glodon

[glodon]

Leaders Emphasise Digital Solution and ESG for Construction Industry at ULI Summit

2022 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Asia Pacific Summit, one of Asia Pacific's most established real estate industry gatherings, was held in Hong Kong on August 29-September 1, attracting over 500 industry participants from around the world.

Through the summit, Glodon company limited taps into the collective experience of participants to address pressing global and local challenges facing the real estate industry and communities worldwide.

Glodon Vice President - International Business Development Pierpaolo Franco joined young industry leaders at a virtual group forum, exploring how digital solutions and new materials have enabled smarter and healthier ways to build, manage and use real estate.

"The traditional industry has rarely seen as much innovation as in the past few years. Digital solutions and new materials have enabled smarter and healthier ways to build, manage and use real estate," he said.

Smart building digital twins have always been a trending topic in the construction industry. In the panel discussion, Mr. Fraanco answered the question of what digital twins is, explaining that "digital twins are not limited to the complex ecosystem, BIM centre, big data, IoT, artificial intelligence, modeling, computing clouds and etc."

Glodon Software has always been a pioneer player in the digitalisation of the construction industry. One example can be the Olympic village Project in Beijing. The project not only preserves the ecological environment but also represents technological breakthroughs. The result of applying BIM 5D and digital twin shows that workload was reduced by 50%, work speed improved by 130%, work efficiency improved by 150%, and 60,000 cubic meters of earthwork were saved.

ESG has been mentioned at the summit multiple times. Changes in investor attitudes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) over the last five years have been exponential – it's now considered "one of the most important parts of an investment decision," and five years from now "it's going to be a very different conversation again."

Of the three themes the "E" (environmental), has recently come to the fore, with climate change the main factor. Net-zero carbon targets, meanwhile, are hard to understand and even harder to meet, though "we are trying to put ourselves on a path to go there." Meanwhile, the "S" (Social) is also gaining traction – Blackstone now has a target of one-third diverse membership on boards: "What we're latching onto most is diversity and equity and inclusion," said one of the industry leaders.

Leaders agree that one area that is set for growth is the technology that facilitates the uptake of ESG strategies. Few real solutions exist yet in this area, but there is a huge demand for sensing and monitoring hardware that can measure performance and compliance. This is one area where the lack of regulatory frameworks setting standards for everything from planning codes to environmentally oriented construction standards is holding back the environmental cause.

Glodon has always been sticking to its original aspiration and being diligent on the right path. Digitization has made the construction industry full of vigor and hope. Glodon has always adhered to the lofty mission to "develop a better working and living environment with technology” and insisted on continuously integrating technology and ideals into the construction field. We have been promoting the transmission and implementation of digitalisation with professionalism and creating a new ecosystem of the industry chain with the platform concept of openness, interconnection, sharing, and coordination.

Other industry-leading insights shared at the summit include: How real estate investors incorporate digitalisation of finance in their structure and the continuous rise of alternative asset classes. Explore the links between smart city technology and ESG solutions. How do we take stock of innovation in our industry and better understand the immense developments in this space? What are the major macro themes to watch out for that will fuel real estate demand?

Contact us to find out more about the discussion.

[glodon]

The Evolving Role of Quantity Surveyors in the Digital Age

Data and technology play more critical roles in the whole lifecycle of cost management. quantity surveyors need to catch up with the digitalisation trend in the construction industry.

Glodon company limited recently talked with Bola Abisogun OBE, the Founder and Chairman of DiverseCity Surveyors and an elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

In the talk, we discussed policies and regulations on quantity surveying, data and technology application, information sharing and collaboration, vocational skills, sustainable development, etc. We tried to shed light on the opportunities and challenges encountered by quantity surveyors in the construction industry's digital transformation in construction process while exploring solutions for the coordinated development of people, organisations, industry, and technology.

What follows are highlights of the talk, edited and condensed for clarity.

Glodon: the UK introduced the concept of golden thread and the new Building Safety Act. How do you think the golden thread and government policy or regulation will lead to the digital transformation of quantity surveying in the UK and the global market?

Bola:  Because of what happened at Grenfell tower and the lack of knowledge of detail as to who did what, when, and why, Dame Hackitt led a report called Building a Safer Future. One of the recommendations in that report was to mandate legally, that asset owners/accountable persons/duty holders with high-rise residential buildings would be legally required to demonstrate and evidence the golden thread.

