Managing construction product data

In the Autumn of 2020, the Grenfell Enquiry began to cross-examine the companies who manufactured the products used to clad the tower. These included the representatives from the insulation and cladding manufacturers.

As the enquiries legal team have delved deeper into the product data, they have unearthed inaccuracies in the marketing, test and technical information.

The enquiry has not made a judgement and has only cross-examined witnesses regarding their statements, but what is clear there is confusion and inaccuracy across all information.

A specifier must be confident that the product performs as per the manufacturer's specification.

The certification must align with the product and system and must be relevant to its specific environment.

The performance data must then be kept up to as the product changes and must align with any ongoing tests.

Products are increasingly sophisticated in their design within complex systems. For this reason, the client must be confident that the materials on their building are safe and per the specification provided by the designer.

With the Building Safety Bill's introduction, the Accountable Person (the client) will have the ultimate responsibility to make sure they have processes to ensure that products are manufactured and installed according to their published performance data.

When bimstore launched ten years ago, the focus of BIM was on geometry; however, the bimstore team identified the importance of accurate and constant data within the objects.

In 2011, we published the bimstore Bible which set out standards and data requirements for every object on bimstore. The guidance, used by our content creation team, is also available for download on the website. In its 16th edition, hundreds of thousands of people have downloaded it over the past decade.

No products go live on bimstore until geometry and data complies with all regional standards and approved by the product manufacturer.

Ten years ago, we committed to only hosting accurate geometry and data approved by product manufacturers.

Some of our competitors have not been as robust in their data management, potentially putting manufacturers at risk when inaccurate objects are used.

With bimstore, manufacturers can update the data in their objects without the need for expensive authoring software.

A simple, user-friendly user interface allows the updating and adding of data to objects.

The Grenfell disaster highlighted the implications of inaccurate product information. The construction sector's digitisation using platforms such as bimstore allows manufacturers to manage data centrally across multiple platforms.

Contact us to find out how you can manage your data.