In the ever-evolving landscape of building safety, staying updated with regulatory changes is paramount. To keep our building safety-conscious audience informed, we’ve conducted a summarised review of the latest amendments to building regulations in England, specifically covered in the Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023.

As communicated by Camilla Sheldon Deputy Director, Reform Policy, Legislation and Sponsorship Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in an open letter to Local Government Chief Executives, Heads of Building Control Approved Inspectors, The Chief Fire Officer Fire and the Rescue Authorities, these updates are set to enhance transparency, compliance, and, most importantly, the safety of our structures.

In response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and to keep such an event from happening again: Robert Jenrick MP announced plans to further reform the building safety system with the “biggest changes in a generation”. This move allows us to ensure that we design, build and operate safer homes that are safe to live within. 

The government has now passed the Building Safety Act 2021, which includes new laws relating to building safety regulations. This bill includes the most significant and fundamental changes to building safety legislation in decades. It is 334 pages long and has been designed to prevent a disaster like the 2017 Grenfell fire from ever happening again. The new laws currently apply to all buildings higher than 18m or seven storeys, with atleast two residential units. 

The Fire Safety Act 2021 is in place to ensure that residents of high-rise buildings feel safer in their homes by significantly reducing fire risks (by ensuring that they are properly managed). Now that the bill has successfully completed it’s parliamentary stages and in force, it is expected to be referred to as the Fire Safety Act of 2020 and will be an amendment to The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. 

The Building Safety Bill intends to ensure that the right people have the right information at the right time so that buildings are safe and building safety risks are managed throughout the building’s lifecycle. This information is to be held digitally and is what is known as the ‘Golden Thread‘.

Key features of the Bill include:

• The introduction of a new era of accountability, making it clear where responsibility for managing safety risk lies from the design and construction phase right through to occupation;
• Tougher sanctions for those that fail to meet their obligations; and
• The installation of a powerful new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) embedded within the Health and Safety Executive. The BSR will have three main functions:

1. 1. To oversee the safety and standard of all buildings
   2. To assure the safety of higher-risk buildings (HRB)
   3. To improve the competence of people responsible for managing and overseeing building work.

Design and Construction Phase For Higher-Risk Buildings (HRB), where the floor surface of the building’s top storey is 18 metres or more above ground level, the digital golden thread of building safety information will be collated and audited by the duty holder during three new Design and Construction Phase ‘Gateways‘ as follows;

• Gateway One: this will occur before Dutyholders are required to be in place and those applying for planning permission.
• Gateway Two: occurs before construction work beginning and is described as a hard stop – construction works cannot begin until the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is satisfied that the duty holder’s design is compliant with the new requirements.
• Gateway Three: is at completion requiring the duty holders:
  • To hand over information (the golden thread) to the Accountable Person (AP).
  • To submit to the BSR the information on the final as-built building.

Occupation Phase Post-construction, there is a new role, the ‘Accountable Person (AP)’. The AP is ‘the duty holder during occupation’. Breach of AP obligations involving consent, connivance or neglect will carry severe penalties, including fines and imprisonment. AP duties include:

• Registering the building with the BSR and apply for a Building Assurance Certificate (BAC).
• Appointing the Building Safety Manager (BSM) and informing the BSR of this appointment.
• An ongoing duty to assess the building’s safety risks and to take reasonable steps to prevent, and control the impact of a major incident.
• Produce and maintain a Residents’ Engagement Strategy, which will include information about where residents can access safety information and a complaints process.
• Maintaining a Safety Case Report to demonstrate compliance with this ongoing duty.
• Registration of a new HRB with the BSR will be pivotal as, once the new legislation is in force, the HRB cannot be occupied until that registration is completed. Existing HRBs will also need to be registered.

The Fire Safety Bill was introduced to amend the Fire Safety Order 2005, clarifying that the responsible person or ‘duty holder‘ for multi-occupied, residential buildings must manage and reduce the risk of fire.

