Journal-8_What are the benefits of Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) adoption and the challenges?

Introduction:

This study will target the question, "What are the benefits of Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) adoption and the challenges?”

What is Exchange Information Requirement (EIR)?

There are various categories of information requirements associated with the delivery or operational stage of an asset, starting from organizational information requirements (OIR), asset information requirements (AIR), and project information requirements (PIR).

The appointing party shall specify all asset and project information that is to be delivered as part of asset management or project delivery through sets of exchange information requirements (EIR). They should be expressed in a form that allows them to be incorporated into project-related appointments or instructions and communicated down the supply chain.

The EIR contains the following three parts:

Technical part: Software platform details and level of detail definitions etc.

Management part: Management process adaptation details to be adopted concerning BIM for the project.

Commercial part: BIM model deliverable details, data exchange intervals, and definitions of information purposes.

Mutually the solution providers (i.e., The engineer and the contractor, and the suppliers) should provide this asset and project information, which can be provided only if the Building Owners and the Operators have themselves at an earlier stage clearly defined their requirements and need as these will be the foundation for any upcoming validation and commissioning or acceptance of the to be built facility. This covers the BIM objectives and the project itself.

Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) defined by BS EN ISO 19650-2 (Edition 1: May 2020), says, “the Appointor’s specification for what, when, how and for whom the information in connection with the Appointment is to be produced as may be identified in the Information Particulars and/or provided in accordance with the Information Standard”. (BIM Wiki, 2021)

Benefits of Exchange Information Requirement (EIR)?

As stated earlier, that EIR contains three parts i.e., Technical, Management, and Commercial. Each of these has subparts as follows:

1.??????Technical Part:

a)?????Software Platforms

b)?????Data Exchange Format

c)?????Co-ordinates

d)?????Level of Detail (general)

e)?????Level of Detail (components)

f)??????Training

2.??????Management part:

a)?????Standards

b)?????Stakeholder Roles and Responsibilities

c)?????Planning the Work and Data Segregation

d)?????Security

e)?????Coordination and Clash Detection Process

f)??????Collaboration Process

g)?????Model review meetings

h)?????Health and Safety and Construction Design Management

i)???????System Performance Constraints

j)???????Compliance Plan

k)?????Delivery Strategy for Asset Information

3.??????Commercial part:

a)?????Timing of data drops

b)?????Clients Strategic Purpose

c)?????Defined BIM/Project Deliverables

d)?????BIM-specific competence assessment (Mervyn, 2021)

Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) contain the asset information and project information requirements for each appointment and define that what information is to be produced within the project information model. Considering the above sub-point in technical, management and commercial parts paves a smooth road to preparing an efficient EIR for any project.

Challenges of Exchange Information Requirement (EIR)?

As per the author’s professional experience, one of the major barriers is the lack of knowledge about industry standards. Practically BIM is in a revolving stage and there is a lack of skilled manpower. It will take further years to reach a suitable and satisfactory point.