A group of digital leaders across Europe, headed up by Tata Steel, Saint-Gobain and Swansea University, are developing a product information hub that could address the Grenfell Inquiry’s call for a construction data library as well as playing a role in digital product passport delivery.
A minimum viable product (MVP) version of the hub could be ready later this year, and there is already “considerable interest from the European construction sector”, according to the team behind it.
The development of the Manufacturers’ Information Hub is being spearheaded by Tata Steel digital platforms and innovation lead Alex Small, Saint-Gobain Interior Solutions head of digital construction Paul French, and former chair of Construction Products Europe’s digital task group Brian Glancy. Their proposal has already attracted interest from consultants, contractors, academia, trade associations and government departments, and has secured initial funding.
Speaking exclusively to BIMplus, Small explains: “The Manufacturers’ Information Hub is a central access point for all construction product manufacturers’ information across Europe. It’s not a data repository, it’s not a database: it is simply a routing tool, a conduit, whereby all manufacturers have one link into the hub, and anyone that wants manufacturers’ information also has one link to extract from the hub. The mapping is done in each person’s link into the hub.”
“The Manufacturers’ Information Hub is a central access point for all construction product manufacturers’ information across Europe.”
French is keen that the hub should not require manufacturers to reinvent the wheel in terms of data structure. “For core standards-based information properties, the hub should adopt the international standards on data structure – ISO 23387. There are other data pools around where structure is set by others: for example, the Electrical Distributors’ Association has its own data structure (eDATA/ETIM), so we would enable access to that, rather than forcing them to change their methodology.”
Effective data sharing for SMEs
The proposal recognises the preponderance of small businesses in the industry, not just in the UK, but also in Europe. “In the UK, there are 24,500 manufacturers, 17,500 of which employ fewer than 10 people. In Europe, there are 430,000 manufacturers, nearly half of which employ fewer than 10 people,” Glancy says.
The hub must work for all manufacturers. “If you’re the size of Tata Steel with a fully-fledged product information management (PIM) system, you can have one mapped API from that PIM into the hub,” Small explains. “If you’re a small company, then you could go to one of the several mini-PIM system suppliers or PIM platforms, and you can get an account on one of those. Those systems will do the mapping from there into the hub. So, it can be affordable and usable for small manufacturers as well as large ones.”
Simplifying information management
The hub can help manufacturers keep their publicly available construction product information up to date and accurate. Currently, information on a specific product can be found on the manufacturer’s website, on a builders’ merchant’s website and an information aggregator’s site (as well as information retained locally by architects, consultants and contractors), leaving tremendous scope for information to be out of date and inaccurate.
Small is concerned that if the industry doesn’t develop the hub itself, one or more disruptors (Amazon, for example) might wade in with their own hubs, causing further headaches about product information accuracy, and generating further costs for the industry.
A solution to the product information Wild West
Travel industry inspiration
How have other industries overcome this data challenge? Small’s inspiration was the travel industry.
“What you have on one side is the likes of Expedia, Trivago, booking.com and all those other websites from which you can access the information from any bed and breakfast, any hotel, any hire car company, any airline, all linked up, all seamlessly, all giving exactly the same information. And that isn’t achieved by Expedia having hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of individual two-way APIs into every single one of these small or micro, or huge businesses.
“The travel sector has a common set of rules and standards, and they have a few hubs, basically connected points that sit in the middle. So Expedia will connect into one of the hubs, and that hub will connect into, say, all the hotels, or all of the hire car companies, all structured the same, all with a common language, so that they can then build a system based on pulling that information and displaying it. We could do the same for construction product information.”
The hub proposal not only represents a direct post-Grenfell response, but addresses increasing uncertainties faced by construction product manufacturers. Small notes that since the introduction of the BIM mandate in the UK (and the increasing digital adoption across Europe), manufacturers have had to develop BIM objects with questionable adoption by customers. There has also been the launch of the BSI Identify product identification system and the Code for Construction Product Information. Next on the horizon are digital product passports: the Construction Products Regulations update in 2026 will introduce passports in Europe, harmonisation of the relevant standards will follow, and then passports will be mandated from 2028.
Small says: “It’s looking likely that GS1’s GTIN [global trade item number] will form the product identifier part of that, which would probably be displayed on our products as a QR code. There have been several initiatives over the last few years that would also mean manufacturers adding QR codes to their products as well as third party data repositories, LCA data platforms, material passports, etc. All in all, there’s a lot going on and it’s all a bit of a mess – it’s the Wild West.”
That said, Glancy notes: “The hub has the potential to bring efficiency to data distribution and act as a fuel for the emerging contech ecosystem that will require trustworthy data to succeed.”
The hub could also save manufacturers significant sums. “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of organisations (clients, architects, consultants and contractors) that might want our product information. If Tata Steel developed a mapped API to all its customers, the annual cost would be £3m to £8m,” Small adds.
Funding and governance
BAM and Kier are among the major contractors keen to test the hub, Small reveals. The hub proposal has secured £50,000 of initial funding from Swansea University to scope out the requirements and understand the cost, the timeframe and the complexity in building it.
“For core standards-based information properties, the hub should adopt the international standards on data structure – ISO 23387.”
Small has presented the proposal to several government departments, which are keen on it. Indeed, Small is in discussions with an unnamed government department to secure funding to develop an MVP (minimum viable product). If the funding is secured quickly enough, an MVP could be ready by this summer.
Small says: “We’re proposing every manufacturer that uses the hub will pay a small amount of money per month just to keep it operating and growing.”
The hub would be set up as not-for-profit organisation, with a board and shareholders. Key decision-making would be under a one-member, one-vote system. “Every construction product manufacturer that links their information through the hub would own one share, whether they’re Tata Steel or a bloke making nose housings,” Small states.
He further suggests that a technical committee could be created from hub members to help the “(mostly) small companies understand what their digital journey needs to be, and get them on board with doing this, as well as the larger ones”.
“The hub has the potential to bring efficiency to data distribution and act as a fuel for the emerging contech ecosystem that will require trustworthy data to succeed.”
Small notes that 19 of the 20 largest construction product manufacturers in the UK are headquartered in Europe. “With digital product passports coming from the European Commission, there is absolutely no point in us doing something in the UK just for the UK when most of the products come from companies headquartered in Europe – we would be naive and stupid,” Small declares.
As well as talking to UK government departments, the team has been working with Construction Products Europe to align with its work. The team has also been invited to discuss the hub concept and its funding with the European Commission, which sees digitisation and information management as a solution to several Europewide challenges.
To find out more about the hub, contact Alex Small.
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