It provides a foundation for secondary legislation to take forward recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase one report, which stated that building owners and managers of high-rise and multi-occupied residential buildings should be responsible for several areas including:

• Regular inspections of lifts and the reporting of results to the local fire and rescue services
• Ensuring evacuation plans are reviewed and regularly updated and personal evacuation plans are in place for residents whose ability to evacuate may be compromised
• Ensuring fire safety instructions are provided to residents in a form that they can reasonably be expected to understand
• Ensuring individual flat entrance doors, where the external walls of the building have unsafe cladding, comply with current standards

The Fire Safety bill will also give the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government the powers to amend the list of qualifying premises that fall within the scope of the Fire Safety Order by way of secondary legislation, enabling the government to respond quickly to developments in the design and construction of buildings. A link to the current UK Parliament status of the bill can be found here.

The construction industry isn’t known for being a beacon of innovation. I’m sure they would forgive us for saying that.

But there’s always room for new technology and we know one local company leading the way.

Operance, founded by Ian Yeo and Scott Pilgrim, are a software and consultancy provider specialising in Building Information Modelling or BIM as it’s commonly known.

We spoke to Ian about how tech like theirs is changing how buildings are built everywhere. It has the potential to save lives and increases efficiency throughout the construction process.

They’re a C4DI success story and to top it off they make a pretty good claim to having one of the best offices in the building.

Before we go any further, you’re probably wondering, what exactly is it that Operance (formally known as Bimsense) do?

Well, in Ian’s own words, “BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modelling. This has quite a few components. So, a 3D model created by an architect or an engineer, is one part of BIM. It’s a real central core part of BIM. But it’s also about information and making that information digital, throughout the construction process.”

“So, you will have an architect’s model. But you can also have, say, an Excel spreadsheet that becomes part of that overall model of a building.”

Thanks Ian. BIM has the potential to be a complete digital footprint of a building, its components, uses, specifications and more.

Operance don’t just do BIM – they offer other services too. They originally formed as a consultancy service for contractors and large estate owners, which is still part of what they do, but they also have an increasing range of software tackling facilities management, operations, and maintenance.

Tying it all together is an exciting concept known as the Golden Thread.

Simply put the Golden Thread is ‘the ability to track decisions throughout the life of a project.’ In other words, Operance empowers users by ‘identifying a thread all the way through design, construction, and the use of the building to know what’s happening to the material of the building and the products.’

The Golden Thread of building safety information is a digital document containing an accurate and up-to-date record of building data that spans the entire lifecycle of old and new facilities.

The term featured heavily in the final report of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, which was led by Dame Judith Hackett in 2017 after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

New building legislation requires developers to provide this Golden Thread of information, which spans the entire lifecycle of old and new facilities.

Whilst this new demand for a breadth and depth of information places additional pressure on developers, housing associations and estate managers, the Golden Thread helps us to create safer, more efficient spaces for people to live – which, in our eyes, can only be a positive outcome.

But what does the Golden Thread mean for you and how are you going to deliver it?

We’ve outlined everything you need to know about the Golden Thread in this article below, alternatively, here’s a short video explainer…

The responsibility of the Golden Thread changes as the project progresses through two different phases: the Design and Construction Phase and the Occupational Phase.

During the Design and Construction phase, the development of the Golden Thread of building information is the responsibility of the ‘Dutyholder’.

The dutyholder may be fulfilled by either an individual or an organisation/legal entity. A dutyholder can hold more than one role in a building project. Some examples of dutyholders include:

• Client
• Principal Designer
• Designer
• Principal Contractor
• Contractor
• Building Safety Manager

The information gathered by the project team is verified by the dutyholder at the end of specific ‘Gateways’ during and at the end of the Design and Construction phase.

The dutyholder must present the Golden Thread when registering the building with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) so they can successfully obtain a Building Assurance Certificate (BAC).

The responsibility for the Golden Thread changes when you reach the Occupation Phase of the project.

The ongoing development of the information package throughout its lifecycle becomes the responsibility of a new dutyholder who becomes the named ‘Accountable Person (AP)‘.

They are responsible for registering existing and new occupied buildings and applying for a Building Assurance Certificate and is required to comply with all the statutory obligations on an ongoing basis.

The AP is the dutyholder during the Occupation phase. They may be an individual, partnership or corporate body and there may be more than one Accountable Person for a building.

