New research strongly suggests that asset managers are not being involved early enough in the development of digital twins – and as a result, the twins being handed over to asset managers are not optimised to their needs.
The research, carried out by project management consultancy MIGSO-PUCBED, University College London and Sellafield, found that none of the asset managers and owners interviewed felt that the digital twins handed over to them from the construction phase of the project were highly optimised for their use. Indeed, more than two-thirds (70%) felt the twin provided was suboptimal or worse.
In the infrastructure sector, more than 60% of all respondents felt that benefits had either been delivered poorly, or not well.
The research, published in ICE Management, Procurement and Law, drew on interviews with 122 people. Of these, 20 identified as asset managers, 15 as project managers, 46 as working in IT and digital roles, and 29 in engineering roles. Nearly half of those interviewed were in the infrastructure sector.
To bridge the gap between the design of a digital twin and its use by asset managers, the research authors recommend that project managers should review the asset manager’s data requirements early in the project and ensure that design features are built into the asset to capture the data.
Furthermore, project managers should ensure that software solutions are developed during the design stage to expose the data to the asset manager in the operational phase. The authors noted: “Specifically, in the infrastructure sector, the proponents of BIM would argue that BIM serves this purpose, but the authors have seen that it is not delivering this value to the asset managers, and this needs to be reviewed.”
Digital twin strategy
The authors also recommend that project managers should ensure that the through-life digital twin strategy is defined before the design stage of the project. Again, they noted: “Specifically, in the infrastructure sector, [project managers] should avoid assuming that BIM will deliver all the asset manager’s digital twin needs and define the asset digital twin strategy before any solutions have been selected.”
The research authors also recommend that asset managers “engage more with their internal and external suppliers, both those involved in the capex phases and those who are engaged in their operations, to understand what data is being collected and produced”.
Asset managers should also “invest in understanding better what systems their suppliers are using and how these could interface with both the suppliers and the asset owner organisation”.
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