Blackmores ISO Consultancy Service: The creators of isology®

Asset Management can be explained as a systematic process of planning, operating, maintaining, upgrading and replacing assets cost-effectively with minimum risk and at the expected levels of service over the assets’ life cycle.

One sector where effective asset management can make a huge difference is public transportation, with organisations having to keep track of an exhaustive list of costly vehicles and infrastructure.

Long time listeners may recall a previous episode where we interviewed the train operator, Greater Anglia, after they successfully achieved ISO 55001, the best practice standard for asset management.

Now 3 years on, they’ve been recently recertified and have learned a lot since their initial certification.

In this episode, Andrew Barnes, Head of Asset Management at Greater Anglia, joins Ian Battersby to discuss how they currently manage their ISO 55001 certification, what they’ve learned in the past 3 years since certification and the benefits of effective asset management.  

You’ll learn

• Who is Andrew Barnes?
• Who are Greater Anglia?
• How do Greater Anglia manage their ISO 55001 certification?
• What lessons have been learned since their initial certification?
• What are the main benefits of ISO 55001?
• Andrew’s top tip for ISO Implementation

Resources

• Isologyhub
• Greater Anglia
• ISO Support Plan

In this episode, we talk about:

[02:05] Episode Summary – Ian Battersby is joined by Andrew Barnes, Head of Asset Management at Greater Anglia, to discuss their experience with being certified to ISO 55001 for the past 3 years, explaining the lessons learned and benefits gained.   

[03:25] Who is Andrew Barnes? Andy is currently the Head of Asset Management at Greater Anglia. A fun fact that not many people know about him is that he was part of the Lord Mayor’s Show in the 80’s, though he had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction that ended with him getting a stern talking to!

Andy has been working in the railways since 1985, starting as an apprentice with British Rail.

[05:15] Who are Greater Anglia? Greater Anglia are a train operator who took over from National Express, East Anglia back in 2012.

They serve the Anglia region from Liverpool Street Station, and are unusual among railway companies in that they are under a full repairing and insuring lease. This differs from most who have station access conditions, where the responsibility for maintenance and repair is split between Network Rail and the train operator.

They currently operate 134 stations, with 2 more under construction which are Burley Park (due to open in October 2025) and Cambridge South (opening in early 2026).

In addition to the stations, they also own 7 depots for train stabling and maintenance. So in short, a lot of assets to keep track of!

[07:40] Extra asset requirements – They are also now challenged on cleanliness at train stations. This involves mystery shoppers visiting stations and marking them against certain criteria to give a score, which Greater Anglia tend to score quite highly.

They also have to inspect all of their assets on a conditioned surveying scheme, the scores of which need to be communicated to Network Rail.

[09:00] Andy’s role as Head of Asset Management – Andy is relatively new to this role, becoming the Head of Asset Management in April 2025. He has a team of asset inspectors that conduct the condition surveys internally.

He’s also responsible for the Engineer Insurance Team, part of their role is to determine the technical aspects of large schemes that require focused designs.

[10:05] How do Greater Anglia manage their ISO certifications? – In addition to ISO 55001, Greater Anglia also hold ISO 9001 and a number of standards specific to engineering.

They have benefitted from 3^rd party support in the form of utilising Blackmores consultancy to help gain certification and aid with on-going support for internal audits.

Their processes and procedures are all managed by their Project Management Team, who conduct regular reviews against ISO requirements to ensure they stay relevant and in alignment with best practice.

They also have a strategic asset management plan, risk register and continuous improvement plans in place to address various elements of both asset management and general quality management.

Like with most ISO Standards, there’s a lot of crossover in the requirements, so elements of each certification can easily be integrated and used to bolster an existing management system.

[11:15] The benefit of a maturing management system – Andy is quite keen on learning from their maturing management system. Through effective implementation, you can look back and see what’s working well and where improvements can be made.

Having a certain level of management system maturity enables you to make more informed continual improvement decisions.

[13:20] A structured approach – Prior to ISO 55001 certification, they were still doing everything that was required of them to maintain assets simply because that was the right thing to do.

What they lacked was the structured processes and procedures to support that hard work. It wasn’t as planned and more of a reactionary approach to asset management.

