A Context for Asset Management

Another example from a 2018 buildingSMART Award winner for Construction is “Project Pontsteiger”. Digital engineering models provided offsite manufacturing so that no cutting and drilling on site would occur. Digital demand models were developed to look at all disciplines to a level at which production could participate in making their own supply models. For each discipline within the demand models, a production partner was brought in. BIM coordinators were appointed onsite, coordinating and checking all models and working together with the site engineering team who were responsible for the program, 2D output and contracts. By coordinating teams, and utilising BIM models as a decision-making context, the teams were able to make better decisions before any onsite construction, helping to deliver on-time and under budget.

These project delivery examples provide better understanding of the digital context for planning to construction. The need go beyond BIM deliverables will offer fruitful outcomes if new sources of data can be connected. A digital twin needs continuous data inputs. This is not an easy task. Data alignment and mapping are needed with data standards and templates that can add layers and attributes to data so that the digital twin knows that a door is actually a door, and the specifications of that door are accurate and manageable. If the information in a digital twin is inaccurate it is rendered useless. One example that this has worked well in is the use of barcodes for asset recognition, giving the digital twin precise information about the asset. This also helps to link a new network of product manufacturers who can provide relevant information about an asset or component ac ca.

A Context for Asset Management

A context for asset management is where many feel a digital twin will deliver the most value. The long-term benefit for a digital twin is the potential in asset reliability, integrity and performance. If AI, machine learning and automation can be applied to digital twins then decisions about assets could soon become seamless. Getting to this utopia, however, is more of a challenge. For example, today, companies have a major challenge in managing change and synchronizing changes to apply advanced analytics for better decision-making. This is primarily because data is not aligned and often inaccessible for performance benefits.

One such example of a digital context that delivers asset management benefits is in the project by Minnucci Associati s.r.l. and their winning project from the 2018 buildingSMART Award category for Operations and Maintenance. By developing a common data environment (CDE), the project could house over 12,500 components and 44 federated digital models to create asset information models. These models connect to the existing work order management system to help make better decisions when operating Naples Station. The station itself has over 400 operational trains and a variety of public shops and spaces, therefore a context for helping run the facility was critical.

(Minnucci Associati developed digital models from laser scans to help operations and maintenance of Naples Station in Italy)

The key benefit of this project was to provide a context to manage change. A digital twin needs to change and adapt to be effective. To make decisions in real-time via a digital twin requires a multitude of data to be made available in a 3D model. There is no doubt that the software is there today. Open source platforms are available on GitHub for users to trial and add their own expertise to. This is an exciting opportunity and probably the real value-add for digital twins – the ability to adapt, change and maximize the potential of digital workflows for better decision making. The opportunity for owner-operators is better lifecycle planning by making projects open and accessible. Only then will we be digitally twinning.

buildingSMART hosted a roundtable on “Digital Twins” with Siemens at the International Standards Summit in Dusseldorf on 26th March 2019. Amongst the attendees, it was universally agreed that a pilot project would be hugely beneficial for the industry. buildingSMART is looking forward to leading the way on the development of an open standard for a digital twin.