The golden thread means different things to different people at the moment. But in my mind, the golden thread is all about understanding how the building was designed, built, and maintained during its entire lifecycle, and also providing information and advice for users of the building to understand how the building should be working. The golden thread has to be created in a digital format. It has to be maintained in a digital format, and it has to be shared and enabled as an interoperable layer in a digital format.

So the fact that the only way to succeed with the golden thread is to unlock digital transformation in historical analogue processes, will 'force' the cultural change required, which I believe, for the sector is to shift from two dimensions to potentially five dimensions.

Glodon: How does the golden thread affect the future potential of the quantity surveyors?

Bola: It's all about data. Quantity surveyors historically have only ever managed data. Data from engineers, architects, clients, product manufacturers, and contractors. But, quantity surveyors have to now evolve from cost to value.

I believe that the quantity surveyor is well placed now to become a strategic advisor in so many other ways. We have to raise our game around what we have done. The value we are adding to projects, not only from a cost measurement and quantification basis but also now moving into the net zero and decarbonisation agenda, along with increasingly important ESG requirements. We need to think about our role in demonstrating value for the new client's agenda. And the role of technology and, specifically, the role of digital twins in that solution will become more prevalent over time.

Clients now are asking for more challenging requirements through their projects. They want more data, evidence, insights, and value. So the role of the quantity surveyor is at a crossroads today.

Glodon: Data is said to be the new gold of the industry which is of great importance in enabling and empowering transformation in quantity surveying. SMEs rely heavily on their historical data, possessing a significant disadvantage in data accuracy. What's your opinion on the inaccuracy of data existing in the industry?

Bola: In construction claims management, historical project data is relevant. But if it's not structured, it has no value. So the role of historical cost data in determining future or current project cost, not value, is skewed to some degree. It can only give, at best, a percentage of accuracy. If you value a project today, there are all these risks below the line that haven't yet been quantified and measured, which is always the case with the quantity surveyor. How do you bring certainty based on historical data to the unknown costs currently sitting within the cost plan you give to your client? All the current variables below the line have a risk of changing the minute you present them.

The question is when using historical cost data can you capture the changing cost drivers within 24 seconds of previously advising a client? It's never been possible to do that. But today, in 2022, with the level of technology and the tools that we have, it should be possible for every consultant to capture such detail, the real and at the right time, the movement of cost based on the composition of the design estimate. So when you think about the role of historical cost data, it has a role, but the role is not 100%. In order to get to 100%, ideally, you need to use technology to help you predict the different outcomes that you can't price, cost, and manage in 2D.

The first thing most clients say is how confident you are in the numbers you have presented. And that is when you find a quantity surveyor begins to talk about the risks and the unknown costs in the number submitted. So the role of technology, in my mind, is going to reduce the risks associated with every number that says the project is going to cost X plus.

We need to move to a point where we are fusing historical cost data with predictive cost data based on models of risk around the world that correlate with and pick up what is going on in supply chains in various countries and rely upon the competency of the professional design team and all other risks that have an impact on the whole-life construction cost. That is why we need to think not only about the role of historic cost data but the role of predictive cost data and the relationship between the two.

Glodon: In what way can the quantity surveying industry better collaborate? What is the best scenario for collaboration?

Bola: The biggest challenge we have with collaboration is not that the sector cannot do it; the challenge is how do we create trust. There is very little trust between the various actors, notoriously between clients and their professional design teams. So, in order to collaborate, we need to trust each other more. We have to remove the human emotion of prejudice and bias and develop the human capability to trust each other. We need to create technology solutions that foster trusting behaviours; such as digital twin and other distributed ledger-type technologies like blockchain.

I come back to solutions like the digital twin because the digital twin environment creates an opportunity for all stakeholders to become 'visible to each other. So if I make a change to my project workflow and I do not tell you, the system will tell you. It's all very transparent. There are very basic level conversations that do not foster trust in the industry, and the biggest consequence of a lack of collaboration, particularly on big data, is the fact that the trust in the data isn't there in the first place. Where does the data come from? Who put the data together? Is the data free? Is the data payable? All these are valid questions that either build or destroy trust between parties.