The AP nominates a Building Safety Manager (BSM) to continue maintaining and updating the information to record the ongoing safety of the building.

The BSM can be either an individual or organisation that must have the organisational capability and relevant skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to support the Accountable Person in the day-to-day management of fire and structural safety in the building.

Find out more about who is responsible for your Golden Thread: Access the guide.

Learn more about who you should appoint as your dutyholder and accountable person (AP).

The Golden Thread is required for all high-rise buildings (HRB) – residential buildings with a height of 18 metres or more.

In the future, this is likely to extend to include smaller buildings and asset-specific information.

Every time a building is changed or maintained, information reflecting those changes needs to be recorded.

The Golden Thread of building information is currently being defined as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) sponsored ‘Golden Thread Initiative’ project.

The Operance team is invited to participate in the project and share our experience and software to help define the information requirements and provide the first working example for the Golden Thread.

The final requirements of the Golden Thread will be defined in secondary legislation.

Tap here to receive a notification from us.

What we know now is that your Golden Thread needs to contain accurate, up-to-date information about the design, construction and ongoing maintenance of buildings.

It’s likely that the legislation will require information about:

• Building Safety
• Fire Safety
• Structural Safety

However, it’s anticipated that, over time, more information will be required, such as Asset Information for assets that don’t fall within one of the above categories.

The Golden Thread is essentially a digital way of working that enables a systematic, controlled approach to construction, refurbishment and management of occupied buildings, to manage building safety information.

The best way to comply is to create a standardised digital package to make sure all your buildings and the assets within your estates develop uniform building safety information.

We’d recommend creating and controlling this data at the component level (the assets and elements of which make up the building) in three ways:

• What – What information is required. Use templates and checklists to define and audit standardised information.
• When – The timing of when and who supplies the information. Software platforms such as Operance O&M linked to master project programmes need to be used to plan and coordinate your information in a timely manner.
• Where – Where the information is stored. Implement an easy-to-use, open format and non-proprietary software (meaning that information and data can be easily accessed and shared between other digital platforms).

The specifics of what you need to include in your Golden Thread depends on the phase of your project. Below is a breakdown of the two Golden Thread phases and specific gateways at which you need to supply information.

Before construction can commence, the dutyholder must submit key Golden Thread information to the Building Safety Regulator.

This information includes but is not exclusive to:

• Specifications – detailed construction products, materials and component information, including important fire performance capabilities.
• Plans relating to how fire and structural safety risks will be managed.
• Models – digital 3D BIM representations of the building ‘as planned’.
• Fire Statement – details on fire service access and fire fighting water accessibility, which forms the foundation of the fire and emergency file.
• Construction Control Plan – how compliance with Building Regulations will be achieved and how changes will be controlled and recorded.

Major changes affecting any of the above items in relation to safety need to be agreed upon with the principal designer and client and approved by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) in advance.

In order to obtain and validate the information in a timely manner, the new Building Safety Bill process includes the introduction of three ‘Gateways‘:

• Gateway 1: before achieving planning permission.
• Gateway 2: before construction begins.
• Gateway 3: before handover.

The gateways are compliance ‘hard stops’, which require the responsible dutyholder to demonstrate to the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) how they are actively managing risk. If they do not adequately comply, the BSR can stop the project from proceeding to the next stage of development.

The gateways during the Concept, Design and Construction phases align with the eight RIBA Plan of Works 2020 stages as follows:

The key golden thread information listed above must be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) before the planning application is submitted.

The updated key Golden Thread information listed above must then be re-submitted to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) before construction begins.

The updated key information is again presented by the dutyholder. Once the final gateway approval certificate is obtained, the Design and Construction phase dutyholer hands over their specific duties to the Accountable Person (AP). This ensures that the regulatory requirements beyond the gateways are met during the next stage: the Occupation Phase.

With all the information updated and reviewed throughout the Design and Construction Phase, the Golden Thread is presented to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) for review. Once satisfied, the BSR issues a Building Assurance Certificate (BAC), which permits occupation.

Note: This certificate could include certain conditions, such as requiring last-minute test certificates before a certain date. The certificate and safety case (identification of hazards and how to control inherent risks) is subject to review every five years.

