What’s Next?
This is when the real fun begins, excitement and momentum build as clients begin to reap and report on the benefits and efficiencies realised by implementing a digital approach in the operational phase.
Plan, Structure, Cleanse, Manage, Process, Report, Action
Having the right data and information available, easily accessible by the right people at the right time coupled with a robust process for change management, facilitating decisions on the course of actions promptly, providing the best outcome for your overall business.
Benefits include:
- The ability to create control and report on planned maintenance activities
- The ability to share data and information with other departments
- The ability to share data and information for new projects.
- Reporting on use, occupancy, optimise space planning
- Information on performance at the touch of a button
- Survey condition reports – utilisation for capital planning and investment decisions via automated reports
- And then, there is the digital twin – a live feed on what’s happening now within your operation. Live information on which decisions need to be made, learning, understanding planning, and optimisation.
Sounds fantastic and all clients should want to be a part of it. But how can clients achieve the end goal?
Considering all the different phases of the asset lifecycle, it takes a carefully planned and considered approach as each activity has an impact on the need for another. Several departments within organisations need data and information to carry out their daily tasks in an efficient manner. Processes not only need mapped out and documented, but they also need to be put in place and followed. Remove data silos in favour of a central resource for data and information that needs to be accessed by various parts of the business governed by a process for change management that enables connections to existing systems that your teams are using to carry out their daily tasks. Each department does not need a copy of the data, they only need to access the data they need when they need it, for their intended purpose and have confidence that it’s the most up-to-date.
So, what’s stopping some clients from achieving and realising the benefits of a digital deliverable in operation? It can be daunting even when a client has done all the hard work and mapped out what’s needed. Where do you start when trying to solve a problem for an entire organisation? The task seems enormous and complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Take a step back and focus on the task and what you can control, what can you change, and what benefit will it bring. Take small steps, make it achievable, do something, no matter how small, and keep making progress.
Ask yourself:
- What makes your business tick?
- How can we improve our processes and become more efficient?
- How can we reduce the amount of reactive maintenance?
Consider work order management and automated task scheduling. Confront inconsistencies in gathering data which make it difficult to see the whole picture and report on it. Maybe you want to win the fight for a capital replacement budget, better manage the allocation of funding, or optimise space planning and utilisation. All these are possibilities.
Some of the common challenges we see:
At handover, missing information – we haven’t got what we need.
Yes, this happens but what do you do about it?
It takes time to gather the right information and it’s probably at a cost to you in terms of your team’s availability and time. But what happens on the next project? You need to understand why and address it, this is within your control. You learn and address it by putting a process in place, engaging, governing, and validating, thereby reducing the risk of it happening again.
Difficulties migrating project handover data to our CAFM System, how do we manage and control change on these documents and connect with our other enterprise systems.
Task perceived as too large and complicated. It doesn’t need to be.
Keep it simple, do smart things with your data and know what type of insights you want. Decide how to capture, process, and utilise data in ways that will help your business improve?
Plan, Structure, Cleanse, Manage, Process, Report, Action.
The above are challenges which we solve for our clients and many more.
At Pentagon Solutions digital workflows are not something new to how we operate. The senior management team have been working in highly regulated industries for over 25 years, where metadata, asset and document management integration is critical.
To find out how Pentagon Solutions can help you, and your business, get in contact today.
Written by Michelle Lynn, Senior BIM Consultant
