Regarding the learning and growth perspective, implementing ISO 55000 can encou-
rage the organisation to invest more in employees’ development, education, training, and
innovation. In addition, this perspective will support having systematic and documented
processes with clear knowledge of task responsibilities and, as a result, will increase
employees’ motivation and commitment to the organisation.

5. Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of implementing asset management
standards (ISO 55000) on organisational performance according to identified asset manage-
ment-related KPIs. Therefore, relevant asset management KPIs were identified by review-
ing the literature on the impact of implementing general management systems (ISO 9001/
ISO 14001) and identifying relevant asset management KPIs using BSC as a framework.
Afterward, a survey was conducted to validate the identified KPIs and their relevance to
asset management according to expert judges. The impact of ISO 55000 on the identified
asset management-related KPIs was then assessed by conducting a survey with a set of
ISO 55000-certified companies in the UAE. Industry experts indicated that increasing
market share is not a relevant KPI for asset management. According to the responses of
experts from industry, the implementation of ISO 55000 affects all the tested KPIs posi-
tively. This means that the organisations that are adopting ISO 55000 International Stan-
dard certification will be able to achieve better performance from the effective and
efficient management of their assets. The study results confirm the benefits claimed by
16 I. Alsyouf et al.

the ISO 55000 standards, such as improved financial performamce, informed asset invest-
ment decisions, managed risk, improved services and outputs, enhanced reputation, and
improved efficiency and effectivess (British Standard Institution, 2014b).
According to the findings, it can be concluded that ISO 55000 has a positive impact on
several perspectives: financial (e.g. production and operative cost reduction, ROI improve-
ment, reduction of insurance premiums), customer (e.g. increased customer satisfaction,
improved corporate image), business processes (e.g. having systematic processes for hand-
ling complaints, improvement in organisation efficiency, process effectiveness, reduction of
lead time, improvement in the quality of products/services, improved documentation/work
procedures/policies/registers, continuous improvement through reduction of mistakes and
non-value-added activities, improved maintenance performance, improved working con-
ditions, improved health and safety performance), and learning and growth (e.g. clear
knowledge of task responsibilities by employees, increased employee commitment, devel-
opment, education, and training). The positive effect of ISO 55000 coincides with findings
of other studies conducted on ISO standards with similar structural level (i.e. ISO 9000 and
ISO 14000) (Aba et al., 2016; Bernardo et al., 2015; Cagnazzo et al., 2009; He et al., 2015;
Maletič et al., 2015). It is worth noting that the impact of ISO can be affected by several
factors such as the study region, company size, and maturity level.

5.1. Contribution and implications of the study

This study is the first to assess the organisational performance of ISO 55000. It tested
whether adopting ISO 55000 can help organisations improve their performance. The
results of the study are important in general for organisations’ top management to decide
whether to invest in implementing a system such as ISO 55000. This paper concludes
that implementing ISO 55000 results in positive effect on the organisational performance.
The results indicate that having the right asset management programme is crucial for the
success of organisations in achieving high performance (i.e. competitive advantages).
This study contributes by providing empirical evidence of the benefits that organisations
can achieve by implementing ISO 55000 standards, especially in light of the absence of
empirical research to support these claims (Gaarenstroom, 2014).

5.2. Study limitation

Considering the dearth of studies on ISO 55000, the literature review for identifying KPIs
from relevant management system was limited to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 because they
have a similar structure. The identified asset management KPIs were validated through
expert judgements, due to the accessibility of related data in response to confidentiality.
We used only measurable KPIs factors, while other subjective factors were eliminated.
Finally, a limited number of respondents answered the survey because few organisations
are certified with ISO 55000.

5.3. Suggestion for further research

Future work could use real operational data (such as figures on net profit, sales growth, effi-
ciency and effectiveness) to assess the impact of implementing ISO 55000 standard. This
study could also be expanded to obtain expert judgements at the worldwide level rather
than limiting the study to the local level only. It would also be worthwhile to compare
 Total Quality Management 17

the performance of organisations certified by asset management standards (ISO 55000/PAS

55) with those maintaining some type of asset management but without being certified.

6. Conclusion
In this paper, the effect of implementing ISO 55000 on the organisational performance was
examined. Asset management KPIs were identified from the literature. A questionnaire to
determine the relevancy of the KPIs and their impact on the organisational performance was
distributed to the asset management experts in different ISO 55000 certified organisation in
the UAE. The analysis of the questionnaire revealed that ISO 55000 affected positively the
organisational performance. This study was limited to ISO 55000 certified organisation in
UAE and to the use of linguistic terms in the evaluation phase due to the availability of data.
As a future work, the scope of the study can be extended to account for the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) region and to consider operational data rather than linguistic terms.
Furthermore, additional factors can be considered while analysing the impact of ISO 55000
such as the existence of previous ISO certifications.

Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank all the respondents who participated in the survey, and they particularly
acknowledge the efforts of Eng. Iyad Alawaysheh, the chief specialist at one of the participating
organisations, who helped distribute the questionnaire and follow up with the respondents.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work was supported by University of Sharjah: [grant number 1502040519-P].

ORCID
Imad Alsyouf http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6200-8919
Mohammad Shamsuzzaman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1242-9627
Sadeque Hamdan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5265-0836

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