First look, then plan

A work order gives direction, but not the full picture of the asset’s physical environment. Yet it’s precisely that context which determines how you plan, prepare and safely carry out the maintenance.

Imagine walking virtually to the work location. You see the asset itself, but also the pipework next to it, the cable tray above, the steel structure around it and the limited working space. You can see whether other jobs in the same zone are still open. And you spot in advance where safety, accessibility or scheduling needs extra attention.

BIM, voluit Building Information Modeling of bouwwerkinformatiemodellering, wordt vaak gekoppeld aan ontwerp en bouw. Maar het is ook interessant voor beheer, planning en uitvoering van onderhoudsactiviteiten.

Fewer surprises in offshore maintenance

Take an oil and gas platform: a complex installation with limited accessibility and high safety requirements. You don’t want to discover on site that a job is more difficult than expected.

With BIM you go straight to the location of the fault or planned maintenance task. What other assets are nearby? How much working space is there? Are there pipes, cables or structural elements running alongside? Are other activities taking place in the same area?

Instead of making an estimate, you can make a targeted assessment of what the situation requires. Planning, engineering and execution teams then work from the same clear view of accessibility, risks and required resources. Potential bottlenecks become visible early and can be discussed in advance, so you avoid surprises during execution.

This approach is also valuable for clustering work. In a list you only see separate work orders. During a virtual walkthrough you notice that several orders are close together. You can then combine activities and avoid sending people to the same spot multiple times.

For offshore assets this saves time, cost and coordination. But it also improves safety. If you can see in advance that gas lines, water-carrying pipes or live electrical components are nearby, you can take that information into account before the work is scheduled.

BIM for infrastructure asset management

For bridges, motorways, high-voltage masts and other structures, BIM is often already part of the design, construction and handover process. For asset management, that information becomes valuable when the model is carried over into the operational phase. This keeps the construction data available for inspections, planning and long-term management.

In the operational phase you use the model in a very practical way. You walk virtually through the structure and see which components need periodic inspection, which parts are hard to reach, and where maintenance requires specific resources, certifications or safety measures.

This allows you to organise maintenance for the next 10, 20 or 30 years more effectively, with less searching and more context when making decisions on inspections, planning and execution.

More context for faults

When a fault occurs, you quickly look at the maintenance history: what happened, when, to which asset and with what solution? BIM adds details about the build-up, materials and structural context. This enables more thorough analyses.

If, for example, a certain type of component fails more often than similar components elsewhere, you want to look beyond the work order history. Is it the material choice? Accessibility? The environment? Or the way it was installed?

By combining fault data with BIM information you can investigate more precisely why something is failing. This helps with reliability management and adjusting your maintenance strategy.

No current data, no reliable walkthrough

The value of BIM stands or falls on data quality. A model that is accurate at handover can already be out of date two years later. Assets are replaced, installations are modified and new changes keep being added. If no one updates the BIM model, the virtual walkthrough becomes less and less reliable.

That’s why a building information model for maintenance should not be treated as a static file created once for handover. It needs to be a managed information source. Define who owns the model, how changes are processed, what information belongs in BIM, and how the model stays aligned with your asset data, locations and work orders.

Without that management you create a new data silo. You then have a 3D model, but no reliable basis for maintenance.

From BIM model to work order in IBM Maximo

With IBM Maximo you link the 3D context from BIM to your maintenance process. You use information from the BIM model for assets and locations. Conversely, you can make work orders, fault data and open activities visible in the 3D environment.

IBM Maximo safeguards the processes around assets, work orders and history; BIM adds spatial and technical context. Construction information therefore doesn’t stay behind in the handover folder but ends up where planners, engineers and maintenance teams actually use it.

Want to know how BIM, asset data and IBM Maximo can strengthen each other in your maintenance process? Get in touch with Wouter Schouten on +31 (0)6 52 68 37 43 or w.schouten@gemba.nl.