And on the collaboration piece, the question is, do I take away from my competitive advantage if I share my data with you? And it's a tougher question the higher and the bigger the business is. So, sharing data as a micro business is relatively straightforward. Sharing data as a big business is 'potentially' a real problem. And sharing data between big business and micro business is almost impossible, from a lived experience.

So, cultural change is required here And everywhere across the value chain. It's not entirely about the technology. It's about the people. The lack of collaboration within and across the industry is a people-centric challenge. It is not just a, but technology has a significant role to play in the available, scaleable and sustainable solution.

I will now come back to the tragedy of Grenfell tower. A blockchain solution can do two things: it gives clarity to any third party that wants to investigate what's happened from an audit perspective, and it also gives a level of trust because the data is immutable to all parties, and it gives transparency and accountability. If we can introduce trust, transparency, and accountability in a big data environment, it will unlock the cultural change required to 'force and sustain' collaboration.

Glodon: Technologies like blockchain, big data, and digital twins are emerging. What are preparations needed before we can cash in on their full potential?

Bola: What needs to happen for the role of technology to really flourish is the 154-year-old business model of the quantity surveyor needs to change. We need to recreate a new business model that talks about the new ways of sharing and creating data. And then align the skill set of the quantity surveyor, cost manager, and commercial manager to the new skills required. We need to then produce a new business offer to the public citizen and other key client groups that want to continue to pay for a professional service in the sphere of cost management.

And to me, it is aligned to the whole concept of working in cloud-based solutions, working in common data environments, using BIM-enabled, data-driven workflows, to foster better information management, deploying digital twin solutions, and using APIs, to share data. That's a new business model and one that I have been working on since I graduated from university in 1994.

However, the bigger issue is the fact that the digital skills maturity of every professional isn't high enough. Right now, every professional, at least every quantity surveyor, should think about skilling or reskilling with a focus on digital and people skills. Unless that happens, the change we need to see won't be sustainable. Clients that are asking for better and more meaningful, measurable outcomes will begin to force the change by asking for metrics that are aligned to, for example, ESG funding models and deliverables. And to do that well, you are going to need to use solutions like digital twins. So this is a very layered perspective that the industry needs to think about. But it starts with the uptake of digital skills.

Glodon: What specific skills and knowledge will be essential for the professionals in the future if they are the new embracers or the supporters of new technologies?

Bola: The first skill I think to be acquired is humility. Quantity surveyors need to recognise what they can do well and what they don't do well. And they need to be open and honest about where they go for solutions. In 2022, we cannot maintain our role as an individual, only as value-creating, empathetic team players.

Most of the skills required for the quantity surveyor, aside from the obvious digital skills, are emotional, critical thinking, empathy, and strategic team-building skills. Soft skills that make people better manage others and themselves. It's something that comes over time. But those are the bigger skills because we are going to become less of a technician and more an advisor. And to be a great advisor, you have to understand people and recognise their emotions. That is why I see a big move towards emotional intelligence and people skills becoming much more relevant and then, becoming fused and better managed with the technology side because our technical role has been, and will continue to be, augmented by technology.

It's about people; it all comes back to people.

Glodon: Sustainability and carbon neutrality is an urgent task that calls for a global effort. Does digitalisation in quantity surveying offer hope and solutions to reduce carbon emissions?

Bola: The role of carbon measurement sits very well with the traditional quantity surveyor, but it will require different skills and a different understanding and appreciation of the risks associated with carbon measurement and the construction process. I believe it's an evolution of the traditional role, but it is not entirely about measurement. It's more about interpretation and advice on risks associated with the process, everything from the inception of the design, construction, and handover beyond construction. The real challenge and the real opportunity for carbon measurement are in occupied buildings. Is the building functioning and operating in the right way? That's the key and critical question. And from my vast experience, the best professional to oversee that process and/or audit is the quantity surveyor or 'digital' cost manager.

Glodon: How do you think the role of enterprises such as Glodon to play in the digital transformation of the quantity surveying industry and in the evolving of the future role of quantity surveyors?