Andy appreciates the clearly defined lines, processes and ability to learn from their mistakes as a result of ISO 55001 implementation. It simply helped provide a more consistent and collaborative base for effective asset management.

[14:25] Other benefits from ISO 55001 certification:-

Improved efficiency: New and improved processes helped to manage both their time and internal resource. They eliminated unnecessary meetings, and consolidated key discussion points for their regular meet-ups to ensure important updates were prioritised.

Risk Mitigation: They now have a structured approach to learning from past mistakes. This is managed via a Lessons Learned Database, which collates the answers to specific questions that get asked after project completion. They make sure to include contractor input so all parties involved feel the benefits. Recently, they’ve also been granted access to Network Rail’s Lesson’s Learned database, so they will benefit from an even wider knowledge base for future projects.

Consistent approach: Their current management system ensures that everyone is following the same policies, processes and procedures. People know what their responsibilities are, who to communicate what to and how they can help contribute to improvement efforts.

Continual Improvement culture shift: The management system doesn’t require everyone to know everything from the get-go. It encourages a culture of learning with the goal of continual improvement, so people aren’t afraid of suggesting actions for innovation.  

[19:45] Lessons learned: Not just from mistakes – Ultimately, from an asset management point of view, Greater Anglia want to maintain or renew an asset as functional and preserve it for as long as possible. They need to intervene as quickly and as efficiently as possible to minimise the impact to people using it.

Minimising the time on site with things like modular construction and hauling large equipment are things we’ve done due to lessons learned from other projects. These were positive changes that we’ve taken on not due to mistakes but simply from trying different things.

A lesson learned doesn’t have to result from a mistake. It’s about learning from both risks and opportunities.

[21:20] Top ISO Implementation tips from Andy –

Do your homework: Have a good understanding of your Management System and take your time to weave it into your day-to-day activities.

A helping hand: Make use of an ISO champion, whether that’s someone internal with ISO knowledge or a 3^rd party dedicated ISO consultancy (such as Blackmores) to help you break down an ISO Standard into something you can understand and apply to your way of working.

Recording evidence: Don’t just talk the talk, walk the walk! Once a process or procedure is documented, follow it, and record evidence of this. Same goes for any actions for improvement that are raised, don’t just let it sit there, action it.

[23:45] Andy’s take away from ISO 55001 management – Andy is surprised by how attuned their business is to the Standard. The Standard speak may seem obtuse or vague, but its adaptability is it’s greatest strength. You have the flexibility to apply it in a way that works for your business.

[25:15] Andy’s book recommendations – 1984 by George Orwell and Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall by Spike Milligan.

[26:35] Andy’s favorite quote – ‘By Failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail’ – Benjamin Franklin

If you’d like to learn more about Greater Anglia, check out their Website and Linkedin.

If you’d like any assistance with ISO 55001 Asset Management, feel free to get in touch with us, we’d be happy to help.

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Today Mel Blackmore is joined by Richard Turner, the Head of Asset Management at Greater Anglia, a train operating company in the UK.

We’re going to be talking about his journey in relation to asset management and ISO 55001. Greater Anglia have been certified to this standard for a few years now, and they’re a bit of a trendsetter, as far as asset management and certification to ISO 55001 is concerned.

What you’ll learn:

• What is Asset Management?
• What made Greater Anglia consider ISO 55001?
• Tackling the challenge of total buy-in
• Coordinating with stakeholders
• Benefits for Greater Anglia

First of all, let’s talk about what Greater Anglia is and does…

What does Greater Anglia do?

Greater Anglia was one of the first train operating companies to embark on a full repairing lease in 2012. That means having a full responsibility as opposed to the normal setup (with Network Rail as the landlord and the train operating company as a tenant). It was a first for a train operating company to have their own Asset Management Department and it was a really big deal for a lot of those that joined asset management. Richard came from Network Rail, doing asset management in a department where a train operating company was leading from an asset management point of view.

Let’s get to know more about Richard’s background…

Richard joined Network Rail around the year 2000. He was an asset manager at the start, and then the senior asset manager, soon after becoming a route asset manager – he went right through the asset management field! So, when the Greater Anglia job came around in 2012, Richard jumped at it because it was a massive new challenge for him, as it was a new thing for a train operating company to start off with an Asset Management Department which never existed before.

