Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Paper-based as-built documentation is insanity. The digital asset is here.
Recently, leading owners, who put a high volume of construction in place on an annual basis, are leveraging the power of Enterprise Field Management solutions and structured Quality Programs, to both save time and money during construction and to gain the value-added benefits of a “digital asset” at the time of handover or turnover, for ongoing operations and maintenance over the lifecycle of the building or facility.
Previously, owners generally focused on the physical asset, the building or facility, and its complex network of interconnected systems, equipment, components and assemblies, first constructed to contract requirements and regulatory codes and then commissioned to conform to performance specifications and optimized for operational efficiency and energy economy. Regrettably, at substantial completion, at the time of handover or turnover, the operator or facility manager, received on behalf of the owner, all of the documentation required to operate and maintain the building or facility, for years and in many cases decades to come, “locked” in a paper-based formats. Unlocking the value from the paper-based formats was expensive, time consuming and error prone, and in many cases, not feasible.
As is common practices for more than fifty years, the construction manager or general contractor delivered a container of paper documentation – rolls of construction drawings, approved shop drawings and so-called “as-built” drawings (in many cases, unverifiable, unreliable and potentially inaccurate as the work was already concealed or closed when the as-built drawing was made from the construction drawing or shop drawing), binders of contract specifications, approved submittals, operations and maintenance manuals, etc. And, the volume of paper was on a colossal scale – palettes and truck loads full. The contractor submitted the “as-built” documentation in duplicate or triplicate, only further protracting the quagmire in front of economical operation and maintenance, regardless of the proficiency and competency of facility management and the expediency by which the documentation was processed and verified.
Some owners exclaimed that the process to review all of the “as-built” documentation, relate it back to the physical systems, equipment, components and assemblies, and then manually transfer the “as-built” documentation in to an FM (Facilities Management) solution required over a year’s time for facility management, as a non-value add activity and at the direct expense of the owner. The challenges and pains confronted by the owner and facility management are clear, as evidenced project after project, decade after decade. Insanity but a generally accepted practice.
Albert Einstein is generally attributed with the following definition, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The handover or turnover reached the point of insanity years ago – accepting “as-built” documentation in paper-based formats, but expecting improvements in the uptimes and cycle times to economical operation and maintenance by experienced facility management. Enter the data-driven construction management, outmoding the paper-driven practices. Sophisticated owners are stopping the insanity, and now contractually mandating a “digital asset” from contractors, as a complement to delivering the physical asset of the building or facility.
Enter the “digital asset,” complementary to the physical asset. A “digital asset,” which generally includes both a design and coordination Building Information Model (BIM) and a Field Building Information Model (Field BIM), is a database compromised of structured information directly connected with model object hierarchies of systems, equipment, components and assemblies. Not compiled at the end of the project, similar to paper-based “as-built” documentation, the information in the digital asset is captured, managed, tasked, tracked and measured throughout the course of the construction, from the excavations and foundations phase to the systems, services and finishes phase, as part of the day to day construction field operations and a proper, field Quality Program. Generally, the digital asset is not a single, master BIM file, but a series of linked or inter-connected database files, some focused on design and coordination and others focused on construction field programs, reflecting operations about the actual work put in place on the job site.
Information in the digital asset includes data sets about commissioning, quality assurance, quality control, materials tracking, work list, punchlist, field report, general issue tracking, etc. As it is structured in a database which directly reflects the spatial and hierarchical organization of the project, the digital asset is easy to navigate and search, for example, with links from within the digital asset to operation and maintenance manuals associated with unique equipment, installation history related to warranty programs, testing, adjusting and balancing settings critical for energy optimization and re-commissioning in the future. With a history log and audit trail, the digital asset also provides a secures means to audit performance, for benchmarking contractors, trade contractors, vendors and manufacturers and for managing risks in the event of quality non-conformances.
In summary, the digital asset enables a fluid transition from contractor to owner and operator, accelerating the time to efficient and economical operations, enabling facility management to focus time and resources on true value-added activities and managing the challenges and risks inherent to owning and operating a building or facility.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Paper-based as-built documentation is insanity. The digital asset is here.
