Skip to content
Glossary

Predictive action

Action taken to optimise the timing of an intervention on the basis of expected future condition, rather than in response to something that has already gone wrong.

Clause 10.3 of ISO 55001 was called preventive action in the 2014 edition. In the 2024 second edition it is called predictive action, and ISO records it as renamed and fully technically revised, which is a stronger statement than a rename alone.

The shift is from whether to intervene to when. Answering the second question requires condition information collected repeatedly rather than once, a view of how the asset class deteriorates, and a funding route capable of acting before anything has failed.

The committee that wrote it says what it is for, which is worth knowing before treating it as paperwork. ISO/TC 251 describes predictive action as requiring processes for actions that predict the future behaviour of a parameter needed to support decision-making, so that an organisation can better anticipate future occurrences and impacts of nonconformities and opportunities, and determine optimal intervention points. The last phrase is the requirement in miniature: the clause is about timing, and an organisation that cannot say when is not conforming merely by monitoring.

Sources

ISO 55001:2024, Clause 10.3, predictive action, renamed from preventive action and fully technically revised in the second edition, and listed by ISO among the main changes. Clause 9.1 covers monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation. ISO/TC 251, Updated Guidance on Asset Management System Requirements, 2024, for the committee’s statement of what the clause is intended to achieve, including the determination of optimal intervention points.

Read the sources