Bola: This is a perfect opportunity for successful entities like Glodon to lead the digital transformation agenda. But in order to do that well, we have to disrupt the sector. We have to disrupt the current status quo. Cultural change will not happen with people alone, but it can and will happen with technology-led, people-centric solutions. With your investment in digital twins, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc., you are now well gifted to position yourselves as an innovator and think about your future role, and what digitally enabled services you can offer that add value to the professional Quantity Surveyor / Cost & Commercial Manager and also, create important and much-needed value for clients. You can help to address some of the pressing problems for quantity surveying today. For example, cost overruns, are among the biggest issues in the UK construction industry, which could be caused by inaccurate project requirements, poor communication, lack of collaboration, undefined risks, and preliminary cost estimates based on scant design information; the inaccuracy of project data across the project life cycle and value chain; along with the 'age-old' professional discipline working in silos, hampers the very fragmented way of delivering projects. It is time to be bold and lead the trajectory of a wholly collaborative and seamless project delivery model, driven by people with real-time / right-time datasets.

https://www.glodon.com/en/articles/evoving-role-quantity-surveyors-digital-age-26

[glodon]

Voice of Glodon: The Key to Digital Transformation in Construction Industry

Voice of Glodon: The Key to Digital Transformation in Construction Industry

Over the past century, the development of digital applications in the construction industry has fallen behind other countries. According to McKinsey Global Institute's Industry Digitalization Index, the construction industry is ranked as the second least digitalized industry in the world.

As awareness of environmental protection has increased over recent years, developing regions have shifted the focus of their development in the construction industry toward high quality and efficiency. Developed regions are paying increased attention to asset operations, maintenance and management. The industry's need for digitalization is becoming increasingly evident. The new type of industrialization of the construction industry should be carried out through digital means. And the previous investment-intensive large-scale growth model should be transformed into a new development model driven by value creation to green the entire value chain and orient industrial transformation and upgrading towards industry-level refinement.

Smart building digital twins have become one of the best vehicles for all stakeholders' efforts throughout the entire project life cycle, to systematically integrate digital applications and optimize productivity and production relations. This involves comprehensive use of information technologies such as sensors, computing and modeling, for description, diagnosis and decision-making in physical space conducted via software definitions, thus ensuring interactive mapping between physical and virtual space.

BIM coordination, a pivotal part of the digital twin application, permits the creation of digital replicas with two-way connectivity to physical entities or processes, facilitating the transfer and integration of asset data at various stages of the life cycle. This information integration through digital twins is made possible by in-depth applications and mature technologies, such as cloud technology, big data, IoT, communication technology and AI. Virtual design permits, for example, the simulated implementation of physical projects, allowing a transition from the virtual to  the  real, while modeling makes an opposite transition possible. The virtual model can then be linked to the physical using sensing devices and intelligent hardware, permitting a symbiotic, closed-loop mutual mapping of virtual and real interactions. Thus, the digital twin seems set to become a key technological application in the construction industry, one which will play a pivotal role in catalyzing a once-in-a-century leap forward in the industry.

[glodon]

Global Construction Industry Confronts Major Challenges Amid Pandemic and Geopolitical Risks

Market Development Summary

The global digital construction industry is confronting major challenges as it emerges from the widespread disruption caused by restrictions imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19. With the Ukraine crisis set to persist in the coming quarters, the global economy will face severe headwinds amid high energy and commodity prices, supply chain bottlenecks, and worsening investor confidence. Amid rising inflation, central banks have been tightening monetary policy, but with inflation being driven by supply-side pressures, there is a growing risk that high-interest rates will choke off the recovery from the pandemic. Global construction output is now projected to expand by 3.3% this year, a downward revision from 4.0% previously. This follows growth of 3.7% in 2021 and a contraction of 2.3%

Excluding China, the global construction industry posted growth of 4.5% in 2021 and is set to slow to 2.9% in 2022. Performances across countries and regions will vary greatly, but South Asia and North-East Asia will be the best performers when comparing output in 2022 to the pre-COVID-19 levels. India suffered a sharp contraction in 2020 but rebounded in 2021, and in 2022 output across South Asia will be 10.1% higher than in 2019 in real terms.

Opportunities and Risks

The key risks to project momentum remain significant, with geopolitical uncertainty stemming from the ongoing Ukraine crisis, in addition to rising inflation, tightening monetary policy and supply chain disruptions.

