Taxonomy for BIM and Asset Management Semantic Interoperability

Abstract

At present, the capability to collect information from different sources [building information modeling (BIM), sensors, assets database] for asset management (AM) use has generated significant opportunities for asset owners and facility managers. BIM, in particular, is considered as a potentially effective data pool for storing and managing project information during the building life cycle, providing a common data environment for stakeholder data and guaranteeing information availability and credibility at the handover stage. However, this data integration in a BIM environment has issues related to the establishment of an effective process to extract, store, manage, integrate, and distribute data to ensure interoperability. Furthermore, for the interoperability issue, an important challenge is the identification of which data are relevant, reliable, useful, and can add value to the AM processes. This research explored the asset owner requirements from BIM in the operation and maintenance stage from an AM perspective. The research aim was twofold: first, to synthesize the nongeometric BIM data required for AM and develop a relevant taxonomy; and second, to develop an application programming interface (API) plug-in for Autodesk Revit to implement the proposed taxonomy. To achieve the aims of this study, a critical review of previous literature and face-to-face and focus group interviews with BIM and facilities management (FM) experts were conducted. The main output was a 6-parameter asset-consuming energy information management (ACE-IM) taxonomy and the relevant API plug-in that can help BIM professionals to identify the required data to be submitted to facility managers to improve AM processes.