Smartening up asset management
Hamilton City Council is adding new brush strokes to the art of asset modelling, using drones to capture site-wide geometry, laser scanners for building and asset geometry, and mobile devices linking virtual objects to barcoded assets.
Hamilton City Council’s Pukete Wastewater Treatment Plant was built in 1975, with a $28m upgrade in 2002 providing secondary and tertiary treatment. Parvati Patel, an asset engineer in the City Waters team, was on a mission to modernise the facility’s asset information. However, a lack of as-built information, uncertain accuracy of existing data, and time consuming location of asset information for new works and maintenance made her job harder.
“We need to know what we have, how to maintain it, and what it will cost to keep it running,” said Patel. “We must have good information.”
With an eye to the future, Patel and partner Beca scoped out a BIM framework to develop a data model that would integrate with the council’s asset management system.
The project team utilised drones and Lidar (light detection and ranging) laser to create a detailed model of the aeration blower, RAS, and MCC rooms, including plant and equipment, and building shell architecture. The model was then migrated to a cloud-based building lifecycle management platform, with key asset data fields attributed to elements within the model. Operation and maintenance information, including process and instrumentation diagrams, process flow diagrams, operations manuals, and warranties, were attached to the model, centralising asset information to create a single source of ‘truth’ for operation and maintenance activities.
Ultimately, the model will integrate with the council’s asset management database and financial systems, with the cloud-based lifecycle BIM platform automating the flow of information between the model and supporting applications.
Despite misconceptions about BIM’s applicability to existing assets, the project demonstrated the value of digitising and centralising asset information using BIM.
“BIM is often discussed for new builds and assets, but in reality the majority of asset owners own many more assets than they build each year,” said Glenn Jowett, senior associate and BIM delivery lead at Beca. “If you can leverage BIM technologies to operate and maintain existing assets you will capture far more value in the long run.”
To read the whole case study please download by clicking on the button here.
Project duration:
2017 - ongoing.
BIM Uses:
Record modelling
Asset management
Building maintenance scheduling
Building systems analysis
