Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (Cobie) provides a platform for organizations to maintain data continuity through construction, turnover, and facility management. Cobie has been developed as a means to capture and store building asset information in an easily transferrable format which can be integrated seamlessly into an owner’s preferred Facility Management (FM) Platform.
On the Calgary Cancer Center Project, Modern Niagara was faced with the challenge of producing one of the largest and most complex Cobie Deliverables in Canada with the collection of over 80,000 data points. Modern Niagara worked through the challenges of defining the scope of required assets, determining where data would be captured from, and how it would be formatted into the Cobie File.
Over the past decade, the value of BIM in construction has been developing beyond the confines of LOD 500 standard and project completion. Cobie can provide substantial value to owners after project turnover with greater integration of FM Systems as it simplifies and expedites the transfer of knowledge from the construction teams to the building management teams. At its core, Cobie is a classification system used to organize information in a format that can be easily accessed and transferred across all compatible platforms. As owners are beginning to understand and appreciate the value that Cobie provides to their facilities management teams, especially on large-scale construction projects, it is imperative for all shareholders on the construction team to have a well-defined understanding of Cobie and established workflows to successfully meet the client’s requirements.
On the Calgary Cancer Center Project, Modern Niagara was faced with the challenge of producing the largest and most complex Cobie Deliverable to date in Canada. To meet the criteria for a successful Cobie Deliverable, it was imperative to create and implement an effective workflow that would minimize error and track progress. This workflow would enable the team to evaluate data being fed into the Cobie file as well as flag any breakdowns within the workflow. The implementation of real-time tracking would allow for quick reactions to new issues, including incomplete or missing data, and prompt the necessary corrections.
In developing the workflow, it became clear that a delineation existed for the Cobie Data as the data would be captured and managed under multiple databases. These primary data sources included Revit, being managed by Trade Partners, and CxAlloy, being operated by the Third-Party Commissioning Agent. This separation required an additional solution, the Ecodomus platform, which was used to compile the data into a single Cobie File for submission to the client.
Modern Niagara recognized Revit as one of the primary data sources to be used to capture and store Cobie Data. By leveraging the use of Revit Shared Parameters, a standard for data collection was established amongst Trade Partners and the required Cobie Data Fields were organized into standardized schedules created in each Revit file. Using the BIMONE Excel Exporter Addon, these schedules were exported to Excel where they were easily modified and imported back into Revit. This process greatly expedited the population of Cobie Data Fields in Revit while ensuring data continuity and quality was maintained.
Ecodomus was selected as the Third-Party software solution, to assist in the creation of the final Cobie File, for its ability to be maintained as an independent platform. This software facilitated the aggregation of data from multiple sources, including the Revit Models, and the Third-Party Commissioning Agent’s Software, CxAlloy. Additionally, since not all Cobie Assets fell under the Commissioning Agent’s Scope, Modern Niagara and the Trade Partners implemented an independent CxAlloy Database to capture the remaining assets in a parallel workflow.
A centralized Excel based Asset Tracker was created to compile and monitor the status of Cobie Data population from the real time data generated in Revit, CxAlloy, and Ecodomus. Having this tracking system in place was integral in flagging any breakdowns in the workflow across all database platforms. Due to the comprehensive and detailed nature of the Asset Tracker, QA/QC checks yielded perfect data entry results for over 80,000 data points required for Cobie.
By implementing Cobie on large-scale projects, construction documentation can be captured in an organized manner and linked to an asset’s location in the model. This level of organization eases the transfer of knowledge from the construction teams to the FM teams after project completion, thereby eliminating hours spent by clients setting up FM systems. Indeed, Owners of the Calgary Cancer Center believe they can save and accelerate 1.5 years of unknown Facility Management Status through the implementation of Cobie.
Having a well-defined FM system empowers building maintenance staff to quickly identify and assess equipment issues, thus reducing downtime. This reduction in downtime can have a significant impact on large health care facilities by lessening the impact of system failure on vulnerable patients and, in turn, maintaining their quality of life. Likewise, in a commercial setting, the impact of reduced downtime can decrease cost impacts on client businesses and thereby improve productivity and profitability.
In relevance to the greater economy outside of healthcare, the use of technology such as Digital Twins supported by Cobie can allow for system problems to be identified before they even occur, creating the potential to prevent system downtime altogether, increasing building efficiencies, and lowering the life cycle costs of all buildings.
The growing reliance on digitalization and BIM in the construction industry over the past decade has empowered construction companies to not only manage complex projects but also improve productivity while reducing delays, costs, and downtime. The inclusion of Cobie further facilitates the owner’s ability to manage, maintain, and operate their facilities efficiently and cost-effectively giving them unprecedented clarity over problem diagnosis and troubleshooting through BIM 3D modelling and data collection through FM systems.
As Cobie deliverables become more common on large-scale construction projects, it is imperative to create and implement an effective workflow during the construction process to successfully produce a Cobie File.
