VBIS - Bridging Construction and FM

Introduction

What Standards are in use?

Before the widespread adoption of BIM starting in Australian in 2009 when Autodesk Revit released their metric version, the construction industry had looked for a means to order their works.

The original release of Uniclass was in 1997 and ISO12006 the Standard commonly referenced as a basis was initially released in 2001.

In principle classification systems are assigned to classes of objects that enables us to name, analyse and facilitate management. It’s a fairly standard process that consists of grouping objects that have similar characteristics or behaviours.

Nomenclature and classification systems have evolved, many pre-dating the adoption of BIM and all pre-dating the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) facilities management systems, the internet of things (IoT), the adoption of life cycle analysis and the move to predictive maintenance management.

Uniclass 2015, originally released in 1997, is the predominant classification in Europe, but many countries also have their own systems. Sweden primarily uses the BSAB, Denmark CCS (Cuneco Classification System). Germany the VOB classification, Luxembourg the CRTI-B, and the CI/SfB system, set up in 1959 and the basis of BS 1192-5 Construction drawing practice: Guide for structuring and exchange of CAD data, is applied in England and Belgium.

Although not widespread practice in France, there are notable nomenclatures such as the DTU, the CNEH (French nomenclature of hospital equipment), the RPOPC (Permanent directory of construction works), the nomenclatures of the AQC’s Sycodés (a system for collecting information about defects found across the construction industry) and also the General Table of State Properties (TGPE).

Internationally, EPIC (Electronic Product Information Cooperation) has given rise to OmniClass, which, along with Masterformat and Uniformat II, dominates the US market. The most recent classifications all derive from adaptations of old classifications.

What do most of these Standards have in common?

They are construction focused, aiming to provide a common structure linking the building program, specifications, and estimates. They seek to integrate the design process to improve communications and coordination among all project participants, an accelerated design, and significantly increased productivity.

The two emerging dominant Standards, Uniclass 2015 and Uniformat II both have similar limitations:

a four level structure lacking the resolution required for life cycle analysis.

Not suitable as a “code” or “ID” to communicate between SaaS systems.

Why develop VBIS?

“VBIS provides a higher resolution of asset type categorisation than established systems, co-existing, not replacing those systems.”

Beginning with the end in mind

The genesis of VBIS was the review of issues that had their origins in construction documentation and its transfer to facilities management (FM). These were:

How do we embed in a BIM object properties a code that can be passed through to federated models and made to function in the facilities management phase?
How do we standardise the naming of assets on project drawings, schematics, commissioning documentation and labelling in the field?
As the world moves to SaaS systems how do we standardise inter-system communication?
As the world moves to predicative maintenance what is required to analyse FM databases of assets and service history records?
How to we accommodate the Internet of Things and relate potentially thousands of sensors to asset databases?
How do we categorise assets in the build environment?
How do we categorise documents associated with the build environment?

The basic purpose of a classification system is to enable anyone to put a label on something in order to know what it is. Then to be able to find this same thing, or information related to this thing, by using the label and give it to someone else who would also understand what it is and what to do with it.

Construction vs Facilities Management

The drivers in construction differ from facilities management. In essence, the driver on construction projects is to deliver successfully by consistently satisfying time, cost and quality goals.

The driver for facilities management is to realise value from assets to maintain the users environment quality. Time, cost and quality goals are also present, however in construction all assets are new, the key consideration is tracking design, supply, installation, commissioning and handover of the asset.

In FM the assets are aging at different rates, and many will require replacement before the end-of-life of the facilities. In many cases they will require replacement multiple times before the end-of-life of the facility.

Consider Australian Parliament House with a nominal life of 200 years. 32 years after being opened core plant such as chillers, boilers, switchboards are being replaced. At that rate that replacement cycle will be repeated six times before the 200 year anniversary is reached.

It is not as simple as equipment wearing out, redundancy can occur due to factors such as component obsolescence, change of use, new regulatory requirements, etc.

The core requirement of asset management is life cycle analysis. This requires the ability to compare assets by type to a reasonably specific level of detail, not only within the facility, but across facility portfolios, or across industry portfolios, to review service and replacement history to determine the optimum life cycle and cost.

VBIS relationship to Standards

The structure of the classification systems according to ISO 22274 can be enumerative, faceted, or a combination of enumerative and faceted with an entry class.