Supply chain disruption is the main road blocker. The global construction industry has been recovering from the severe disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it continues to confront major challenges. Shortages of key materials and associated rising prices for such materials have impacted the progress of construction projects, while logistical hold-ups along with supply chain disruptions are extending lead times. The combination of these factors means that contractors are finding it increasingly difficult to complete projects on time and on budget. Many of these challenges have been exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis, which has resulted in a further surge in energy costs as well as disruptions in the supply of vital materials, including steel.

Labour s hortage has been a long and looming challenge. In addition to supply chain disruptions, the construction industry has also generally been struggling to recruit labour to meet requirements. The shutdown of the construction industry in many major markets in 2020 and also during periods in 2021 resulted in a sharp decline in construction employment, and there have been difficulties in recruiting talent as construction activity bounced back. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, there had already been concerns about the aging construction workforce and the looming challenge of ensuring that retiring skilled workers would be replaced. The reliance in many markets on immigrant labour has also been exposed in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, with a proportion of this workforce not returning to their previous locations.

ESG is one of the most important themes of this decade. It's little wonder that pressure on the construction sector to further contribute to the clean environment and be more and more transparent as far as environmental, social and governance (ESG) are concerned. Calls for the construction sector to act are coming from many directions. Investors and consumers are voicing concerns about ESG issues, with legislation, regulation, and reporting requirements evolving quickly in many jurisdictions around the world. In the UK, all companies bidding for government contracts worth more than £5m a year must now commit to net zero by 2050, while new proposals in the EU call for the mandatory disclosure of the emissions potential of new buildings over their whole life cycle, effective from 2027 to 2030. Companies must perform well in all areas of ESG. Being a laggard in any one of the pillars of the ESG framework will hurt their brand reputation and, ultimately, profits. In general, European construction companies respond more rapidly in terms of ESG hiring.

[glodon]

Digital Built World Summit: Thinking about Digital Twins for Smart Built Environment

Digital Built World Summit, held in Sydney on 23-24 May by FuturePlace, is the world's premier event for executives in the AEC, Smart City focused on improving digital business outcomes. It was themed on leveraging digital construction technology, including digital twins, to create a smart, responsive, sustainable and autonomous built world, which attracted over 300 attendees and presentations from over 75 leading global speakers. Various seminars took place during the summit, shedding light on developing digital twins.

Digital Twin beyond Technology

The smart building digital twin is a kind of technology, but it goes beyond that for many attending the summit.

Simon Evans, Digital Twin Leader of Arup and Chair of the Gemini Call at the National Digital Twin Programme, argued the digital twin is a methodology, not a technology. "It's an approach of using data to get and derive better insights. It should be lots of different platforms that talk and deliver the insights that you need. … And if there is a tech piece, it is about a constellation of technologies connected; it is never gonna be one giant digital twin platform."

He also noted digital twin transformation is a social-technical challenge that is a much wider, large-scale issue. "It is a journey, not a destination." Technology and use cases are maturing all the time, so what a digital twin looks like today will be very different from a digital twin in the future. "So we should appreciate the journey that provides value, not focus on that unicorn, that end of the journey. It's more about how can I get return investment now, the incremental approach," he added.

It takes years to develop a qualified digital twin or digital twin system, and there's a journey to get people from today to there, said David McKee, CEO of Slingshot and Co-Chair of Digital Twin Consortium. "If you think about the maturity of digital twins, you start with models of simulation to say this is what we gonna build. It's not a digital twin. … as you then build that layer of data, and you start having those real-time data that respond to what you required, it started to graduate to become a digital twin."

"The idea of digital twins as a journey is important because these systems are not static. They are dynamic," elaborated Brett Dixon, Infrastructure Group Lead of Asia Pacific at Esri, "If you're implementing a citywide digital twin or a statewide digital twin, you'll never get to the end because the requirements from the users will just continue to emerge and evolve over time."

Digital twin systems need to evolve with new requirements coming along. Therefore, the frameworks and standards related need to be agile. Brett explained, "They need to encourage and continue innovation and continuous engagement with users … Otherwise, they'll just become static and deliver no value."

Digital Twin Needs to be Purpose-driven

Speakers repeatedly mentioned that digital twin should be purpose-driven, in other words, case-driven. "Everyone is trying to just search for some meaning or for what the digital twin can do and how we can actually articulate its benefits," said Raj Thampuran, Managing Director of Surbana Jurong.