Your responsibility for the Golden Thread never stops. It’s an ever-evolving process that spans across the facility’s full life story.

The Golden Thread is not something you can develop and complete, you can not employ someone to create it and ‘hand it over’. In fact, the recording and updating of building safety information continue up until the final decommissioning and demolition of the building.

Our ‘Operance 4-Step Golden Thread Plan’ breaks down the process of developing the golden thread and in doing start creating a digital estate into four simple, easy to follow steps.

Note: This certificate could include certain conditions, such as requiring last-minute test certificates before a certain date. The certificate and safety case (identification of hazards and how to control inherent risks) is subject to review every five years.

Your responsibility for the Golden Thread never stops. It’s an ever-evolving process that spans across the facility’s full life story.

The Golden Thread is not something you can develop and complete, you can not employ someone to create it and ‘hand it over’. In fact, the recording and updating of building safety information continue up until the final decommissioning and demolition of the building.

Step 1 – Define:

To help organisations take the first step, our Operance information managers develop your organisation information requirements. They help understand your owners, operators and occupiers in-use information needs and create a tailored set of requirements using the expected building safety bill requirements as a foundation.

Step 2 – Curate:

Our award-winning Operance BIM team then helps curate your digital building information on both legacy and new buildings ensuring information is accurate, complete and fit for use.

Step 3 – Access:

Operance O&M is the first purpose-built desktop application to define, curate, audit and maintain the golden thread in one place. It is a common data environment (CDE), O&M coordination tool and supply chain database solution in one. It provides an immutable ‘quantum ledger’, built on blockchain technology, to produce a secure lifecycle record of high-quality building safety and asset information.

Step 4 – Maintain:

Our user-friendly Operance FM mobile application enables owners, operators and occupiers to easily search, share, update and use your building safety and asset information for simple property and facilities management. Our Smart HUG (Home User Guide) extension also enables tenants to access information in line with new building safety legislation.

Bimsense, the company house listed name of Operance has been named the third most exciting tech company in the Business Cloud Tech 50 rankings for Yorkshire and Humberside. Business Cloud provides daily updates on the latest technology and innovation news from the UK and receives approximately 11.8K visitors and 12,974 page impressions per day. Operance, based at the Centre for Digital Innovation [C4DI] in Hull, is one of 6 Hull based businesses to be named in the regionally recognised Tech50 list and is ranked number 1 in Hull. The firm, which recently secured a £250,000 investment and currently undergoing rapid expansion with 10 new employees joining in the next year confirms that this is the first time they have been entered into the Tech 50.

Tim Mutlow, CTO of Operance, said: “I have kept a keen eye on the Tech50 list for a couple of years now. Having seen other familiar C4DI based businesses successfully making the cut, it is clearly one of the strongest regional tech company rankings around”. “Our nomination came as a complete surprise but then receiving as many votes as we did from Business Cloud readers is incredibly humbling and provides an amazing feeling that our team’s creativity and innovation is being recognised in this way.” “It is important to me as CTO that our technology and of course the team behind it, from the UX designers to the developers, and the wider team take the well earned credit for this highly placed ranking. Attempting to organise the world’s building information is not a simple task, I believe you need great people first and foremost in order to build great technology to create something that can be seen as game-changing. “All tech organisations are in a ‘war for talent’ nowadays, so they can attract and retain the best people to build the best products and features for their customers. Being recognised as an exciting tech company obviously helps with this as we build our tech reputation and we can’t wait to show everyone how exciting the future will be too. “Thanks and praise must go to all of the wonderful people who make up the growing Operance family and to our customers whose patronage, loyalty, and constant feedback keeps us passionate that we are doing something amazing and important and keeps us moving forward as a business.”

To speak to one of the team for more information, call 0800 464 3316.