ISO 12006 recommends 13 classes of classification tables to cover the complete lifecycle of construction works. These include classes which can be roughly grouped into Resource, Process, Result and Property classes. VBIS asset classification tables aims to provide granular asset level detail specifically focused on Construction Products (a Resource class) to better support operational and planning activities required during the asset life.

VBIS is an enumerative classification system using subject-specific categories, that are combined to create the full classification entry. By following a level order of specialisation (classes and subclasses) with VBIS’s 4 level classification syntax, VBIS utilises one of the two proposed classification hierarchy structures specified in ISO 12006. It has specific application to the categorisation of objects in 3D Building Information Models and asset databases and other related FM systems such as document management ans service systems.

How does VBIS differ from Standards such as Uniclass?

VBIS tags are designed to provide a level of asset type resolution to align with the maintainable assets.

Uniclass 2015 and Uniformat II are both four level structures, designed for construction, and lacking the resolution required for FM purposes, the issue being lack of resolution of the asset type.

This is should not be taken as a criticism of the two Standards, VBIS does not look to replace those Standards, rather it is recognising that when it comes to FM, more detail is required to group and analyse assets by type.

Uniclass 2015

Below is an extract from the Uniclass 2015 Products classification table Pr_60_60 covering:

60 - Services and process source products
60 - Heating and cooling source products
13 - Chillers and cooling towers

There are two issues evident in this classification

Combining chillers and cooling towers into the one category
Limited resolution of the equipment, e.g. Pr_60_60_13_96 Water-cooled liquid chillers

Within Pr_60_60_13_96 liquid cooled chillers there are 6 basic types, each with different operating and maintenance requirements:

Centrifugal
Centrifugal- Magnetic Bearing
Screw
Scroll
Heat Pump
Reciprocating

Uniformat II

Below is an extract from the Uniformat II classification system showing the third and fourth classification levels. As you can see it stops at the system level classification and lacks any resolution for equipment within the system.

There is also application of asset use at the 4th level. The system does not permit, for example, finding a particular type of pump, let alone that type of pump regardless of whether it is used in a cooling, heating or fire services application.

VBIS Tags – an Ontology

VBIS tags provide an ontology for assets in the built environment. Ontology is a set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain that shows their properties and the relations between them.

Every built environment project will have an information model, often a mixture of structured and unstructured information repositories incorporating project, organisation and asset information requirements. However, even if well structured, the structure is unlikely to be compatible with other projects, particularly older projects in the build environment, and whilst suitable for a particular client’s requirements, may not be comparable with an organisation that acquires the project at a later date, or is contracted to maintain the project on completion.

Comparison of the new built projects with the existing built environment is also a critical aspect of effective facilities management.

The challenge is how to unify these repositories to be able to search them in a consistent way to recover information and mine for operational performance data to be input into asset management and upgrade decision processes.

The VBIS tags were developed on first principles, deliberately separating the use of the asset from its type. The VBIS tags comprises a four-level structure which provides a unique alphabetic tags per type of asset:

The tags are designed to facilitate searching in a unified manner for assets by type. An example is provided below (note that VBIS codes are provided with mapping to Uniclass & Omniclass):

The VBIS Solution

A different basis for tag creation

The first question raised in FM when an asset fails or is identified as reaching end-of-life is “Where else do I have these assets”? The next question is “What do I know about the service and failure history of this type of asset”?

When reviewing existing tagging systems two things became evident:

Insufficient resolution of the asset detail for FM purposes
Categories mixing the asset use with its type

Details are provided under the heading VBIS Tags – an Ontology on page 7, in summary the tags are designed to facilitate searching in a unified manner for assets and information by type.

They also permit unifying different asset databases for comparison purposes without disturbing the categorisation originally applied. The addition of the correct VBIS tag against each asset record permits the database to be viewed in a consistent way.

Embedding in a BIM object a code that can be passed through to FM

All BIM software provides the ability to embed at least one URL in the object properties.

Consider that this not applies to BIM software creating 3D versions of the built environment, but also other 2D document formats such as schematic diagrams, emerging technologies such as 360O photography and applications such as Matterport.

Returning to the construction documentation process and the question of how to enable a URL in the early design stages when the site holding the project documentation on handover to FM is unknown.

How do we embed in BIM objects a means to communicate with an on-line O&M Manual, which will be selected in the future?

There are a few considerations:

We need a code that is unique and suitable for a future find and replace operation to add a URL.
It is likely we don’t know any details of the system that we are linking to.
We may not know the unique name to be applied to the asset in the design stage
We need to be able to link to a variety of information; drawings, specification, technical data, commissioning data, etc.

