Unpacking the Digital Golden Thread With Hydrock
October 9, 2024
Building Passport: Leading the Digital Revolution for Building Safety
January 13, 2025Transforming BIM4Housing: A Journey of Innovation and Impact
Recalibrating
BIM4Housing
George Stevenson, who assumed the role of Chair of BIM4Housing in 2020,
initiated a significant shift in the organization’s focus. BIM4H was originally
centred on 3D modelling and housing (rather than larger residential
developments), so the strategy pivoted towards prioritizing information
management over modelling. This transformation aligned with the requirements of
the Building Safety Act and other emerging regulations. The approach expanded
from a housebuilding perspective to a broader construction viewpoint, emphasizing
better information management as the foundation.
Implementing a data-driven
Golden Thread
Software vendors are
naturally competing to provide the Golden Thread solution,
whereas the only viable and sustainable Golden Thread will result from data
being seamlessly exchanged by firms working collaboratively. This requires
standardized data libraries and processes that implement both International and
UK Standards and guidance.
Project team members
should be able to use their applications of choice, as long as they rigorously
ensure that the data they hand to the next person in the supply chain, is
correctly structured – and machine-readable so it is easily updated by the
different applications that will be used throughout the life of the facility.
Establishing
Working Groups
To address challenges holistically, BIM4Housing established specialized working
groups dedicated to key areas such as development, design, and construction.
These groups worked collaboratively to explore how improved information could
enhance processes across the lifecycle of a project. For instance, they
examined how development teams could provide better data to construction teams
and how effective handovers could streamline operations.
The working groups
defined requirements while associated workstreams translated them into
actionable outputs, including standardized data templates, procedures,
classification systems, and reusable data libraries.
Focus on Fire
Safety and Sustainability
Fire safety emerged as a primary area of focus, leading to the identification
of critical fire safety assets. The sustainability workstream also gained
momentum, contributing to the broader decarbonization effort. Notable
achievements included the creation of reusable digital records and support for
initiatives like Zero Construct.
Golden Thread
Initiative
BIM4Housing played a pivotal role in defining information needs for the Golden
Thread Initiative, focusing on asset and survey information. Working alongside
a diverse group of about 100 specialists, BIM4Housing provided insights that
were relayed to the government. Workshops, both virtual and in-person,
demonstrated practical examples of why certain information was critical, using
scenarios such as preventing the spread of smoke from a fire breaking out in a kitchen
to emphasize the interdependence of safety measures like fire doors, fire
dampers, fire stopping and other systems like smoke control, signage and alarm
systems.
Addressing Key
Asset Challenges
Workshops delved deeply into asset management challenges, posing key questions
such as:
- What risks does the asset mitigate?
- What vulnerabilities does it face?
- What human behaviours or practices could
impair its performance?
- What information is necessary for ensuring
the asset performs as intended?
Standardized
procedures and competency requirements were also defined for aspects such as
installation, maintenance, and product changes.
Comprehensive
Resources and Knowledge Sharing
Over the past three years, BIM4Housing has conducted approximately 200 working
groups with contributions from over a fifteen-hundred subject matter experts.
Resources, freely available on the website, include detailed guides for assets
like fire doors, smoke vents, and dry risers. For example, the fire door guide
outlines its components, risks, and the necessary procedures to ensure optimal
performance.
Interpreting the Tsunami of Regulations and Guidance
Although many in the industry welcome the changes, there is an overwhelming amount of information to absorb and apply so a team of BIM4Housing members agreed to work collaboratively, setting down their individual understanding of what was expected/ required, creating a MIRO board of the steps and actions required to satisfy the Regulations. This is a free resource that people can engage with and improve, as we all learn more from our day-to-day drive to improve the industry and make buildings safer.
https://bim4housing.com/understanding-building-safety-regulations/
Preventing Breaks in the Golden Thread
BIM4Housing has also identified critical issues that could disrupt the Golden Thread, such as improper design, selection, and installation of fire safety products. Upcoming reports will provide solutions to mitigate these risks and ensure compliance with lifecycle asset management and the Building Safety Act.
Expanding Beyond Housing
Looking ahead, BIM4Housing aims to extend its impact to other sectors, including schools, hospitals, and commercial projects. By leveraging resources and expertise developed for housing, the initiative seeks to engage a broader audience, including asset managers and operations professionals.
Driving Cross-Sector Engagement
BIM4Housing recognises the potential of its resources to address challenges across diverse project types. The organisation aims to replicate its success in housing to create a consistent framework for asset management and operational efficiency in other domains.
Through collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to better information management, BIM4Housing is setting a new standard for safety, sustainability, and efficiency in the built environment.
Establishing BIM in Asset Management (BIMinAM): A Cross-Industry Approach
The Rationale for BIMinAM
George launched BIMinAM in 2024, as a new initiative aimed at engaging FMs and Asset Management teams more actively in clearly specifying what information they would find useful, how they would use it and how they could keep it up to date.
It addresses cross-industry challenges that are often overlooked by existing organisations. Unlike institution-driven initiatives, BIMinAM focuses on practical, industry-wide collaboration to solve real world problems. This approach brings together stakeholders from diverse sectors to address shared issues collaboratively, without compromising competitive advantages.
Tackling Cross-Industry Challenges
BIMinAM is designed to align with evolving regulations and mitigate risks tied to design, construction, and asset management. A key focus is ensuring compliance with building regulations—not only during initial design but throughout the lifecycle of assets. George emphasises the importance of recording and maintaining accurate data about installed components, replacements, and changes over time, addressing gaps often found in BIM, O&M manuals, and Regulation 38 packs.
