Consider this challenge. Following fiscal completion of a construction project, contractors deliver boxes of papers containing the documents describing the materials, products, equipment, and systems installed in the building. One national design/build firm charges $40,000 simply to scan these paper documents and compile a CD (compact disk) with this data. These electronic paper efforts also produce data that can be used by facility operators and managers. In most cases, the owner must pay for an expensive “job crawl” to identify what equipment is present and where it is located. The General Services Administration (GSA), in fact, pays again for this information since building operating contractors’ first task is often to conduct a building survey to evaluate maintenance requirements.
The solution? The Construction Operations and Building Information Exchange (COBIE) – which was developed through an open-standards process in conjunction with the buildingSMART Alliance (buildingSMART Alliance is a participating organization of the worldwide International Alliance for Interoperability promoting open interoperability and full lifecycle implementation of building information models). COBIE is an information exchange format to capture the information created during design, construction, and commissioning and allows this information to be passed directly to the building operator.
COBIE data can be created manually by designers and builders, or exported automatically through the use of commercial CADD (Computer-Aided Design and Drafting) or BIM (Building Information Modeling) software. Each party adds their own information. For example, the architect identifies areas and room numbers; mechanical consultants identify equipment location, type, and number; shop drawings/submittals approved during construction include equipment specifics such as manufacturer, rating, and maintenance requirements; commissioning agents provide start-up/shut-down, safety tasks, and maintenance job plan information.
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To ensure that COBIE can be widely adopted, the COBIE data can be captured directly using a template spreadsheet. If needed, data from CADD and BIM software can be directly exported into this spreadsheet. At project turnover, the COBIE spreadsheet can be directly loaded into the commercial maintenance management system (CMMS) selected by the building operator and an owner’s BIM of the project.
GSA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of State’s Overseas Building Operations currently require the delivery of COBIE data in their contracts. During 2008, CADD and CMMS vendors are demonstrating the automated creation of COBIE data at the National Academies of Science.
The benefits from GSA-wide COBIE adoption are the consistent delivery of correct building installed equipment information without any additional cost. COBIE eliminates the cost of the “first” step in a building operator’s contract. In addition, no additional data reformatting or collection expense will be required as COBIE data can also be directly loaded into any maintenance management system or third party software that is compliant with this NBIMS (National Building Information Modeling Standard).
Contact:
William East
Research Civil Engineer
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
Champaign, IL
Bill.W.East@usace.army.mil