The solution determined was to use a “search and display” approach, passing a code that represents the type of equipment as a base, with the ability to refine the parameters and asset identification later in the implementation of FM systems.

Consider this example of a centrifugal end suction pump with the VBIS code ME-PU-CES, in this example used in mechanical services:

The VBIS code is inserted into the library object against a URL property prefixed with a unique string, e.g.

VBIS-ID#?=ME-PU-CES

Ideally these codes are applied to designers and suppliers object libraries. The objective being that if no other work was done on the URL during the project and construction, when the model was handed over to FM it could be activated.

A find and replace operation can be run on a Navisworks model to replace

VBIS-ID#?=ME-PU-CES

with

https://www.url.com/?proj=5435&tag=ME-PU-CES

In this basic form this query will ask the system at www.url.com to look up project 5635 and return a list of documents for this type of pump.

Two things to consider:

Further work can be done to refine the syntax to be more specific if required, and more important
The work defining the syntax is not wasted, if the documentation system is moved and upgraded, a find an replace of www.url.com to www.newurl.com will point to a new system.

Our White Paper No. 3 “How to create a VBIS compatible 3D model” provides further detail.

Standardise the naming of assets

The VBIS classification structure is the basis of the BIM-MEPAUS classification structure of disciplines, systems and products to create a unified framework for asset naming.

The framework incorporates a set of well-defined rules to provide a consistent approach across all disciplines.

Disciplines are used to group design, construction and maintenance activities and are based on the traditional building services engineering & associated disciplines.
Systems are groups of connected components that together deliver a service such as chilled water, general purpose power or fire detection.
Products are created to serve a specific function. For pumps, the product specific function is to generally move a fluid or in some cases compress a gas.

VBIS provides the definition of Disciplines and Products. Examples:

For example, chilled water pump number 1 located on level 31 of a building is designated CHW.PU 31-1
The “_” is used to delimit a child component. For example, a VSD for a chilled water pump would be designated: CHW.PU 31-1_VSD

Refer to the BIM-MEPAUS Guideline– System, Service and Component Names and Tags (https://www.bimmepaus.com.au/initiative/guidelines/)

Standardise SaaS inter-system communication

The VBIS Syntax permits a call to an online SaaS application and pass search parameters for the site to initiate a search and display results.

Syntax follows the standard for Query String (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string) e.g.:

https://www.url.com/?proj=5435&type=drawing&label=pump123

https://www.url.com /?proj=5435&type=drawing&label=pump123&label=pump345

A total of 26 parameters are available to drive an application remotely and to be as general or specific as required about the results to be returned.

The VBIS syntax is classification coding independent and can be used with VBIS tags, industry coding systems such as Uniclass, Omniclass, GS1 and client specific systems.

Refer to the heading Application Linking on page 18 for further detail.

Analyse FM databases of assets & service history records

A core requirement of lifecycle analysis and predictive maintenance is to interrogate FM databases to review service history. A fundamental requirement of lifecycle analysis is to determine the true life of the asset taking into the consideration operational environment. The objective being to predict when an asset will reach end of life and replace the asset before it fails, not when it fails.

VBIS tags provide the categorisation resolution and standardisation required to compare disparate databases.

This is also key to understanding the maintenance regime that needs to be applied to assets, to both optimise the asset life and the cost of maintenance.

There is an increasing trend to utilise lifecycle analysis to provide a better prediction of future capital expenditure, being able to determine true asset life is key to levelling capital expenditure.

In the example above the red bars are simple calculated expenditure vs the green which has been corrected for anticipated actual end of life.

Accommodate the Internet of Things

The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data facilitates the collection of vast amounts of data by systems such as SkySpark. The question is how to relate this back to an FM asset database.

Systems such as Skyspark permit sensors to be grouped and tags to be applied. If for example there is a set of sensors on a pump of a particular type e.g. a centrifugal end suction pump with the VBIS code ME-PU-CES. Applying the VBIS code to sensors associated with that type pf pump permits searching for operational data associated with a class of assets which can be as simple or specific as required, as the VBIS codes facilitate wild card searching:

*PU* will return all sensors on pumps
ME-PU* will return all sensors on mechanical pumps
ME-PU-CES will return all sensors on mechanical end suction pumps
ME-PU-CES-LC will return all sensors on mechanical end suction long coupled pumps

Categorise assets in the build environment

Recognising that new construction represents a small component of the built environment a critical question is how do we apply consistent categorisation to the records of the build environment.

