Data Collection through Construction

This blog continues the story of how we at Summit BIM define, manage and collect the required installed asset information required by the facilities management team.

Our last blog: BIM and the Art of an Asset Registry, discussed how to generate the preliminary asset registry around the end of the design phase of any project.  This blog picks up the story and takes us through the construction phase.  Our last blog in the series will discuss how we manage the handover of all the information.,

As we are all well aware, changes occur to the location of assets during the construction process. These changes need to be captured as, in our experience, facility management teams want the design models, with all the design intent information, not the fabrication models.  These design models become the record models for the project and it is to these design intent assets that the installed asset information is appended.

It is important to establish the process for managing the update of the design models during construction.  Things to consider are:

• What degree of accuracy is required for the different types of assets? Is it within the right room, within a grid reference, within 300mm or 5mm?  What has been agreed and defined? We use an Accuracy Table associated to the BIM Requirements to define what is required.
• What is the required frequency of the asset location updates?
• What is the process for the construction team advising the design team?
• What is the QA/QC process to check that:
  • The process is occurring, information is uploaded on time and what is outstanding.
  • Asset Registry is kept up to date to reflect any changes during construction.

The Asset Registry is an index for all assets requiring additional installed asset information.  What process is to be used to capture and associate the design intent information with the installed asset information, which comprises both data and documentation?  The Asset Registry should identify the required fields relative to each asset type.

• How will you collect information associated with ‘Types’ of Assets and information associated with the unique ‘Instance’ of the Asset?
• What is the platform being used?
• How will you manage synchronization with the commissioning process to prevent duplication of work effort?
• How will you manage the QA/QC process and is there an audit trail?
• How will you assign responsibility for the upload? In our opinion, it should be the party with the appropriate knowledge, the subject matter expert, i.e. the sub-trade responsible for providing the shop drawings and installing the assets.
• How will you ensure required information for development of preventative maintenance plans by the FM team is ready at the required time? Typically, this should be around one year prior to handover.
• How will you expose the information to the FM Team?
• If using ‘excel’ or a spreadsheet, how will you manage the risk posed by multiple entities all using the spreadsheet?

At Summit BIM we use our BIMFMi^© interface, a database that resolves the above issues, enabling the sorting and organizing of the information by those responsible for providing the information to those who will need to use it throughout the lifecycle of the project.

It is critical that the information that is uploaded is checked, validated, and signed off by the appropriate party, so there is confidence in the information being used to build the preventative maintenance plans.

What is your workflow for identifying missing information and chasing the responsible parties?

In our final blog in this series, we will discuss the handover process and what format is preferred for the handover.

If you are interested in learning more about our process, please reach out. We would love to help you manage and simplify the digital handover process.

If you are interested in learning more about our process, please reach out. We would love to help you.

We are here to help!