Scott Pilgrim   scott.pilgrim@bimsense.co.uk   0113 3281282   Twitter   LinkedIn

We’re delighted to announce Tom Oulton, one of the country’s leading building information modelling (BIM) professionals, has joined the team as Digital Transformation Lead. Tom is Chair of both the UK Constructing Excellence Digital and Constructing Excellence Yorkshire and Humber best-practice organisations. He also sits on the steering group of the award-winning thinkBIM network of specialists. Tom has left his position of five years as Principal Consultant at global real estate and infrastructure consultancy Turner & Townsend to take on the challenge because he believes Operance has the potential to transform the digital construction industry. He will have a key role in driving forward the adoption of our game-changing technology, which will make buildings safer, healthier and more efficient by creating a digital “golden thread” audit trail of information relating to facilities’ entire history, enabling increased ownership and accountability. The pioneering software will define, coordinate and audit building operations and maintenance (O&M) information via the Operance O&M “Coordinate” web application during the design development and construction stage. It will then provide end users with crucial detail in real time via the Operance CAFM “Operate” mobile app post-handover, ensuring risks are managed through the full lifecycle of buildings.

Tom’s new role will include guiding clients through the process of creating an easy-to-manage virtual estate to improve the safety and efficiency of their buildings. “To me, this genuinely is a game-changer,” he said. “There isn’t anything out there that does what Operance does, in the way it does it. “There are software packages that address some aspects of digital estate management, but nothing that brings it all together on one platform that is easily accessible on the user’s phone. “Operance will take the information from cradle to grave and bring together whole life data management for the built environment. “Crucially, it will benefit those that need it most, including housing associations, schools and hospitals. That’s why I believe this is the perfect move for me.” Following the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Hackitt Report was published in May 2018 with 50 recommendations on how to improve the design, build and operation of buildings and facilities to make them safer and more efficient, including creating a digital lifecycle record. A public inquiry into the tragedy is ongoing. “You can’t let a tragedy as terrible as Grenfell happen without it bringing about fundamental change,” said Tom. “You’ve got to break down the system and rebuild it. “Operance is at the very core of this – by defining, curating and managing all the relevant information in the entire lifecycle of a building. Through this software, the concept of the golden thread can now become a reality.”

Based at Hull’s Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) tech hub, Operance delivers strategic digital transformation and BIM coordination services as well as developing innovative technology products to enable high-quality digital building information for property owners, developers, contractors and end users.

Scott Pilgrim, Chief Product Officer said: “Tom is renowned for fostering relationships and a supportive culture with customers and industry bodies. “His industry knowledge, vision, leadership and commitment to the successful implementation of digital estate initiatives make him stand out among the construction community. His appointment will be of great benefit to clients aiming to extract greater value from their estates.” Tom Oulton is the latest addition to the growing Operance team. Experienced tech business leader and consultant Nigel Hedley recently joined as Chairman, while Developer Paul Mennell has been recruited to the technology team. They have joined existing colleagues Mr Pilgrim, Chief Executive Ian Yeo and Chief Technology Officer Tim Mutlow.

Ian Yeo, CEO said: “It’s important that everyone we employ has a subset of unique skills and new people are able to enhance and challenge our approach. Our recent appointments tick all those boxes.

To speak to one of the team for more information, call 0800 464 3316.

Scott Pilgrim   scott.pilgrim@bimsense.co.uk   0113 3281282   Twitter   LinkedIn

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The £250,000 funding is from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia Asset Management and is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. The news is a breakthrough for the Operance smart building information and facilities management software, which we believe will revolutionise the construction industry through the use of digital technology.

It will enable our parent company, Bimsense, to commercialise Operance and create 10 new jobs over the next two years. The funding marks a major milestone in the development of Bimsense, which was launched four years ago by Ian Yeo and Scott Pilgrim, who had become frustrated by the traditional approach to building design, construction and management. Since then Bimsense has advised property owners, developers and contractors on major developments throughout the UK on how to reduce project risks, while helping to digitally transform their operations. At the same time Bimsense has been continually developing the Operance software to make buildings safer, healthier and more efficient.

Based at the Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) tech hub in Hull, Bimsense specialises in building information modelling (BIM), which allows construction projects to be digitally built, before they are physically built, in order to address issues normally identified on site or after completion. BIM helps save time and money, improve quality and reduce potential safety risks, while the data it provides also enables building owners to operate and maintain buildings efficiently over the long term. BIM is widely accepted as the best way to achieve the Government’s aim of reducing construction and operating costs by a third, and is in line with the Grenfell Tower report’s recommendation to create a digital lifecycle record. The new funding will be used to develop further and commercialise Operance, which helps meet this challenge by creating a “golden thread” – a digital audit trail covering the entire history of facilities, enabling better decision making and increased accountability.