By providing one additional field to the asset record to hold a VBIS code it is possible to search, sort and compare disparate databases without disputing the original classification structure.

This can be applied across a range of applications from a database being held in a spreadsheet to an SQL database siting behind a FM System.

Semantic tagging

Semantics refers to the study of meaning. Semantic Tagging is the process of associating an element from an ontology with a document, usually a computer file or website. Semantic tagging serves the goal of describing the meaning and nature of a document or its content in order to facilitate better retrieval later on.

VBIS tags are an ontology, semantic tagging is the process of associating a VBIS element, or part of the element, with an information object such as an asset records, drawing, report, CAD file, etc. held in a database.

The VBIS application concept is broader in that the VBIS tags are applied to multiple types of databases, CAD models such as 3D models and 2D schematic drawings and even 3D virtual reality images.

Applying semantic tagging to records of an asset database, objects in a 3D BIM model or an online O&M manual associates a VBIS ontology element with asset records, associated asset documents and objects within a 3D CAD model.

This in turn permits the linking of asset records in multiple databases, including 3D models, which in turn supports implementation of a defined data and information custody and stewardship model inclusive of defined roles and responsibilities.

Looking beyond asset records, semantic tagging can also be applied to asset purchasing systems, wherein the supplier’s on-line equipment catalogues once tagged better facilitates automated procurement, matching tagged lists of equipment to be purchased with a tagged supplier’s catalogue.

Background

About VBIS

VBIS is the business set-up to develop and promote the application and acceptance of the VBIS Syntax and Asset Object Classification Codes as part of the Victorian government’s Future Industries Fund.

Key aspects of VBIS are:

It is an asset classification structure designed to suit searching asset databases and associated documentation repositories
It includes a standard URL instruction set to imbed into 3D models and other online systems such as FM service systems to communicate with other online repositories
The classification tables with tags are public domain
ISO12006-2:2015 compliant
Provides mapping to Uniclass and Omniclass. It co-exists in effect providing the implementation of all three systems.
The same structure is used for the BIM-MEPAUS equipment naming convention

The asset classification structure was designed with three purposes in mind:

1) To provide the basis of a standardised naming convention for equipment – this is via the BIM-MEPAUS initiative

2) To provide the basis of a standard tagging convention for assets to facilitate analytics search

3) To suit how assets are classified for FM use.

VBIS had the advantage of the opportunity to assess the requirements from an FM perspective together with access to extensive project and service asset records covering the full range of building services and to categorise equipment accordingly.

The Building Information Management Vision

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is intended to be an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure.

Australia is recognised as one of the global centres at the forefront of collaborative design and construction Building Information Modelling (BIM). Recent projects leveraging on these BIM capabilities include the New Bendigo Hospital, Barangaroo Commercial Towers and CSL’s AlbuRx Facility; which has clearly demonstrated the benefits of combining BIM with collaborative project delivery, lean design and construction practices such as off-site construction.

The development of this capability is seen to be important in contributing to future growth opportunities with the design, construction and facility management sectors.

BIM models have been created traditionally for the design and construction phase of the built environment They have, unsurprisingly created their models therefore for the key parts of the project for which they are integrally involved, i.e. the design and construction phase of a building.

The real challenge for BIM comes from the fact that between 75% and 90% of a built asset’s total costs are incurred post construction in the “as Built’ and/or the ‘Facilities Management’ phases of its lifespan. The greatest potential value from a well-constructed BIM Model is therefore to be found post-construction, however the current models, as they are typically built solely with the construction process in mind, do not translate well into this post construction phase.

Currently on a completion of the construction of a project, key data in the form of Operating and Maintenance Manuals (O&M Manuals), will be handed over for the facilities managers use in a fragmented form.

Industry Survey

At the commencement of the VBIS development project [HS1] a comprehensive survey to establish the status quo of the uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and its integration with ongoing Facility and Asset Management on construction projects. This was undertaken by consortium partner Melbourne University (refer to Appendix 3 of this report).

This was an in-depth review of existing literature, a comprehensive industry study among 90+ Victorian representatives of Specialist Trade Contractors and Facility/Asset Managers, as well as a survey on existing BIM-FM software solutions available on the market.

