Lack of data and information severely hamper the operation and manage-
ment of a building diminishing operational effectiveness, efficiencies and pro-
ductivity. How serious are the inefficiencies and lack of interoperable data?
In a recent report, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
“estimated $15.8 billion as the annual cost burden due to inadequate inter-
operability in the capital facilities segment of the U.S. construction industry.”
A total of “$6.7 billion of the total was due to inefficiencies in the design and
construction phases of the project delivery process.” That was a conservative
estimate.
The lack of useable data from the design and construction process impacts
several “upstream” management systems. For facility management it involves
systems for work orders, predictive maintenance, fleet management, inventory
of materials and equipment and energy management. For business systems it
includes asset management, purchasing, human resources and other aspects
of an enterprise resource planning system.
At a minimum, one needs to integrate the building systems, a facility man-
agement system, and some business systems. Beyond that initial integration are
other more global systems that have a potential requirement for integration
such as property management and real-estate portfolio management.
None of that integration can occur without interoperable data and little
data will be available if the owner has to manually enter data into the system
after occupancy. Obviously, if information in electronic format were available
when the asset was delivered, installed, or commissioned, the accuracy and
comprehensiveness of the database would be much improved. Such a data-
base foundation would ease system integration, thus resulting in the function-
ality, efficiencies, and cost advantages that integration can deliver.
Key data are created or provided in the following three progressions, or
events of the design and construction process:
Construction Documents—These are crucial documents with legal standing,
that lay out in a narrative and graphic format the owner’s requirements.
The specifications, done in a version of the CSI’s MasterFormat, define
the products, materials and expertise required. The drawings show quanti-
ties, graphic representations and relationships of the elements in the con-
struction. These documents represent the owner’s specific requirements as
interpreted and refined by the architect and engineers.
Construction Process—Several documents are created during the construction
by the contractor, subcontractor, suppliers, and manufacturers. These
include shop drawings, coordination drawings, product data, samples, test
reports, requests for information, construction change directives and plans.
150 Smart Building Systems for Architects, Owners, and Builders