Paul Mullett, Group Director of Engineering and Technology at Robert Bird Group, also emphasised the point around purpose, "It sounds like a bit of a cliche. But actually, this all has to be purpose-driven, and the purpose isn't 'I want x/y/z sensors in my buildings so I can monitor these things. The purpose is 'are all of my buildings more energy efficient or all of my traffic flow more freely?' or whatever it might be. That's the purpose."

The purpose is crucial because it determines what you need from the digital twin and the functionality. This is one key lesson from the National Digital Twin Programme for the United Kingdom. "It determines things like the data refresh rate because not all digital twins need to be with a kind of a real-time data refresh rate. It depends on the purpose," said Mark Enzer OBE, the Global CTO of Mott MacDonald and Head of the National Digital Twin Programme.

There is also a much broader-sensed purpose or vision. According to Mark, the built environment needs to have an explicit purpose which enables people and nature to flourish together for generations. "We reckon that connected digital twins can massively help in that, but it's kind of starting with that endpoint in mind."

Data Becomes More Valuable with People

"The industry captures a lot of data or static data. 96% of that data goes unused." For Bill Harris, Business Development Director for APAC at Asite, data is the new oil. "How do we start taking that static data and combining that with operational data to then start providing value to asset whole of life? That's the question that sits, I guess, in front of us now."

However, Nicolas Waern, CEO and Digital Twin Evangelist of WINNIIO, argued there is a huge difference between data and oil. He thought data could be turned into value and create a lot of impact through different means, like digital twinning, forever and over and over again, unlike oil that was dug out and used once.

And data itself do not provide much value. "The data needs to be turned into information, that information is then transferred into insights, that insight needs turning to action. And that action that we need to take has to lead to an impact. I think that's also a digital twin come in," Nicolas added.

Glodon Vice President Pierpaolo Franco echoed this view in his speech on the topic of Data in Digital Building Platform, saying accurate and real-time data play a crucial role in the building life cycle.

On the other hand, Paul Mullett placed importance on people. "People have always been more valuable than oil. People will remain more valuable than data. And actually, at the heart of all of this are people and their skills and no matter what you wanna do with your digital twins and what your aspirations are." He warned that one of the biggest challenges in the industry right now is developing people's skills.

Just as David McKee said, "data needs managed and do not collect data just for the sake of it, we need to harness that, and there is the value."

Step by Step, Little by Little

But before cashing in the potential and opportunities, here are the challenges to creating and enabling digital twins.

"We are to move towards that type of future of multiple connected digital twins, then we're gonna need to have some form of framework, consistency of approach to allow that connection actually to take place," said Rory Brown, Director of Smart Places Programs at NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

Mark Enzer also mentioned that solving system-level problems and challenges relied on connecting single digital twins. And that connection is all about data sharing. "It's about the digital twin speaking the same language, it's about securely resilient information flow across organisational and sector boundaries." Equally important for him is the standards and guidance generated bottom-up by people learning by doing and then progressing by sharing.

Brett agreed that the main challenges confronting digital twin projects are people and organisational ones. He noted that the path to success must address the people issues, the organisational challenges, the technology and data integration. The focus on the technology will likely lead to failure. Organisations need to think about being dynamic to engage users, and a coalition of the willing should be formed to bring people in and motivate them to work towards a common vision which also needs strong leadership.

None of these can be done overnight. " I t's, not just digital twins, but all big IT projects are risky," Damien Cutcliffe, Director of Business Development and Growth, Digital at WSP , made another point, " If you try to make it perfect upfront, and you hold back on, a sort of exposing that, sometimes you lose advocacy and support. So it's trying not to overdo it at the beginning of things important."

This is agreed by CEO and Founder of BE-WISE Cristina Savian, who said implementation of digital twins at an early stage could easily fail because of trying to do too much, trying to tackle too many cases and trying everything too much at the same time.

A suggestion can be taken from Paul, "Don't be overwhelmed. Take a step at a time. Don't try digital twins on the whole planet. You don't need to. Focus on clear objectives where you want to get to, look at your people and collaborators, and take step by step."

[glodon]

Developing and Using Digital Twins from Design to Handover

A smart building digital twin can be created at any project or asset life cycle stage. However, the creation of the digital twin, or detailed planning for its creation at an early stage of the life cycle and its use in the pre-project or project stage, is desirable. Based on the type of asset and use case, actions needed during the design, construction and handover phase are different.

