Built Intelligence

Practice area 03

Digital Twins & Asset Operations

A digital twin is only as useful as the discipline of the data flowing into it. Most fail not at the modelling stage but at the moment responsibility for the information changes hands.

Physical asset structure, systems, occupants Capture layer sensors, scans, meters, BMS Digital twin current, verified representation Decisions maintenance, energy, capital decisions change the asset — the loop only closes if the twin is maintained HANDOVER IS WHERE THIS CHAIN BREAKS ↓ built once, then abandoned in most projects
The information loop a digital twin depends on, and the point at which it usually breaks.

The problem

The operational case for digital twins is strong and increasingly well evidenced: condition monitoring, energy performance, space utilisation, predictive maintenance, and lifecycle capital planning all improve when the asset has a reliable digital representation that stays current. The technology to build one is mature and commercially available.

What remains unresolved is continuity. The model that supports construction is not structured for operations; the parties who hold the information demobilise at handover; and the operator — who bears the cost of every gap for the life of the asset — is usually not under contract when the decisions that determine data structure are made. That sequencing problem is procurement's to solve, and naming it as such is often the most useful contribution an information manager makes.

What governs this area

The decisions it comes down to

  1. What operational questions must the twin answer? Everything else is decoration.
  2. Which asset attributes are required at handover, and who verifies them?
  3. How does the twin stay current after the first year?
  4. Who owns the twin, its data, and the obligation to maintain it?
  5. What integrates with the maintenance management system, and by what interface?
  6. What is the cost of the twin against the cost of the information failure it prevents?

Basis

Academic. BC 6080 — Digital Twins for the Built Environment, taught by Dr. Jing Wen, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Applied basis

Contributed to a digital twin framework for the West Parking Garage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — the world's busiest passenger airport and an FAA-regulated critical transportation asset — using the Autodesk Tandem platform, integrating sensor data architecture, BIM-to-operations data flow design and condition monitoring into a working dashboard prototype.

Writing in this area

Construction-to-Operations Data Continuity

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