Spec Finish

Feature www.thefis.org 21 RISK The construction industry has experienced repercussions when it hasn’t paid enough attention to quality and compliance on the projects it delivers and the products it uses and, understandably, there is an ever-increasing demand to evidence how and what is built. D AME Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future report highlighted the urgent need to change attitudes and behaviours towards building safety within the construction industry and one of the report’s key recommendations was that a ‘golden thread’ of digital information should be introduced to address problems with key information not being effectively stored, managed and available throughout the lifecycle of a building. We turned to industry expert, George Stevenson, who is Chairman of www. bim4housing.com and Managing Director at ActivePlan Consulting Ltd, and asked him to write this article about the benefits of digital asset information and how supply chains can deliver the golden thread: Why asset information needs to be digital Any asset manager will have their own stories about trying to find critical information to avert a disaster, only to find that the records in the operations and maintenance (O&M) programme doesn’t carry what they need. There is a perception that BIM will magically address this – but it won’t. We are still reliant on installation contractors delivering the right information on what they have installed, how it was installed and where it is in the building. There is also a perception that the detailed information will be delivered in the O&M but it is often missing. This is not simply a matter of whether the files are paper manuals or pdfs on a website, rather, it is what information they contain and whether a list of asset types in a schedule relates to a drawing that locates them in the building – and references the specification that records how they should perform. Connections This interlinking is critical because, without it, those searching for the required information don’t stand a chance. The irony is that they only discover the links don’t work when they really need it – perhaps when they are searching for the ironmongery schedule for fire doors that need inspecting or fixing – or the location of isolating valves when there is a leak. The landlord or the main contractor may have tried to transfer the risk of compiling the O&M to a consultant who chases the supply chain for their pdfs and puts them into electronic folders, but they are completely reliant on the installers providing them with the right information. The O&M consultant will do their best to check everything manually, but they would have to be experts in M&E, architecture, structure, finishes, fire safety, H&S and many more to be able to spot what is missing. Even if they were experts, there is an overwhelming number of documents and checking that they contain the required information and that the right linking has been done is impossible. Creating Asset Information Models Golden Thread