Digitial Twins at Design Stage

During the design stage, the main contribution to developing a digital twin is producing and creating digital assets such as BIM, drawings, images, and other types of design data and information about the construction objects and the asset itself. Careful consideration of the consistent classification of elements, and definition of a data dictionary that is complete enough to fulfil the intended use cases, are foundational requirements. Verification and validation of data is essential.

A virtual representation that acts as a representational (graphical) and computational model is developed. The delivery of digital assets during design is guided by the overall information management process adopted for the digital twin.

At the design stage, the careful planning of the sensing layer (e.g. sensors, IoT devices, and asset and facility management system) can also be conducted and integrated with the design of the physical asset. Design specialists, vendors, and suppliers may be involved in specifying the sensing layer at this stage.

The use of the digital twin can enhance the design process and the creation of digital assets. This happens in two ways:

Firstly, by using digital twins, the designers and engineers have an opportunity to model, simulate and conduct what-if scenarios to improve and optimise their design. In a connected environment, they can also see how their asset design fits with existing assets and the surrounding environment. This can be performed at an individual asset scale to a district or city level.

Secondly, the design can be informed by data, information, and evidence received from various sources in a connected ecosystem. This can ensure tight coupling between the design, construction, and operation of built environment assets. Digital twins can improve the built environment's operational efficiency by integrating and automating the historical data and information from downstream processes such as asset management and facility management to inform performance-led design. While not possible on all projects, early involvement of construction and asset and facility management experts, along with the use of digital twins, can enhance the detailed design process.

The opportunity during the design phase is to create simulations of how the asset will operate and how end-users will use it, from traffic flow analysis to occupancy to energy use. By starting with simulations that can be validated in the actual asset, design intent can be carried forward and iterated with actual data once the asset is operational.

Digitial Twins at Digital Construction Stage

The physical asset is stood-up during construction. Large volumes of data are generated, updated, used and stored during construction. This is the stage where as-designed, as-planned, and as-built data about the asset can be merged. Any changes (captured by images, videos, point clouds) during construction can be merged into the virtual representation using the as-built data. The use of BIM and related processes such as 4D and 5D BIM helps streamline the management of data and information during this phase.

In the construction stage, the sensing layer is assembled and installed as part of the physical asset and marked on the virtual representation for handover. As part of the digitisation, further BIM integration into construction, growing site data from digital tools, real-time inventory tracking and prefabrication and industrialised construction are beginning to knit together to improve the information management process during construction.

Taken together, construction teams are now better positioned to create, deploy and use digital twins from the inflow of materials, products and prefabricated components, the models of the asset itself, and the analytics to make those flows of data into valuable insight. Digital twins, in turn, can be effectively deployed during construction. Many site-based processes can be enhanced by using digital twins. Production management, work performance, health, safety, and wellbeing of workers, materials, and equipment tracking, can all benefit from the use of digital twins.

Digitial Twins at Handover Stage

The handover of an asset can be significantly improved when digital twins are used. The traditional handover is generally inefficient and uses a fragmented and siloed approach to passing on the necessary data and information to the asset manager or operator. This may lead to missing information, difficulty assessing critical information or tedious processes due to a lack of interoperability of systems. As-built BIM models have been used to partially overcome these issues, but regular updating of these models with performance data is still a challenge.

As the design and construction process progresses, large volumes of data are generated and updated in the form of models, images, videos, point clouds, etc. This data is only as valuable as the asset manager's ability to access and operate, which can be a huge issue. These as-built BIM models (or asset information models) are still document-centric, do not provide a virtual-physical-virtual loop, come together towards the end of the project, and do not use recommended information management processes and practices.

On the other hand, a digital twin will allow a knowledge graph of the real world entity to be composed based on a selected ontology that represents the various entities, their interrelationships and the information associated with them, integrated from many data sources, one of them being the as-built models (or asset information models).

The digital twin collates all the handover information into a cohesive information model that is easy to access, use, and update during the operation, maintenance, renewal and end-of-life stages. Applicable to both new and existing facilities, a digital twin promotes best information management practices, reduces risks, and captures performance data and knowledge. As the creation of the digital twin begins early, the design and construction teams can continuously stage and validate asset data to assure data quality and accelerate and enhance the handover process.

