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How can we Decarbonise the Built Environment?

Over the last three months we’ve been writing about three major issues which affect our industry but which we don’t seem to be able to deal with. The first is digital transformation , the second building safety , and this article is about the third – the decarbonisation of buildings. Decarbonisation In the UK, the Committee on Climate Change has recommended that all buildings must be net-zero to deliver the Government's goals. To achieve net-zero we must eliminate or offset both embodied carbon and operational carbon in buildings. Embodied carbon is the Carbon emissions associated with materials and construction processes during the construction and refurbishment of a building or infrastructure. The World Green Building Council calculates that embodied carbon in the built environment…

ManufacturersPLG Team in Built Environment Technologies
How do we get to Building Safety? Making the case for Transparency and Integrity

This June will mark five years since the Grenfell tragedy, which shocked everyone and challenged us to think again about how our industry works. But how far have we come, and what is stopping us? This article argues that there can be no building safety without transparency and integrity, and we need to take a different approach. Call Reschedule: Due to technical issues we had to postpone our call to discuss this article. The call will now take place on Teams on Friday 4th March at 2.30pm GMT. Please register here to join us. The Context The Grenfell Inquiry, now in module 6 of phase 2, is looking at the role of regulators and government in the failures which led to the tragedy. Week after week the Inquiry reveals more about what led to the catastrophic results of failure. It is…

ManufacturersPLG Team in Built Environment Technologies
Call 8: Discussion On The Code For Construction Product Information (CCPI)

Watch the video of the call about the Code for Construction Product Information, recorded on 26th February 2021This video is a recording of a call to discuss the Code for Construction Product Information, part of our series about manufacturers product data. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: Join A Discussion On The Code For Construction Product Information (CCPI) Subscribe by clicking the purple 'Log In' button and registering, which will allow you to subscribe to the blog and comment on it. Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #ManufacturersPLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team
Why You Should Share The Manufacturers Product Data Project

We look back over the work of the last four months in an article designed for you to share.Over the last three months the Plain Language Guide editorial board have been developing a guide to product data for manufacturers. As part of that process, over the last three months we have written articles and held open zoom calls about them, inviting contributions from across industry. We have also held a number of valuable conversations offline with individuals and organisations. This article describes this work and how you can get involved in the production of the Guide. About the Project We are writing a Plain Language Guide for the CEOs of Manufacturers of all sizes and their advocates, in order for them to prepare for the changes to come in their industry. Key Messages of the guide are: Why…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Call 7: Avoiding Failure: Product Data Post Grenfell

Watch the video of the call about the seventh article in our series on manufacturers' product data, recorded on 11th December 2020This video is a recording of a call to discuss the seventh article in the series about manufacturers product data. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: Avoiding Failure: Product Data Post Grenfell Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #ManufacturersPLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team in Manufacturing
Avoiding Failure: Product Data Post Grenfell

What is happening to post-Grenfell regulation and what construction product manufacturers should consider The Plain Language Guide project began four years ago with an attempt to look at the journey of product data through the construction and built environment ecosystem, with the Product Data Working Group set up by the UK BIM Alliance. That project reported in 2018 and you can read the report here. From the beginning this work on Product Data, both the working group report and the Plain Language Guide , was inspired by the need to address the challenges raised by the Grenfell tragedy, that has shocked so many of us and challenged us to think again about how our industry works. We’ve left writing specifically about Grenfell quite late in the series because we wanted to set out some principles…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Call 6: Essential First Steps To Gathering, Coordinating And Organising Manufacturers’ Product Data

Watch the video of the call about the sixth article in our series on manufacturers' product data, recorded on 20 November 2020This video is a recording of a call to discuss the sixth article in the series about manufacturers product data. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: Essential First Steps To Gathering, Coordinating And Organising Manufacturers’ Product Data Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #ManufacturersPLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team in Manufacturing
Essential First Steps To Gathering, Coordinating And Organising Manufacturers’ Product Data

Take these six steps to structure your product data and get ahead of the game. In this article we set out the first steps a product manufacturer should take on their journey to structure product data. This is a simple process focused on understanding how your company works with information and data* about your products. This process is usually called a data strategy. It will include a methodology for defining product data consistently across the business, a strategy to roll out appropriate capability across the business, and systems to provide consistent product data, enabling it to be shared externally with your customers and partners. These steps should be taken before embarking on any investigation of the standards or technology. In order to comply with the UK and European processes emerging…

ManufacturersPLG Team in Manufacturing
Call 5: The Future Of Construction Is Not 3D BIM Objects

Watch the video of the call about the fifth article in our series on manufacturers' product data, recorded on 6 November 2020This video is a recording of a call to discuss the fifth article in the series about 3D BIM objects. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: The Future of Construction is not 3D BIM Objects Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #ManufacturersPLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team
The Future Of Construction Is Not 3D BIM Objects