Ian Yeo, CEO of Bimsense, said: “We’re delighted and excited to secure this investment to deliver our long-term ambition of digitising and ‘humanising’ building information to help create safer, healthier places for people to live, work and spend their leisure time. “We know the devastating effects that poor, mismanaged information and ill-informed decisions can have on people’s lives. This funding helps us to tackle these issues, by enabling project teams to develop better quality information for end-users to access in a really easy, user-friendly way.”

Maurice Disai, Investment Associate at Mercia, said: “Although construction and property management is the fourth biggest contributor to GDP, it is one of the least digitised sectors. The Operance system could have a huge impact in terms of reducing costs and improving safety and quality of life for building users. “The proof of concept version of this software has already generated a great deal of interest within the industry by showing the cost and performance benefits of using a digital building information platform. The funding will allow Bimsense to further enhance the product and bring it to market.”

Stephen Parnaby OBE, Chair of the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We are delighted to see another Humber business benefit from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, which continues to bring vital finance to the region’s businesses. This funding will not only create additional local employment and opportunities within the supply chain, but will also help many other construction companies through its innovative software.”

Mark Wilcockson, of the British Business Bank, said: “Since its launch in 2017, NPIF’s impact on businesses has been wide-ranging, providing funding to launch new products, employ new staff, enter new markets and acquire new facilities. We are pleased that NPIF is continuing to unlock the Humber’s growth potential by supporting small growing businesses with vital investment, particularly those that have the potential to revolutionise their respective sector.” The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our funding partners for their support for our exciting vision and look forward for delivering on the game-changing potential of Operance.

Scott Pilgrim   scott.pilgrim@bimsense.co.uk   0113 3281282   Twitter   LinkedIn

Whether you’ve just started your BIM journey or have been provided

AIR – Asset Information Requirements, data and information requirements of the organisation in relation to the asset(s) it is responsible for. (PAS 1192-3:2014)

API – Application Programming Interface, a set of functions and procedures that allows the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.

Autodesk’s Revit – One of many design-authoring applications for use in BIM projects

BCF – BIM Collaboration Format, a file format that allows issues to be collected together and managed in a collaborative and efficient way.

BIM – Building Information Modelling, a process for creating and managing information throughout the lifecycle of a project.

BIM Execution Plan – A supplier’s response to an EIR, confirming that supplier’s interpretation of the EIR and how it proposes to deliver a client’s BIM requirements.

BIM Level 2 – A level of BIM maturity. In the UK, a suite of standards and guidance documents define the requirements of BIM Level 2.

BIM levels – A way of defining BIM maturity, from BIM level 0 (a project without BIM) through to BIM level 3 (which has yet to be fully defined, but consists of four intermediate levels 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D).

BIM wash – where a BIM competency claim is greater than the actual BIM competency of a person or organisation.

BRE – Building Research Establishment, a leading centre of building- and construction-related scientific research.

BRE Green Guide to Specification – Environmental guidance for selecting construction materials and products.

BREEAM – Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, a method for assessing the impact of a construction project.

BS 1192:2007+A2:2016 – Collaborative production of architectural, engineering and construction information. A code of practice to make the most of the collaborative working process.

BS 1192-4:2014 – Collaborative production of information Part 4: Fulfilling employer’s information exchange requirements using COBie. This document defines expectations for the exchange of information for use throughout the lifecycle of a facility.

BS – British Standard, a code of practice providing robust guidance and processes.

BuildingSMART – an industry-backed, not-for-profit community developing open standards.

CAFM – Computer Aided Facilities Management, software applications for managing facilities.

CAPEX – Capital expenditure to acquire, upgrade and maintain physical assets.

CAWS – Common Arrangement of Work Sections, a 1987 method of classification.

CDM regulations – Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015, regulations for managing health, safety and welfare on construction projects.

CIC BIM Protocol – A supplementary legal agreement that identifies the models that are required to be produced by members of the project team, and puts into place specific obligations, liabilities and associated limitations on the use of the models.