[glodon]

Roles of Project Professionals in Adopting Digital Twins during Design and Construction

When an asset owner seeks to develop the digital representation of the asset, it is essential to take into consideration the purpose that ultimately the digital twins will serve, e.g. a smart building digital twin site safety or a digital twin for enhancing the health and wellbeing of occupants of an office building. This purpose will dictate what type of data is important and needs to be collected, its frequency, the system it will be required to be connected to, and the industry standards required to store the data. The sophistication and accuracy of the digital information created will ultimately impact the business outcome; therefore, it is essential to understand key stakeholders and customer needs and address them appropriately.

So, capturing the requirements and deliverables of a digital twin initiative are essential. Alongside this, it is also necessary to understand the legal and regulatory implications and how data and information security, privacy, and accuracy can be ensured.

Project professionals, including construction managers, cost managers, and quantity surveyors, play a critical role for the creation and use of digital twins for both existing and new assets, with the opportunity, and responsibility, to be the creator and steward of data and be at the foundation of their asset owners' digital twin journey.

Making a Business Case for Digital Twins  

Digital twins require resources, effort, and investment in the pre-project, project and use phases. As such, adopting and implementing a digital twin on a project would require careful analysis and decision-making. Project teams can assist (and work with specialist consultants) in this analysis and decision-making process, carefully tying the analysis to the outcomes and benefits of the digital twin.

If a decision is made to proceed with the use of a digital twin, project team members can help build a detailed business case and a detailed implementation plan, including the procurement and delivery plan of the twin. Numerous resources are now available to conduct the analysis, make a go or no-go decision, and then take the remaining steps (e.g. the Digital Twin Toolkit by CDBB, Digital Twin Navigator for NHSScotland, IET Digital Twin report, DTC's maturity levels).

Participating in the Information Management Process

Construction managers, cost managers and quantity surveyors can play a leading or supporting role in the information management process. Successful creation, deployment, use, and updating of a digital twin depend on a sound information management process. Numerous information management protocols are already in place as part of the BIM adoption and implementation journey. These can be used to establish data and information models, specific data and information flow, roles and responsibilities, collection and dissemination work practices, and related standards in conjunction with BIM and CDE. Project professionals can guide the project team in establishing information exchange processes, enabling information integration, and coordination and collaboration of the team for sharing, updating, and securing data and information in a digital twin.

Understanding the Legal and Regulatory Issues

Since digital twins act as a central repository of static and dynamic data and information, some legal and regulatory issues must be considered.

The data captured with a digital twin includes as-designed, as-planned, as-built and performance data. These data sets are dynamically merged. A golden thread connects and tracks this data and information over the life cycle of the object or asset.

Thus, a highly advanced form of digital twin can be seen as a live document held digitally with "fingerprints" (e.g. using blockchain technology for highly complex interconnected and inter-operable digital twins) of people recording their decisions about the asset's design, construction and use.

While, on the one hand, this provides an accurate and updated record of asset data, it does bring some unique legal and regulatory issues to the forefront. The legal environment for digital twins is impacted first and foremost by data ownership issues.

This will have to be addressed contractually, keeping in mind the extended period the data may stay live in a digital twin. The contracts will have to address confidential data and information issues and shared ownership in cases where a complex system within a digital twin combines data and information from individual objects provided by different team members.

As digital twins break down silos and enhance collaboration, the issue of data sharing and accuracy will also have to be contractually resolved. Given the complex nature of the digital twin, the whole area of disputes and liability will take on a new meaning and need a reassessment.

On the one hand, a digital twin, with the help of a golden thread, can determine when, how and which party decided regarding an issue under consideration; it may be very complex to ascertain causal linkages to the source of the problem.

Digital twins also pose security and privacy challenges. With both static and dynamic data and information about the performance of an asset stored in one repository, it is vital to consider data privacy and security in a robust manner.

It is important to consider how to keep the data and information safe and private, and protect against breaches of the twin itself. This is a risk that the project team must holistically address. It is essential to protect the virtual representation, the physical asset, and the synchronisation mechanisms between the two. At the same time, data and information stored in a digital twin must also comply with privacy regulations and be protected against illegal access. Appropriate security and privacy arrangements must be addressed upfront as the digital twin is created.