A few weeks ago we wrote about a green homebuilding technology that was being highlighted at FIATECH's conference in early April. After learning about FIATECH and what they do, we came across another project that could have significant implications for both the capital projects and construction industries.

Accelerated Deployment of ISO 15926 (ADI) is a collaborative effort led by FIATECH to establish a universal platform for improving the interoperability in the lifecycle of capital projects and facilities. FIATECH has assembled a team of about 35 organizations, including Fluor, Bechtel, and Primavera to contribute to the project. So how will it work? ADI aims to stimulate commercial development of standards-based data exchange between organizations involved in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of capital facilities. For those up-to-date on the construction industry, it is roughly analogous to the Building Information Model (BIM).

To see how ADI works, let's approach it in the context of building a chemicals plant. Designing the plant took teams of engineers several months or years to complete highly detailed specifications. A general contractor has been selected to manage the two-year construction process. Hundreds of individual contractors, subcontractors and equipment vendors will cooperate to perform the work using different software. Thousands of parts have been specified. In addition to building the plant, the general contractor must ensure that the infrastructure is in place to maintain the plant for its 40-year lifetime. And just to complicate things, the United-States based general contractor is building the plant in Germany.

How on earth can this construction process be performed efficiently? After it's built, how can the general contractor ensure a smooth transfer of information to the operator? What about potential language barriers? Clearly, there is a dire need for interoperability, independent of language and software brand. This is where ADI comes into play.

ADI begins by using an established, universal language and knowledgebase. It implements the ISO Standard 15926 to integrate lifecycle information about the plant. Using ISO 15926, each part used to build the plant is associated with a unique ID from the Reference Data Library. A generic data model defines how these parts should interact with others. All of this is then integrated into a universal language called Web Ontology Language (OWL) of W3C.

So using the example of a pipe being connected to a tank, we could say, "This is a TANK. It has ID 'TK-1001'. This is a PIPE. It has ID '50-11015'. 'TK-1001' is connected to '50-11015' with a FLANGED CONNECTION since May 1st, 2007." The words shown in capitals here are resident in the central Reference Data Library. The expressions between them are modeled in the generic data model, and the total is implemented in the OWL language.

Not only does this standardize the data exchange between design and construction processes of different companies, but it also allows firms maintaining the plant several years down the road to understand how it was built. Even if operators speak different languages, they can access and understand this information. This makes things much easier for everyone. In fact, preliminary estimates predict a 30% productivity improvement in the engineering, construction, supply-chain, operations, and maintenance phases of plants that implement interoperability.

An additional benefit of this project is that the Reference Data Library continuously grows with information added by contractors and owners. This "Work in Progress" (WIP) Reference Data Library allows users to add information about parts, activities, and processes, and use them right away. The continuous expansion of the Reference Data Library increases the capacity and promise of this project.

It is certainly an exciting time in the capital projects industry. Approaching this from a construction standpoint, we can only hope that our industry will take notice. The ability of so many firms to collaborate like this is nothing short of extraordinary. ADI has been a monumental task and FIATECH is to be commended for its efforts.