In Germany, VINCI Facilities offers the “Digital Twin” solution, which displays the full set of relevant data needed to manage a building’s facilities efficiently.
An alert is posted on the campus maintenance department’s internal messaging system, which reads: “fan broken down, office 512, Lavoisier wing”. The information appears clear, and yet the technician might waste time finding his way to the office only to discover that there are two types of fans and the parts he had brought are not the right ones. This imaginary – yet realistic – scenario will soon be a thing of the past. At least that is the goal of an innovative navigation and documentation solution developed by VINCI Facilities in Germany.
In a building equipped with the Digital Twin tool, developed by the German NavVis company and interfaced with the VINCI Facilities computer assisted management system, the technician will now receive an incident report containing a photograph of the place where the failure occurred, taken by the customer who reported it. Based on this photo, the Digital Twin will locate the office and display it in an environment similar to Google Street View.
The technician then uses the “NavVis IndoorViewer” to conduct a virtual inspection before proceeding to the site. He examines the type of fan to be repaired and uses the photo of the fan to open a documentation window that gives him relevant information such as the most recent maintenance report, a video tutorial, and a nomenclature. This enables him to prepare and optimise his service call. In addition, the building’s digital twin shows him how to get to the location of the alert, thus reducing the time spent looking for it and keeping that needed for maintenance to a minimum.
Better than an indoor Street View
“This solution considerably boosts efficiency,” says Moritz Nelles, VINCI Facilities business unit manager in Germany. “It also gives us a competitive edge in contract awards, especially in contract renewals.”
The Digital Twin is a navigation tool but also a very intuitive way to access building documentation.
For business units, the Digital Twin has the advantage of reducing their dependence on local and personal familiarity with the spaces. The solution is particularly suitable for existing buildings that are not equipped with BIM (the building information modelling system designed prior to construction). It is more than an indoor “Street View”. It is a navigation tool but also a very intuitive way to access building documentation.
The technician can display spaces, directions, and documents provided by building management software such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CAFM (Computer-Aided Facility Management) connected to each space. A “layered” system (in which information is organised in layers that can be superimposed on each other) makes it possible to display only one type of information, such as a heating network, while excluding all other utility systems.
“The phase prior to digitisation of the spaces is simple and easy to carry out,” says the VINCI Facilities manager. A technician without prior training, pushing a trolley equipped with seven cameras and a geo-location system for photos taken at 720 degrees, can digitise some 30,000 sq. metres in a single day. Processing of the captured data and creation of links to the management database takes more time.
VINCI Facilities is currently finalising the development of this innovative solution. A school near Munich, managed by the VINCI Energies brand Facilities, is serving as a pilot. Its electronic twin has already been generated by captured geo-located images and the data is currently being processed.
Starting on 6 April 2018, VINCI Facilities will also use this digitalised school for a customer presentation of an interactive building model showing how facilities are managed using the “digital twin”. The demo will be on display in Frankfurt at the new 300 sq. metre “digital Lab” called “Digitalschmiede”.
HIGHLIGHT
The Digital Twin is a navigation tool but also a very intuitive way to access building documentation.
KEYWORDS
Digital twin, BIM, facility management, NavVis, indoor navigation, VINCI Facilities
SEO TITLE
The Digital Twin solution optimises BIM and facility management
METADESCRIPTION
Based on NavVis Indoor Viewer, VINCI Facilities offers a solution that displays the full range of relevant data needed to manage a building’s facilities.
14/06/2018