When considering a hole-of-life approach to BIM, it becomes apparent that despite advancements in BIM adoption by Consultants and Contractors, Clients and their Facility and Asset Managers still lag behind the rest when realising tangible benefits from BIM. This is a major problem though as studies point out that major gains from BIM occur during the operational phase of built assets.

The state of the industry transfer of information from the construction phase to the facilities management phase is best summed by this survey response:

“At the end of a project there is so much data in many different forms (excel, word, PDF, paper, email, Aconex, REVIT files, CAD files, etc.) that collating this is next to impossible without a clear guide and format as to how the client would like to see the data.”

This response highlights the need for flexible solutions that enable project stakeholders to interact with building data at any time during a project’s progression from design to handover and beyond. A core problem holding back the potential of using BIM data for FM is the sheer quantity of tools and approaches taken by those federating their individual BIMs to constitute the ‘as maintained’ version of the virtual representation of assets throughout its life.

BIM (Building Information Management) is intended to be an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure.

The Challenge

Currently on a completion of the construction of a project data, in the form of Operating and Maintenance Manuals (O&M Manuals) will be handed over for the facilities managers use in a fragmented form. The data will include:

3D models
2D drawings – plans, elevations and schematic diagrams
Descriptions of operation
Design information
Documentation such as Fire Engineers Report or Building Surveyors conditions approvals
Schedules of equipment
Asset registers
Schedules of suppliers
Product data sheets
Safety instructions
Manufacturers operation manuals
Commissioning results
Warranty information
Maintenance procedures

All of the above data will be in soft copy form, in part loaded into facilities management systems, a and the balance made available for on-line use by facilities management personnel. However, there is currently a significant disconnect in BIM, between the Building Model and the Information.

Currently there is no Standard that the design and construction team, nor facilities management software vendors, can rely upon to build a communication mechanism to allow the BIM data to be linked.

The projects that have created integrated BIM implementations for facilities management have been labour intensive to implement and maintain.

As a consequence, BIM is seriously under-utilised in the post construction phase and is rarely used by Facilities Managers for ongoing operations. As a result, the time that is required to call up building information for the purposes of operations activities such as maintenance and asset management is far and away the highest cost involved in this work.

Application Linking

The VBIS Asset Object Classification Coding (tags) provides a basis of a Standard for asset and data classification and information exchange.

The VBIS Syntax provides for interoperability of systems within a Common Data Environment (CDE) by facilitating embedded search and display instructions in CDE applications that is transportable as computer systems and applications evolve and new functionality and systems becomes available.

The Syntax supports data security by:

obeying the access restraints put in place by the application

permitting access to be restricted to a specific area or a specific document.

In principle it provides a means of calling a website and passing search parameters to the site to initiate a search and display results using a query string as part of a uniform resource locator (URL) which assigns values to specified parameters. e.g.

<URL>/?proj=5435&type=drawing&tag=ME-PU-CES

<URL>/?proj=5435&type=drawing&uniclass=”Pr_65 53 86”

Application in Building Information Models

Overview

VBIS tags can be applied to both objects in 2D schematic drawings and 3D Building Information Models. Both are applicable and part of a digital deliverable.

Revit is currently accepted as the primary model authoring tool for building services in Australia, and therefore considered a key platform required to achieve VBIS outcomes.

VBIS codes are added into Revit models (and other 3D modeling platforms) as an Object Parameter. Two parameters are added:

VBIS.Code
VBIS.Description

Autodesk provide a free tool that can access public databases to apply various standard classification values. E.g. UK Database (Uniclass), US Database (OmniClass). A separate VBIS database is available to apply the required codes to the VBIS project parameters.

In addition a VBIS URL can be added as an object parameter to enable linking to an external website or intranet from within the model to an external documentation repository such as an O&M Manual.

Further Information

Refer to VBIS Practice Note No.3 for a description of the process of adding the required data to Revit and Navisworks models to enable the linking of 3D objects from a 3D viewer to a search function within an online Operations and Maintenance platform.

VBIS & Virtual & Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are two aspects of the same experience. You could view Augmented Reality as Virtual Reality with one foot in the real world: Augmented Reality simulates artificial objects in the real environment; Virtual Reality creates an artificial environment to inhabit.

Regardless of the experience when there is a link required within the “reality”, it will require a means of calling an external application in a form that can easily be transferred to another application as the technology evolves.