This article looks at 3D BIM objects and what went wrongBack in our second article we briefly touched on how the BIM object development exercise became a ‘very expensive failure’ for many manufacturers. We thought we’d look in more detail into why geometry is not the holy grail of BIM, why information management is so much more than geometry, and why we will be recommending to readers of the Plain Language Guide for manufacturers that they don’t think about 3D BIM objects but think about owning and controlling their data. A misplaced devotion to 3D A BIM object is a 3D digital representation of a construction product, material or system, with associated data attached. If you’ve attended any BIM events over the last five years or so, you’ll often have heard the lament that “BIM is not 3D”…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Call 4: Manufacturers Should Host Their Own Product Data

Watch the video of the call about the fourth article in our series on manufacturers' product data, recorded on 23rd October 2020This video is a recording of a call to discuss the fourth article in the series discussing who should own, control and host product data. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: Manufacturers Should Host Their Own Product Data Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #ManufacturersPLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team
Manufacturers Should Host Their Own Product Data

In this fourth article we move on from talking about what structured data is to look at who owns it and who should control it. So far in this series of articles we have described what construction product data is , how it needs to be connected to standards , and how product comparison is a key example of how structuring your data is essential . Now we move on to the data itself – who owns it? Who should control it? Don’t forget to sign up to the zoom call in a week’s time (link at the foot of this post). Product Data is an Asset In 2006, Clive Humby , the mathematician who made a fortune helping Tesco develop its new Clubcard, said “ Data is the New Oil ”. Humby was talking about how data needs to be refined to be valuable, but the phrase has been used by many since, including by Brittany Kaiser…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Comparing Construction Products: Dispelling The Myths

In this third article about product data for manufacturers in the construction industry we look at the myths around product comparison and ask – why not compare? Product comparison is an essential part of the specification process, yet construction manufacturers can seem reluctant for their products to be compared with those of their competitors’. Why is that? In this third article about product data for manufacturers in the construction industry we look at the myths around product comparison and ask – why not compare? Myth 1: Specifiers don’t want to Compare Products There is some truth in the first myth, because specifiers are creatures of habit, they are busy, and time is tight. The last NBS Specification survey (2017) stated that 60% of respondents were reusing specifications from previous…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Call 2: Standards And Product Data Must Be Connected #ManufacturersPLG

Watch the video of the call about the second article in our series on manufacturers' product data, recorded on 25 September 2020This video is a recording of a call to discuss the second article in the series discussing a Plain Language Guide to Product Data for Construction Product Manufacturers. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: Standards and Product Data Must Be Connected Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #Manufacturers PLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team
Call 1: Why Is Product Data Important To Manufacturers? #ManufacturersPLG

Watch the video of the call about the first article in our series on manufacturers' product data, recorded on 11 September 2020This video is a recording of a call to discuss the first article in the series discussing a Plain Language Guide to Product Data for Construction Product Manufacturers. You can read the article and subscribe to further updates here: Why Is Product Data Important to Manufacturers? Join the conversation on the blog, on the calls (registration link in each blog post) or via LinkedIn and Twitter using the hashtag #Manufacturers PLG.

ManufacturersPLG Team
Standards And Construction Product Data Must Be Connected

Our second article in this series is about standards, and why they are important to solving the challenge of the product data journey. Check the invitation to participate in the online discussion too! In this second article about product data for manufacturers in the construction industry we look at standards: what they are, why they must be connected to construction product data in a governed way, and how this could be achieved. What are Standards? The minimum common specifications, methods and procedures which should be used for construction products are defined by Standards. Standards create a level playing field for all; a benchmark that all companies can adhere to in terms of performance, product testing and processes. Some standards provide a best practice process - such as the International…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Why Is Product Data Important To Manufacturers?

We kick off our series of articles about manufacturers product data with an article about what product data is and why it is important - check the invitation to participate in the online discussion too! In this first of a series of articles about product data for manufacturers in the construction industry we look at the importance of secure, validated and interoperable structured product information and why it is the key to bringing the construction industry into a safer future. What type of data are we talking about? When we talk about product data for manufacturers, we’re talking about the wide range of information generated about their products. For example: Manufacturing Data – the information that is required to make the product, such as bills of materials (the ingredients), the manufacturing…

ManufacturersPLG Team
Introducing The Plain Language Guide For Manufacturers

Manufacturers produce a significant part of the information required to bring about a safer construction industry; but this information is currently not structured or shared in a consistent way. Read about the project to produce a Plain Language Guide to Product Data for Manufacturers and how you can get involved. If industry is to meet the challenges of a digital future, avoid a race to the bottom and respond to the requirements of a new building safety regulatory system, we need manufacturers to structure and share their data safely. This IET project is producing a Plain Language Guide to Product Data for Manufacturers in the UK and Europe. The guide aims to help decision makers in manufacturing identify: Why structured data is important. How to avoid poor investment decisions. How to protect…

ManufacturersPLG Team

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