Protecting The Golden Thread of Data on Capital Projects

The term “Golden Thread” was first used to describe the data associated with building lifecycles in?a UK policy paper on building regulations after the Grenfell Tower Disaster which occurred in June of 2017.?The official definition of the term was given as, “the information that allows you to understand a building and the steps needed to keep both the building and people safe, now and in the future.” The genesis of this term specifically recognizes the critical role that timely, complete, accurate, and accessible asset data plays in the safety of a facility across its entire lifecycle. Experienced Asset Managers know the definition could just as easily describe the critical role this data plays in maintainability, reliability, resilience, and sustainability as well.?All these factors, including safety, being contributing elements to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO.)??

The concept of the Golden Thread is simple. As an asset is conceived, planned, designed, constructed, and operated, there are?critical data sets being generated that can provide significant value to all downstream stakeholders and activities related to that asset. Improving data capture, data storage, and data interoperability across the phases of the asset lifecycle should be seen as a critical objective to ensure the optimization of that asset in terms of TCO or any of the elements?that make up TCO.?The challenge lies in the traditional project friction that exists between phases of the asset lifecycle that works to fray the Golden Thread.??

As an asset moves through?the phases of the typical lifecycle (Planning, Design, Construction, and Operation) there are multiple handoffs of responsibility and data between teams working in relation to that asset. During each phase, teams are primarily focused only on?their own objectives and contractual responsibilities. Traditionally, data handoffs are governed solely by contractual deliverable specifications and are not inclusive of the full set of meaningful and valuable data that has been generated during the phase. As such, these phase handoffs can be seen as points of significant friction in relation to the Golden Thread. This is depicted in the graphic below where the significant drops in data generation and retention, particularly across phase transitions, can create tears in the Golden Thread.??

Moreover, the result of this friction across the phases is cumulative. This means that by the time the owner or operator of the system or facility receives the asset, there is an immense amount data that is not readily available or may even be completely lost. To circle back to our core analogy, owners and operators are too often left with the frayed ends of the Golden Thread and must start to undertake the effort of spinning it back into something useful. This has a significant impact on TCO?as the Operate phase is?the longest and most cost-consuming phase of the asset lifecycle. This is the phase, and these are the stakeholders, in most need of that data.?

The project friction displayed above can be attributed to many factors, but the most notable are the disparate systems used across the phases and the contractual incentives present (or not) for the participants in the project. To put it simply, the companies responsible for each phase of the lifecycle use their own isolated information systems to deliver the project. Even more impactful is that these companies are only obligated to deliver what is specified in their contracts and, unfortunately, digital asset data deliverables are simply under specified or not specified at all.??

All project stakeholders can play a?role in protecting the Golden Thread, but a comprehensive change in thinking across the entire asset lifecycle will require the impetus?and purchasing power of facility owners. Facility owners?must be the catalyst for this change by how they choose to invest their capital project dollars in relation to deliverable specifications.

Three significant ways that owners can start protecting their Golden Thread include:?

1. Developing (or adopting) data standards to ensure the Data Interoperability of project deliverables.?
2. Specifying digital asset data deliverables that adhere to established data standards in design and construction contracts.?
3. Implementing information systems in accordance with the standards that allow for data acquisition, visibility, and management in earlier phases of the asset lifecycle (vs. at project handover.)

Collectively, these fundamentals can be called “Data Interoperability Focused Procurement and Systems.”? Protecting the Golden Thread is not an insurmountable challenge. The solution just requires an understanding that asset management begins in Planning and Design and not at handover to the owner. With well-defined data standards, properly specified contracts, and an investment in an IT infrastructure centered around data interoperability, the friction in typical capital projects and the asset lifecycle can be smoothed to the point that the Golden Thread remains intact.??