One example is a product such as Roundme which permits the merging of multiple 360 degree photographs to provide the user a virtual tour capability. These products also provide the ability to embed links to external information sources.

VBIS syntax provides a search and display call to an application that will only require modification to the domain name at most in the future, but will always call and display the current version of the document named, displaying it according to the functionality of the application being called.

VBIS & The Internet of Things

Standards such as Haystack (https://project-haystack.org/) provides a means to standardise the identification of multiple data measurement points on assets, applications include automation, control, energy, HVAC, lighting, and other environmental systems.

Project Haystack is a not-for-profit made up of industry representatives like Siemens, Lynxspring, and SkyFoundry. The group is promoting the adoption of data semantics (tagging) in building monitoring systems (BMS). Project-Haystack’s vision is to streamline the use of Internet of Things (IoT) data by creating a standardised approach to defining “data semantics,” related services, and APIs to consume and share the data and its semantic descriptors.

As an open industry initiative, it is focused on providing a common metadata methodology for building automation, smart city, and other applications. As such it has an important role in the consolidation of data into a common environment or context which is necessary to turn that data into useful information that can allow informed decisions to be made about how to best manage an asset.

Applications such as Skyspark (https://skyfoundry.com) provide systems to gather and store this data together with data from a range of data sources, such as asset records, for analysis.

VBIS provides a means to group measurement points according to an industry standardised asset classification structure.

Using the earlier example of pump classifications, VBIS tags facilitate the searching of a Skyspark database for measurement points associated with a particular asset type, independent of its project specific identifiers, or the tagging used to identify a specific sensor.

VBIS & Brick

Brick (https://brickschema.org) is an open-source effort to standardise semantic descriptions of the physical, logical and virtual assets in buildings and the relationships between them. Brick includes a tagging system similar to Haystack that augments tags with formal semantic rules that promote consistency and interpretability.

A key element of Brick is the resource description framework (RDF) class hierarchy describing the various building subsystems and the entities and equipment therein.

VBIS tags provide the Equipment component of the hierarchy.

VBIS & Google Digital Buildings Project

The Digital Buildings project is an open-source, Apache-licensed effort to create a uniform schema and toolset for representing structured information about buildings and building-installed equipment. A version of the Digital Buildings ontology and toolset is currently being used by Google to manage buildings in its portfolio.

The Digital Buildings project originated from the need to manage a very large, heterogeneous building portfolio in a scalable way. The project aims to enable management applications/analyses that are trivially portable between buildings. This goal is achieved through a combination of semantically-expressive abstract modelling, an easy-to-use configuration language, and robust validation tooling.

Digital Buildings work has been inspired by Project Haystack and BrickSchema, and maintains cross-compatibility and/or convergence as a long-term objective.

Alignment with Australian Standards

As far as practicable, the naming conventions used in Australian Standards have been utilised. In some instances, these standards have undergone significant updates in recent times to assure naming conventions across related standards are consistent and increasingly aligned with ISO standards.

Alignment with BIM-MEPAUS

BIM-MEPAUS is a national ‘standard practice’ for BIM – specifically focusing on MEP services throughout the design process and operation of a building. They develop best practice virtual design to physical construction BIM MEP standards, for the Australian construction and building services industry.

They also publish specifications and supporting reference guidelines and notes which are intended to assist designers and modellers to create models which are fit-for-purpose. These include standards for the naming of parameters in 3D modelling object libraries and for the naming of plant and equipment.

The VBIS tags follow an identical structure for the classification and naming of equipment, and their specifications include standard parameters for the inclusion of VBIS tags.

The objective is to have VBIS tags embedded in all industry supplier provided object libraries, and the object libraries of Australia’s leading BIM practitioners from design firms and contractors to specialist sub-contractors

Applicable Standards

ISO 55000

The suite of documents comprises 3 standards:

ISO/AS 55000:2014 Asset management – Overview, principles and terminology
ISO/AS 55001:2014 Asset management – Management Systems – Requirements
ISO/As 55002:2019 - Guidelines for the application of ISO 55001

The suite does not mandate any particular way to managing assets, rather is similar to the approach taken for ISO9001 – QA, in that it requires you to have a system in place to manage the assets that incorporates core principles with a focus on managing the value and risk to stakeholders and alignment to business objectives.

ISO 55001:2014 specifies the core guidelines for an asset management system. This involves considering the organisation’s context, a commitment from the organisation’s top leadership, established asset management objectives and plans to meet them, determining resources, establishing competencies, and evaluating the asset management system’s performance.

