BIM needs more than the Common Data Environment (CDE)

p-ed by Daniel Taylor-North, director of software development company Opentree.

Since 2011, many companies in the UK construction industry have been working to achieve higher levels of BIM competency.

The BIM mandate of April 2016 focused people’s minds on meeting BIM Level 2 requirements ( BIM Level 2 UK ), and many companies are still engaged in this process.

The UK BIM Alliance aims to make BIM business as usual across most industries and projects by 2020.Some people’s initial perceptions of BIM focus on choosing and using BIM software tools rather than thinking of BIM as a technology-supported collaborative process.BIM involves more than just software skills or selecting the right common data environment (CDE). For design firms in particular, BIM can mean a fundamental rethinking of their internal information management processes and procedures so that professionals apply the right digital approaches from the moment they initiate a BIM project and even before they begin sharing data through the CDE.CDEs were originally conceived as file repositories or electronic document management systems.  

PAS 1192-2:2013  defined a CDE as: “A single source of information for any given project, used to collect, manage, and disseminate all relevant approved project documents to multidisciplinary teams through a managed process.” It also adds: “The CDE may use a project server, an extranet, a file-based retrieval system, or other appropriate toolset.”The terminology is already confusing—document and file repositories, and data management—but this is hardly surprising. For decades, architects and engineers have routinely published, tracked, and controlled paper drawings, documents, and forms; electronic collaboration systems and email have simply accelerated this “e-paper” exchange.Considerable industry inertia will need to be overcome if we want to shift from a document-centric focus to a data-centric focus, no longer delivering volumes of completed documentation but instead developing and maintaining the project’s “digital twin.”

First Steps

However, we can begin to focus more on data if our products are created and managed using naming and numbering conventions—in this case, based on  BS 1192:2007—  that allow for the electronic management of data about those files (metadata). And good practices begin in design firms, even before information needs to be shared with other project team members.

If we are serious about asset data management throughout its lifecycle, designers should apply the principles of BS 1192:2007 from day one to manage their work in progress (WIP).Designers often make some key early decisions during this stage, but if we only capture their final deliverables when they transition from “WIP” to “Shared,” useful references and source information can be lost—such as why certain decisions were made in the design change, for example. And status changes in “Shared” deliverables won’t sync with the design’s internal systems.

Opentree has developed an internal document management application called Cabinet that helps users bridge the gap between WIP and CDE. This integrates with several CDE platforms (Viewpoint, Aconex, and GroupBC are among the first partners), enabling the sharing of CAD, BIM, MS Office, and other files.Importantly, Cabinet allows for sharing both the file and related metadata, and then ensures that the metadata is synchronized if, for example, the suitability status of a native BIM model changes. (Nottinghamshire-based contractor North Midland Construction recently turned to Viewpoint and Cabinet to help demonstrate PAS1192 compliance processes to its clients.)

CDEs are, I believe, potentially powerful technologies; they are hampered by industry processes that still rely on file sharing and controlling the version and status of those files.While we may be tempted to talk about “sharing a single source of truth,” the reality is that many projects involve multiple islands of largely duplicated information: design teams, constructors, and asset owner-operators may invest in their own independent CDEs , mindful of the need to record and protect their contractual positions in an often litigious and adversarial industry.

Trust Issues

The reality is that we must foster new levels of trust: trust in our technologies and data, and trust among project team members . In our everyday personal lives, we increasingly rely on our mobile devices and the data they present to us. But achieving similar levels of trust in the information technologies we use as construction professionals will require cultural and process changes.

It’s encouraging to see some of the progressive thinking in construction contracts (long-term partnerships and integrated project insurance, for example) and the benefits identified from projects that have implemented these more collaborative and integrated approaches alongside the deployment of BIM.Having worked extensively with clients in the engineering and manufacturing sectors, I know the importance they place on sharing near-real-time data across their supply chains, and their focus on adding value rather than “reinventing the wheel.”Client leadership based on delivering the best value for the entire lifecycle, along with the appropriate use of off-site or prefabricated approaches, could help construction make some of the necessary cultural and process changes.A digitally transformed construction industry would then be well positioned to achieve the productivity gains we have seen in the aerospace and automotive industries in recent decades.

If you want to know more about what a Common Data Environment (CDE) is, you can read this article ” What is a collaborative common BIM environment ?”

Image:  bimportal.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk

Source: http://www.bimplus.co.uk/people/bim-compliance-needs-more-common-data-environment/