Classifications – Classification is a method of putting something into a group or category. Common construction classification systems include Uniclass 2015 and Omniclass.

COBie – Construction Operations and Building Information Exchange, a method for exchanging information in a structured format.

Data drops – A delivery of defined project information, data drops often align with project stages such as those provided by the RIBA Plan of Works.

Dumb data – Data that doesn’t link or directly relate to other data.

EIR – Employer’s Information Requirements. A pre-tender document that sets out the information to be delivered, and the standards and processes to be adopted by the supplier as part of the project delivery process. (PAS 1192-2:2013)

Employer’s data requirements – The specific data requirements of an employer, avoiding generic or ambiguous terms.

GUID – Globally Unique Identifier.

IFC – Industry Foundation Classes, a platform-neutral and open specification for construction data.

Information Manager, Organisational – Responsible for an organisation’s building models and information after the completion of a project.

Information Manager, Project – Ensures that project BIM procedures as defined within an EIR and a supplier’s BEP are followed and that information provided satisfies the BIM deliverables.

ISO – International Organization for Standardization.

ISO19650 – international standard for managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using BIM.

BS EN ISO 19650-1: Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling — Information management using building information modelling: Concepts and principles.

BS EN ISO 19650-2: Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling — Information management using building information modelling: Delivery phase of the assets.

BS EN ISO 19650-5:2020: Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM). Information management using building information modelling. Security-minded approach to information management.

Live loads – Live loads, or imposed loads are temporary loads such as those from the occupants of a building.

LOD – Level of detail, describes the detail or the complexity of the graphical contents of a model.

LOI – Level of information, describes the detail or the complexity of the data (non-graphical) contents of a model.

LOMD – Levels of Model Definition, the combination of both graphical (LOD) and non-graphical information (LOI)

Many-to-many relationships – When one or more items in one table has a relationship to one or more items in another table.

Mapping, data – A method of linking similar items of data from different sources.

Model checking – Verifying the accuracy and quality of building information models.

NBS – An organisation that develops building specifications and the custodians of Uniclass 2015.

NBS BIM toolkit – A BIM project management tool that includes Uniclass 2015 LOD definitions.

New Rules of Measurement (NRM) codes – NRM is a comprehensive set of measurement rules and cost management guidance with codes provided for the elemental breakdown.

OIR – Organisational Information Requirements – Data and information required to achieve the organisation’s objectives. (PAS 1192-3:2014)

openBIM – An open approach to collaboration through sharing building information by buildingSMART.

OPEX – Operating expense, the in-use ongoing cost of a running a facility.

Organisational project manager – The person assigned with the responsibility of delivering capital investment projects, such as a new or refurbished facility.

PAS documents – A Publicly Available Specification is a document that responds to a rapidly developing industry need and is produced to provide immediate structure and guidance. A PAS is normally replaced by a BS within two years.

PAS 1192-2:2013 – Specification for information management for the capital/delivery phase of construction projects using Building Information Modelling.

PAS 1192-3:2014 (Corrigendum No. 1) – Specification for information management for the operational phase of assets using building information modelling.

PAS 1192-5:2015 – Specification for security-minded building information modelling, digital built environments and smart asset management.

PAS 1192-6:2018 – Specification for collaborative sharing and use of structured health and safety information using BIM.

Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) – Maintenance that is planned and scheduled for the purpose of maximising the life of assets.

Point cloud survey – Laser scanning to create a cloud of geometrically located points.

Quality assurance  – A management process to maintain the quality of a product or service.

RIBA – Royal Institute of British Architects.

RIBA Plan of Works – A method of defining the design and delivery stages of a construction project.

Uniclass 2015 – A unified classification for the UK industry covering all construction sectors.

BIM for Estates – the Amazon best-selling book

Bimsense – simple and affordable BIM consultancy services

Scott Pilgrim   scott.pilgrim@bimsense.co.uk   0113 3281282   Twitter   LinkedIn

Unlock the potential of your O&M information and BIM COBie data with our new Operance Task Management and Notifications feature. For the first time, users can create tasks directly against assets to maximise their value by keeping them well maintained and your building safe, all whilst reducing lifecycle costs.

