Data for Asset Management .

BIM is not the best Solution to Data Management

Many owners have extensive square footage to manage, and numerous assets within those facilities, that they need to regularly track, maintain and replace on an annual basis. Education campuses as well as government agencies are notable examples.

In recent years, a lot of the focus around generating data for facilities has focused on the uses of BIM, and extracting information from BIM models. While the BIM approach is a valuable part of the process, But as I but there are other but this is a BIM but the BIM-centric approach is not necessarily the most direct way to create the databases.

In this article I'll explain some of the thinking that has guided me for quite a few years.

Some Current Standards and Approaches to Asset Management

There are many approaches to asset management with a data focus. I'm going to cover below a range of options that are commonly available and classify as well as classification systems that are frequently referenced when looking at asset management databases.

• COBie: COBie is probably one of the most frequently referenced standards for asset management. COBie stands for “Construction-to-Operations Building Information Exchange” and was really an attempt to try to standardize the information it will be turned over at the end of the design and construction phase of a project so the owner operators could know what the assets are in their new facility.

  • COBie is essentially a very simple format and is often created as an Excel spreadsheet that can be handed over at the end of a project. In lieu of a box of PDFs and binders that is the typical deliverable is turned over to owners, so essentially is an electronic version of a project asset manual.

  • At its heart however, while the COBie spreadsheet has a number of different worksheets in a single file, the general intent of COBie is very simple - for every asset you want to know two things: what it is (manufacturer model discipline) and where it is facility floor room etc.

• Classification Systems: When creating COBie files, one of the fields is to classify each object according to Omniclass. How many classes is the standard that began in 2006 and is essentially a combination of amalgamation of various previously organized standards such as uniform master format in certain space vendors. It can be a weekly complicated efforts to classify each object with full Omniclass, so it is one of those elements where it's better to go to only a certain level of detail. Is a useful standard to have for the industry.

  • My preferred method for classifying objects is to use UniFormat, which actually dates from the 70s. Pretty simple process but has usually has enough information to help sift through the many assets in a building facility.

• BI(m) Many owners and professionals have focused on the use of bim as a source of data for assets that are within a building. Led to a movement to try to embed as much data as possible and beam models to enhance the data so that it could be then leveraged for a facility management. This approach in my opinion is death to the existence of data as a tool in itself to manage this stuff. In a 2018 presentation and lateral paper, I argued for a phenomenon called BI little M where essentially rather than using the bim model as a source of data man facility management managers would be better off with what I call BI little M which is you want the information but you don't need the model and embracing a full data approach data centric approach.

• Other data not based on Assets - risk assessment In a later paper 2020 expanded the concept of using pure data as a source

• Digital Twins

• GSA: One of the best sources for building and asset classification is the standards published by GSA the General Services Administration since 2003 the GSA website has published a series of guides that have really helped advance not only the use and classification of BIM models but also guides for facilities and assets management. Many of the guides have been updated over the years but are can be useful for owners who are interested in enduring standards for facilities.

  • Update: For some reason, the standards at GSA have recently been rescinded on foot of an executive order from the Trump Administration. It's not clear what it was about the standards that required them to be rescinded, but (for the moment) the old standards are still available in are still quite and remain quite a useful guide.

How?

BIM as an authoring tool