To quote ISO 55000; the SMAP comprises documented information that specifies how organisational objectives are to be converted into asset management objectives, the approach for developing asset management plans, and the role of the asset management system in supporting achievement of the asset management objectives.

Supporting activities
Operational planning & control
Performance evaluation

Improvement activities - performance evaluation of asset portfolios, asset management systems and asset management are a critical input & trigger for any improvement process.

The above is supported by an Asset Management System – typically in the form of an asset database around which systems are built such as maintenance, breakdown, replacement, and life cycle projection.

Such systems have the advantage that a significant component of the compliance with policy and procedures can be undertaken by enforcement of system workflows and record keeping.

ISO 12006

"Building construction - Organization of information about construction works" is an international standard dealing with structuring of information for construction. It has two parts:

ISO 12006-2:2015 "Building construction - Organization of information about construction works - Part 2: Framework for classification of information"
Defines a framework for the development of built environment classification systems. It identifies a set of recommended classification table titles for a range of information object classes according to particular views, e.g. by form or function, supported by definitions.
ISO 12006-3:2007 "Building construction - Organization of information about construction works - Part 3: Framework for object-oriented information" also known as BuildingSMART Data Dictionary or International Framework for Dictionaries (IFD) Library.
Specifies a language-independent information model which can be used for the development of dictionaries used to store or provide information about construction works. It enables classification systems, information models, object models and process models to be referenced from within a common framework.

ISO 12006-2:2015 defines a framework for the development of built environment classification systems that applies to the complete life cycle of construction works, including briefing, design, documentation, construction, operation and maintenance, and demolition. It applies to both building and civil engineering works, including associated engineering services and landscaping.

The structure of the classification systems according to ISO 22274 can be enumerative, faceted, or a combination of enumerative and faceted with an entry class.

ISO 12006 recommends 13 classes of classification tables to cover the complete lifecycle of construction works. These include classes which can be roughly grouped into Resource, Process, Result and Property classes. VBIS asset classification tables aims to provide granular asset level detail specifically focused on Construction Products (a Resource class) to better support operational and planning activities required during the asset life.

ISO 19650

AS/ISO 19650 Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM) - Information management using building information modelling.

AS ISO 19650 is a high-level framework that can be applied to all types of assets and by all types and sizes of organizations, regardless of the procurement strategy used. Its flexibility allows it to be adapted to projects of a wide range of scale and complexity.

A key principle of the standard is clearly defining information requirements at project inception. This provides the clarity and certainty all parties need to direct their efforts effectively with the minimum of confusion, cost and time overruns, reworks, waste and conflict. It also allows clients to verify whether their requirements have been satisfactorily met.

The Standard comprises two parts:

AS/ISO 19650.1: Concepts and principles - outlines the concepts and principles for information management for construction projects. It provides recommendations for a framework for managing information including exchanging, recording, versioning and organising it for all project participants. These concepts and principles are applicable to the whole life cycle of any built asset including strategic planning, initial design, engineering, development, documentation and construction, day-to-day operation, maintenance, refurbishment, repair and end-of-life.
AS/ISO 19650.2: Delivery phase of the assets specifies requirements for information management during the delivery phase of assets.

ISO 22263

This International Standard specifies a framework for the organization of project information (process-related as well as product-related) in construction projects. Its purpose is to facilitate control, exchange, retrieval and use of relevant information about the project and the construction entity. It is intended for all agents in the project organization in management of the construction process as a whole and in coordination of its sub-processes and activities.

This framework consists of a number of generic parameters that are applicable to projects of varying complexity, size and duration and is adaptable to national, local and project-specific variations of the construction process.

ISO 22274

ISO 22274:2013 establishes basic principles and requirements for ensuring that classification systems are suitable for worldwide application, considering such aspects as cultural and linguistic diversity as well as market requirements. By applying principles relating to terminology work, ISO 22274:2013 provides guidelines for creating, handling, and using classification systems for international environments.

ISO 22274:2013 addresses the need in many domains for classification systems that are concept based to ensure that they are suitable for worldwide use and can be adapted to specific user communities. It provides information about the design, development, and use of classification systems that are fully enabled for diverse linguistic, cultural, and market-based environments.

ISO 22274:2013 primarily specifies the factors that need to be considered when creating and populating a classification system for use in diverse linguistic environments.

VBIS & Standards - The VBIS relationship to Standards