Now for those of you who aren’t actually familiar with asset management, let’s take a moment to understand what it is and why it’s important to an organisation…

Asset Management

From the asset management side for Greater Anglia, they look after the stations, depots, all the assets within the station demise that sit under their responsibility, maintain, renew, enhance and they look at longevity. They see themselves literally from inception to completion…they are like a landlord effectively. From an asset management point, it’s really, really key that they are involved every step of the way from design to construction essentially. It’s an interesting role that is very varied. One day you could get involved in the refurbishment of a waiting room, then the next day, you would be discussing a brand-new station that’s going to be built. It’s so varied and what Richard loves about his job is that every day is so different.

It’s safe to say he definitely needs to work in collaboration with lots of different stakeholders in this role!

And that’s a key point, actually…Richard tells us that one thing you learn through asset management is how to meet the expectations of your stakeholders, how you have performed, and what their expectations are. So, the stakeholder internally and externally is vital for any business to succeed. Because if you haven’t got the buy-in of your stakeholders, then you’re going to really struggle.

Now let’s dive into ISO 55001…

What made Greater Anglia consider ISO 55001?

Striving for excellence, once the franchise agreement was in place, Richard was keen to set a high standard and embed Asset Management ‘Best practice’ into the DNA of the organisation.  ISO 55001 was the ideal framework for this.

So, let’s find out how Greater Anglia went about tackling the challenge of achieving certification…

Tackling the challenge

There was a massive change of direction in everything Greater Anglia did with regards to presentations, training, updating their process strategy and getting everybody’s buy-in, and inductions in what they do within the company. Richard thinks they got this from the ISO standard itself -in terms of the structure of how it was set out and what they did going forward.

The improvement within the team at Greater Anglia and the structure are more defined. And even the line of sight, when it goes right up to the managing director and down to the person at the station…you can see that link. Richard sees this as the most impressive part. At one point, when going on an ISO audit with BSI (British Standards Institution), they were speaking to a member of staff at a ticket office and asked him ‘Do you know much about asset management and the asset management system here?’…And he said ‘Yes!’. This really goes to show that how far it filters down.

It definitely is very challenging to ensure everyone is on the same page. But it’s so rewarding when you see it happening. At Greater Anglia, they learned so many lessons from when they started, they were in such a different position to where they are now. Richard sees this as a massive learning curve for them!

What’s interesting is that Greater Anglia has a broad range of different suppliers. So, let’s find out how having structure, policies and systems in place helped to coordinate operations with stakeholders…

Coordinating with stakeholders

When they started the franchise in 2012, they’d inherited the existing asset management system via Network Rail. Stakeholder engagement and collaboration were key, so to encourage feedback they liaised with various parties to ask the question about the current systems, ‘what do you want it to do for you?’ this included their commercial team, project team, assets team, and so on. This resulted in constructive feedback which helped Greater Anglia to initiate various improvements. Their supply chain now is very consistent, and there’s a link to their system with regards to reactive and renewals, etc.

So, let’s find out what benefits Greater Anglia have seen as a result of having that asset management system in place…

Benefits for Greater Anglia

Richard reveals that prior to setting up their new system, everything was managed so differently. Now they have one big unit that manages all assets. So, information with regards to surveys, renewals, stakeholder projects, or third party is all linked. Whereas before, it would have been harder to manage…now, it’s all unified.

This clearly saves Greater Anglia a lot of time by having information at their fingertips, together with knowing how it all connects with other areas of the business

Now finally, let’s see what kind of hints and tips Richard has for individuals that are responsible for asset management within an organisation and are considering implementing ISO 55001 and some kind of framework to have that structure.

Richard sees it as absolutely crucial that you find somebody (like Blackmores!) to help you, as they will guide you through the process. You need someone to look at your setup, and how your structure and strategy are, etc so they can tell you what you need and how to improve. The daunting part is actually looking at the standard as a technical specification and wondering ‘how is this going to be interpreted for our business?’ and so that’s how Blackmores helped.

Greater Anglia is now up to its third year of recertification, which is just fantastic!

To learn more about Greater Anglia, visit their website!

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