By Adam H. Omansky, A.M.ASCE
Recently, leading owners, who put a high volume of construction in place on an annual basis, are leveraging the power of Enterprise Field Management solutions and structured Quality Programs, to both save time and money during construction and to gain the value-added benefits of a “digital asset” at the time of handover or turnover, for ongoing operations and maintenance over the lifecycle of the building or facility.
Previously, owners generally focused on the physical asset, the building or facility, and its complex network of interconnected systems, equipment, components and assemblies, first constructed to contract requirements and regulatory codes and then commissioned to conform to performance specifications and optimized for operational efficiency and energy economy. Regrettably, at substantial completion, at the time of handover or turnover, the operator or facility manager, received on behalf of the owner, all of the documentation required to operate and maintain the building or facility, for years and in many cases decades to come, “locked” in a paper-based formats. Unlocking the value from the paper-based formats was expensive, time consuming and error prone, and in many cases, not feasible.
As is common practices for more than fifty years, the construction manager or general contractor delivered a container of paper documentation – rolls of construction drawings, approved shop drawings and so-called “as-built” drawings (in many cases, unverifiable, unreliable and potentially inaccurate as the work was already concealed or closed when the as-built drawing was made from the construction drawing or shop drawing), binders of contract specifications, approved submittals, operations and maintenance manuals, etc. And, the volume of paper was on a colossal scale – palettes and truck loads full. The contractor submitted the “as-built” documentation in duplicate or triplicate, only further protracting the quagmire in front of economical operation and maintenance, regardless of the proficiency and competency of facility management and the expediency by which the documentation was processed and verified.
Some owners exclaimed that the process to review all of the “as-built” documentation, relate it back to the physical systems, equipment, components and assemblies, and then manually transfer the “as-built” documentation in to an FM (Facilities Management) solution required over a year’s time for facility management, as a non-value add activity and at the direct expense of the owner. The challenges and pains confronted by the owner and facility management are clear, as evidenced project after project, decade after decade. Insanity but a generally accepted practice.
Albert Einstein is generally attributed with the following definition, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The handover or turnover reached the point of insanity years ago – accepting “as-built” documentation in paper-based formats, but expecting improvements in the uptimes and cycle times to economical operation and maintenance by experienced facility management. Enter the data-driven construction management, outmoding the paper-driven practices. Sophisticated owners are stopping the insanity, and now contractually mandating a “digital asset” from contractors, as a complement to delivering the physical asset of the building or facility.
Enter the “digital asset,” complementary to the physical asset. A “digital asset,” which generally includes both a design and coordination Building Information Model (BIM) and a Field Building Information Model (Field BIM®), is a database compromised of structured information directly connected with model object hierarchies of systems, equipment, components and assemblies. Not compiled at the end of the project, similar to paper-based “as-built” documentation, the information in the digital asset is captured, managed, tasked, tracked and measured throughout the course of the construction, from the excavations and foundations phase to the systems, services and finishes phase, as part of the day to day construction field operations and a proper, field Quality Program. Generally, the digital asset is not a single, master BIM file, but a series of linked or inter-connected database files, some focused on design and coordination and others focused on construction field programs, reflecting operations about the actual work put in place on the job site.
Information in the digital asset includes data sets about commissioning, quality assurance, quality control, materials tracking, work list, punchlist, field report, general issue tracking, etc. As it is structured in a database which directly reflects the spatial and hierarchical organization of the project, the digital asset is easy to navigate and search, for example, with links from within the digital asset to operation and maintenance manuals associated with unique equipment, installation history related to warranty programs, testing, adjusting and balancing settings critical for energy optimization and re-commissioning in the future. With a history log and audit trail, the digital asset also provides a secures means to audit performance, for benchmarking contractors, trade contractors, vendors and manufacturers and for managing risks in the event of quality non-conformances. In summary, the digital asset enables a fluid transition from contractor to owner and operator, accelerating the time to efficient and economical operations, enabling facility management to focus time and resources on true value-added activities and managing the challenges and risks inherent to owning and operating a building or facility.
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