The initiative also aims to bridge a critical divide: while design and construction teams are adapting to new standards, asset management teams remain underrepresented. BIMinAM seeks to provide the input necessary to ensure BIM meets asset management needs effectively.
Collaborative Problem-Solving
BIMinAM brings together competitors to solve shared challenges through collaborative workshops. For instance, stakeholders—including designers, manufacturers, and operations professionals—tackle scenarios such as fire safety management.
These discussions identify risks, mitigation measures, and the information needed to ensure compliance and functionality.
This collaborative model has resulted in detailed insights into asset types, such as fire doors and smoke dampers, covering risks, installation, maintenance, and competency requirements. These resources, freely available on the BIM4Housing website, provide valuable guidance for ensuring asset performance and regulatory compliance.
Addressing Systemic Issues
BIMinAM also targets systemic issues that threaten the integrity of the Golden Thread, such as late-stage M&E procurement and inconsistencies in lifecycle asset data. By aligning design, construction, and asset management processes, the initiative ensures that safety-critical data remains accurate and actionable.
George highlights the need for structured data and rationalised classifications to simplify decision-making for complex products like fire dampers being installed in fire walls. By standardising information requirements and integrating them into technical submittal processes, BIMinAM ensures that installed products align with Golden Thread principles and support ongoing maintenance.
Product Data Libraries
Selection of the right product for the right purpose is a critical part of the Golden Thread, as is the process of change management, when the product that was initially selected is changed for an alternative. In both cases, consistent and reliable information about the manufacturers products is critical, but there is currently little consistency in the way manufacturers describe their products. There is also little consistency between the many different product library services, so finding products that satisfy some key performance requirements is still a (very) manual task.
This becomes even more important to asset teams who need to ensure a replacement product doesn’t compromise performance.
Also, any form of embodied or operational carbon assessment requires reliable and machine readable product information.
There have been several attempts to tackle this, including the Construction Products Association (CPA) LEXiCON initiative. However, that was established in 2016 and is still WIP – in part because manufacturers are concerned that simplifying comparability will affect them commercially.
The BIM4Housing and BIMinAM communities need this resolving and are supporting not for profit initiatives like GS1 which has been so successful in the retail and healthcare sectors and LRQA, which manages the Build Offsite Property Assurance Scheme that ensures that homes built using MMC will be mortgageable for at least 60 years.
Transparency of product information and quality of design and workmanships are what Insurers need to reduce premiums and support the industry
Leveraging Industry Collaboration
The initiative builds on successful collaborative models, like Willmott Dixon’s Yellow Book, which improves supply chain performance. BIMinAM aims to replicate this success by fostering industry wide solutions to standardise processes, reduce redundancies, and enhance safety and efficiency.
Through collective action, BIMinAM seeks to transform asset management, moving the industry beyond isolated efforts and toward a unified, data driven approach. By bringing together expertise from design, construction, and operations, the initiative ensures a more rigorous and efficient system for managing built assets.
Progress and Achievements in BIM in Asset Management (BIMinAM)
A Growing Initiative with Early Successes
Six months into its launch, BIMinAM has made significant strides, achieving noteworthy milestones while garnering strong industry support.
George highlighted the completion of two foundational workstreams—digital records and the business case—with the interoperability workstream poised for completion early in 2025.
• Digital Records: This workstream defined the structure and contents of a digital record, offering a straightforward yet critical foundation for information management.
• Business Case: Addressing the value proposition of better information management, this workstream tackled complex challenges and demonstrated how improved practices could mitigate real-world problems. Phase two will focus on gathering diverse case studies to further validate the business case.
• Interoperability: With outputs from the previous workstreams now available, this group is set to finalise its work by early 2025, ensuring seamless integration of data across systems.
New Workstreams for 2025
Building on these achievements, BIMinAM is shifting focus to four new areas of critical importance:
1. Digital Handover: Standardising technical submissions, O&M documentation, and health and safety processes
2. Digital Asset Capture and the Golden Thread: Ensuring accurate and comprehensive asset data is maintained throughout a building’s lifecycle.
3. PFI/PPP: Standardising datasets and processes can reduce the costs being borne by individual SPVs and contracts. The contractual demands of PFI Handback require much better information to be in place, and there are significant economies of scale if all interested parties can work collaboratively.
4. International: Projects throughout the world are facing the same challenges we are in the UK, so the solutions, expertise and partnerships we are establishing in BIM4Housing and BIMinAM are eminently exportable. BIMinAM has already established collaborations in Hong Kong, Middle East, US and Ukraine.
Collaborative Efforts in Fire and Safety
A fire and safety-critical working group is actively addressing legislative challenges like Regulation 38, which mandates as-built plans and comprehensive documentation at building handover. George emphasises the importance of ensuring all building elements work cohesively to maintain safety.
Practical Resources and Standardisation
To support the industry, BIMinAM has developed shared resources, including detailed information sets on fire safety-critical assets such as fire doors, dampers, and cavity barriers. These documents, created with input from over 100 subject matter experts, offer standardised guidance for inspections and compliance. They are freely available and represent a collaborative effort involving organisations like the NHS and BIM4Housing.
A Unified Approach for the Future
As BIMinAM and BIM4Housing move forward, they are committed
to simplifying compliance, promoting collaboration, and aligning design, construction, and asset management processes. By leveraging shared resources, expertise, and industry-wide input, they aim to drive meaningful progress in asset management and ensure safer, more efficient practices across the built environment.
