BSI standards are set to become machine-interpretable following an agreement between the organisation and Norwegian software developer Cobuilder.
The venture will digitise the content of BSI standards into a machine-interpretable form to create a common language for people and software systems. This approach will close the gap between design, construction, operation and decommissioning, according to Cobuilder.
The software developer will gain access to the standards distributed by BSI and develop data sets, called data templates. Relevant authorities and organisations can get involved to provide trustworthy data via the Define Data Dictionary platform that enables organisations to implement international standards for data management.
Once the data templates are available in the Define Data Dictionary, any software and model-authoring tool can use them to exchange, map, or compare information about construction products, assets and systems, according to British or any other international standard. After Brexit, this is important for British manufacturers operating on the international market as they can check and verify whether their products and services are in accordance with national and European requirements.
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Contractors and other parts of the built environment supply chain can use the standardised data templates in projects to improve business processes (such as cost calculations, design, purchasing, and carbon footprint calculations), Cobuilder suggests.
Dan Rossiter, head of built environment – interim at BSI, said: “Standards are the framework of the built environment; supporting the building regulations as well as providing good practice relating to topics such as fire safety, use of energy, and sustainability. In doing so, standards are helping to bring together and support stakeholders across the built environment, accelerating innovation and progress.
“For the sector to deliver on the challenges ahead, it is vital that the good practice within standards is used as the starting point. Making this information available in a machine-interpretable form will provide built environment stakeholders with a common language to face these challenges together.”
Lars Christian Fredenlund, CEO at Cobuilder, added: “To meet the UN’s sustainability goals, the sector needs to come together. The global built environment sector faces great challenges when implementing digital strategies and by providing a cloud-based solution that can deliver standardised data templates through exports and integrations, we see a great opportunity to support the sector in its efforts to build faster, greener and with less waste.”
Cobuilder has similar agreements with other standards bodies across Europe, including Norway, the Czech Republic and Denmark.
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