Contractors historically provided O&M information in either paper or pdf formats, meaning information provided was of little use in terms of being able to ‘use’ data provided to plan and manage actual operations and maintenance tasks.

Information would have to be read, then typed into a facilities management platform, refered to as a Comupter Aided Facilities Mangement (CAFM) system, usually resulting in high costs in terms of both license purchasing and user training.

CAFM systems are not only expensive, manually adding assets into them is also incredibly time consuming as buildings usually have over 10,000 assets as a minimum!

With the introduction of BIM, you may be lucky enough to receive digital information about your assets in the form of Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie) data. This removes the need to input asset information manually as data inputted into ‘COBie sheets’ (usually a populated Excel spreadsheet) can simply be imported into CAFM sytems, depending on your legacy CAFM system, some do require an additional 3rd-party software tool.

In either case, should you update your asset data through task management, your original O&M source of information is now out of date and requires seperatley updating and synchronizing. In the case of paper and pdf this is of course practically impossible and in respect of BIM, this requires additioanl expense by way of BIM model viewing and editing tools, knowledge and training.

With Operance, you simply find the asset you require and add a task against it. That’s it, simple! No extraction, no expensive annual CAFM or BIM costs, no seperate updating, training, nothing.

Organise your maintenace workflow

To add a task against an asset (let’s say your boiler) simply;

1. Search for your boiler through the home screen search filter, or directly via the keyword search bar.
2. Press the new “+” button and then the task list icon.
3. Provide a task name and description before categorising it as either an urgent ‘Reactive’ task (i.e. replace boiler ignition) or a planned ‘Proactive’ task (i.e. book in boiler service) and press confirm.

That’s it, we’ll send you a reminder when the task is due! Keep an eye out for our new Task Centre (currently in final stages of devleopment) where you can view, edit and track all your tasks in one place. Here’s a cheeky sneak preview of the current design…

Scott Pilgrim   scott.pilgrim@bimsense.co.uk   0113 3281282   Twitter   LinkedIn

The exercise led us to design an entirely new and innovative Operance O&M Coordination web-app solution that provides the following benefits;

O&M: clients can now define, automate and standardise uniform organisational Operations and Maintenance (O&M) information requirements, workflows, handover procedures and 24/7 O&M manual anytime, anywhere access.
BIM: end-users can now easily understand the benefits of BIM and COBie data and information, accessing models to create automated works packages for their supply chain to populate.
Golden-Thread: working with the UK’s biggest social housing developers and global standards developers, we are helping not only create new Development Handover Data Standards that will provide clarity and uniformity in respect of building safety information but also create an ownership and responsibility audit trail.
With this product vision in place, we are about to release some big news in respect of how this will be funded; in the meantime, we are looking for developers to help build the vision!

Because we are a small team at the moment, you will be expected to wear many different “hats” during the workday; you will produce code as you’d expect, but also provide analysis and contribute to testing other developers’ work.

As we are a growing development team, you will play an important role in helping to define our process and best practice as well as the tools, platforms, and even languages that we use! There is a lot of responsibility, but also a lot of creative freedom and chance to express yourself, grow and learn which makes for truly rewarding work.

Click here for more details.

Becoming a Junior Developer within our software development team, the successful candidate would be working on our digital solutions which tackle various scenarios from the construction industry. You will work alongside our lead developer to help build cloud software solutions by developing new features, fixing bugs, and generally producing quality code and getting stuck into the development process.

As well as producing your own code, you will also get to perform code reviews on other developers code which will help enhance your knowledge of the language and the system we are building. Unlike some other roles, you will also be helping to test other developers’ code against requirements.

As we are a growing development team, you will play an important role in helping to define our process and best practice as well as the tools, platforms, and even languages that we use! There is a lot of creative freedom afforded here and the work you do will be visible to stakeholders making this a great opportunity to show what you can do as well as grow, learn, and really contribute to some amazing products.

Click here for more details.

Further reading

Building Information Modelling (BIM) – Wikipedia

BIM Glossary of Terms – Bimsense

Scott Pilgrim scott.pilgrim@bimsense.co.uk 0113 3281282 Twitter LinkedIn