In this first of a series of articles, we will focus on the significance of producing an accurate Asset Register as part of the Operations & Maintenance [O&M] information to be handed over from the main contractor to the end client, as part of the PC handover documentation.
The UK Construction industry is progressively adopting digital processes that require structured information throughout the life of the project. The end client’s Facilities Management [FM] team are increasingly informing the decision as to the nature of the digital data to be provided at handover. For most FM teams, receiving a structured information set answering the key questions, What is it? Where is it? What do we need to do? remains the holy grail, rarely achieved in a standard set of everyday O&Ms.
Within the construction industry, an Asset Register is more closely aligned to the traditional itemised list of a building’s elements & components. However, the FM sector needs further information related to on-going inspection, maintenance, cleaning and replacement activities.
Most assets are associated with building services installations, such as an item of plant or machinery or a system of connected equipment. The FM team manages the whole lifecycle of an asset from purchase, through usage and ongoing maintenance through to disposal and replacement.
Therefore, the completeness of an Asset Register is determined by two dimensions, the scale of the equipment and components to be included, and the range of information to be obtained about each piece of equipment. A useful template example is located within CIBSE’s DE5: Asset Information Requirements.
“Createmaster has fully embraced our digital transformation ambition. Their digital O&Ms are organised logically and easy to access, helping us to improve our asset management and aftercare process, for the benefit of our customers”.
Director of Strategy, Planning and Major Projects – L&Q
In the above scenario, the client team should be advising the main contractor and the supply chain, based on the CAFM system requirements and provide a data schema for the specific data to be captured for each Asset. This is an example of “bespoke” structured data and will vary from CAFM system to CAFM system.
It is often the case, that the on-going building operation and management is not understood at the time of construction and in these circumstances, the PAS1192 guidance around BIM provides a more generic solution to what asset data will be provided.
The current UK BIM framework for the delivery of structured data provide guidelines for delivery of the Asset Information Requirements based on the generic COBie standard. This approach offers a construction industry standard as to what elements should be included in the Asset Register and the data that should be provided for each asset.
Regardless of approach all asset data, will likely include some of the below items;
Production of the Asset Register will facilitate several other immediate benefits to the building owners and managers;
In the design phase, it should be possible to identify all the intended Assets [from their Geometric Objects], their location, their ID and some performance characteristics. In the construction phase, it should be possible to add in some of the As Installed data such as manufacturer, model or part number & warranty ends dates. Prior to handover, commissioning data and final tagging/bar code data can be added.
This proactive approach allows the construction supply chain to provide information when it is at its most readily available. Contrast this to the approach most often seen today where building owners can incur significant additional costs from FM providers charging to undertake a building survey to identify the items they may have to maintain.
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